AGL Energy has again extended the reach of home solar and battery virtual power plant with the launch of battery sales and installations for residential customers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
AGL general manager of decentralised energy resources (DER) Dominique Van Den Berg said the gen-tailer would begin battery sales to existing solar customers in these states starting Wednesday, ahead of offering complete solar and battery bundles by the end of the year.
Eligible customers who lived within 50km of the CBD of the three states’ capital cities would be able to either buy a battery from AGL outright or spread the cost over five years, paying around $100 a month, if they opted to connect to the VPP.
All VPP customers would also receive payments for allowing AGL to access their stored energy at key times during the year to help improve grid reliability, thus making the decision to invest in batteries more economically attractive.
“This is an exciting demonstration of the sharing economy in which we create value by using customers’ distributed energy assets like batteries and sharing the value with them,” said Van Den Berg.
As in SA, VPP participants can choose from either the 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall, or a 9.3kWh LG Chem RESU and SolarEdge battery and inverter package – the latter of which can come with or without back-up power capabilities.
AGL first tentatively extended its VPP program to Victoria, NSW and Queensland in June of last year, but only for customers who already had a battery.
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