HARTFORD – The Connecticut Green Bank and San Franscisco’s GoodLeap, a leading finance and technology sustainable home solutions platform, announced Wednesday, Aug. 13, a strategic partnership to develop and operate virtual power plants across the state.
This collaborative effort, enabled through the State’s Energy Storage Solutions program, will focus on deploying residential solar power systems and battery energy storage to help lower energy costs, improve grid resilience, and advance Connecticut’s clean energy goals.
Enabled by GoodLeap’s AI-powered proprietary software, GoodGrid, and integrated with the utility’s Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS), the virtual power plants can aggregate thousands of residential solar and storage systems into coordinated networks to provide grid services.
The virtual plants can help reduce strain on the electrical grid during peak demand, which can defer distribution infrastructure investments for utilities and better position Connecticut to meet its clean energy deployment targets. This can help lower costs for all homeowners as more expensive sources of energy can be avoided during these peaks, and will increase access to distributed energy resources.
“Together with GoodLeap, we are working to ensure that Connecticut residents — especially those in vulnerable communities — benefit from clean, resilient, and affordable energy solutions,” said Bryan Garcia, Connecticut Green Bank president and CEO. “We saw GoodLeap leading on VPPs in other states around the country and felt that their technology, products and services were needed in Connecticut to help our families realize the benefits of these distributed energy resources.”
Garcia added that that he believes this initiative will bring new resources to homeowners and ratepayers while supporting our state’s climate and energy goals.
Eligible Connecticut homeowners will receive monthly cash rewards through the GoodGrid cash rewards, advancing the goals of the Energy Storage Solutions program. The Green Bank will also support the partnership through technical assistance to streamline project development and interconnection, as well as stakeholder and community engagement to boost awareness and participation while ensuring equitable access.
“We are thrilled to work with the Connecticut Green Bank to scale residential clean energy and energy storage solutions across the state,” said Daniel Lotano, Good Leap chief operating and strategy officer. “Our technology has already helped tens of thousands of homeowners across the United States earn money for supporting a more reliable grid, and we’re glad to bring our AI powered VPP software and our deep residential customer expertise to Connecticut.”
Through this agreement, Connecticut Green Bank and GoodLeap will partner in ongoing collaboration on performance metrics, grid integration, and community impact reporting.
The Energy Storage Solutions program is overseen by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, is paid for by electric ratepayers, and is administered by the Connecticut Green Bank, Eversource, and UI.
A virtual power plant is a system that aggregates and manages a network of decentralized energy resources, like solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicle chargers, to act as a single, controllable power source for the grid. Essentially, it combines the power of many smaller energy assets to provide the same functionality as a traditional, large-scale power plant.
