Generac - Enbala merger and VPP's

[Fred B]

Something new I've not heard of VPP (virtual power plants), with merger and what appears to be use of standby or backup generators within a VPP wondering implications for gen installations and NEC. Merger announcement article attached.
Anyone have experience with VPP? And code requirements related to establishing a VPP?

Generac Acquires Enbala, Boosting Plan to Harness Behind-the-Meter Energy Resources

The deal puts Generac in the business of aggregating distributed energy resources as virtual power plants.

www.greentechmedia.com

 

[retirede]

I saw Generac’s CEO on TV talking about this on Monday. In my mind it raises a lot of issues. He was touting consumers getting paid and making money off their generator.

Not the least of which is how to control use of the genny in outage vs grid participation modes. Certainly doable, but who pays for the complexity.

I don’t know the design life of a Generac backup residential machine, but if the utility fires it up every summer day to supplement the grid, will it last 5 years? Who pays to replace it then?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Do the emissions rules change when you use a small generator for this purpose? I am pretty sure they do for the large ones.