Sunrun to Build and Operate Puerto Rico’s First Virtual Power Plant

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 8, 2022

Sunrun has been selected by Puerto Rico’s electric utility provider to develop a 17-megawatt virtual power plant (VPP), the first distributed large-scale storage program on the island.

The Governing Board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, a public power utility, approved the terms of the agreement on October 26, 2022. The agreement is subject to regulatory sign-off by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau and the Fiscal Oversight Management Board.

Sunrun will spend the next year enrolling customers into the program and begin networked dispatches in 2024.

“Customers will benefit from the cost savings of on-site energy generation and backup power and will also be compensated in exchange for strategically sharing their stored energy with Puerto Rico’s power grid, creating a shared clean energy economy,” it said.

Batteries enrolled in the VPP will continue maintaining adequate backup reserves to power through potential grid outages at participants’ homes. All customers with batteries are also eligible to enroll and can opt out at any point during the 10-year program.

In 2019, two years after Hurricane Maria dismantled the island’s electric grid, the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act was passed by the Legislature to set the parameters for a forward-looking energy system that maximizes distributed generation.

The Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) determined that VPPs were key to achieving the legislation’s goals of building a resilient and robust energy system and meeting Puerto Rico’s renewable portfolio standards, Sunrun said.