New Orleans might create a virtual power plant. Here's what that means
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New Orleans City Council OK'd a $32 million plan last week to create a virtual power plant.
Why it matters: If and when it gets up and running, the city would be able to tap into a new networked back-up energy source when emergencies strain the traditional grid.
The big picture: New Orleans remains unique as a city that also serves as its own energy utility regulator, but isn't alone in how susceptible it is to climate change and natural disasters.
- To face them, as recent years and storms have shown, New Orleans' power infrastructure needs to be shored up.
- And while that's happening — City Council also approved Thursday a $100 million spend to begin Entergy's plan to do exactly that — leaders are also looking for alternate solutions to power outages.
How it works: There are independently owned solar panels installed in private homes, businesses and community spaces across New Orleans.
- Most of the time, they're just sitting there, lying in wait until they're needed by the resident or business owner.
- With the addition of a back-up battery, "you suddenly turn all the solar into reliable energy you can count on," says Broderick Bagert with Together New Orleans, the organization responsible for community lighthouses, which are resiliency hubs that can offer charging stations, meals and places to cool off during widespread outages.
- In a virtual power plant, those batteries would all be synced together, and a central organization could tap into that stored power when the grid gets pushed to the limit by an especially hot or cold day or an outage to bolster the community as a whole.
"Think of it like an orchestra," suggests Alliance for Affordable Energy executive director Logan Burke. "When the market says there is value for those batteries to … push power into the system, the aggregator calls on all of them at once."
- The aggregator is the conductor, she says, and the players are all the independent batteries stored across New Orleans.
- A resident wouldn't be required to be part of the network, Burke adds, and even if they agree to join it, they'd still have a say in when and how their system gets tapped.
- Plus, there'd be an incentive, like a cash payout, for those who join, she says.
Between the lines: No one has a good number for how many batteries already exist in the market, Burke says, but she's heard from solar panel installation companies that about 70% of customers also opt to get a battery installed, too.
State of play: It's not a done deal yet.
- City Council's move approved a stakeholder process to keep exploring the idea, but proposals are expected by the end of the year.