Are you wondering why Geni.Energy is so keen on this crazy Virtual Power Plant plan?
Well for a starter, we reckon building coal seam gasfields across farms and forests of NSW is a shocking plan. Clearly others do too, given the government approvals process saw a landslide of nearly 30,000 submissions, with 98% opposing the Narrabri Gas Project.
We also reckon the Kurri Kurri Gas Fired Power station is an absolute shocker. Submissions for this proposal closed on Wednesday this week with less than 1% of submitters supporting the project. There is already a gas fired power plant down the road that only operates less than 2% of the time. The federal government uses the justification that as coal plants close, adding new gas generation into the market will reduce prices.
So they have pledged $600 million of a tax payer subsidy to get the white elephant off the ground.
Oh what we could do with $600million to develop renewables!!!
The Chair of Australia's Energy Security Board, Kerry Schott has said this justification is just not accurate because solar, wind, pumped hydro and batteries are a far cheaper way to provide this grid stability and extra generation.
So, coming back to Virtual Power Plants......... These have the capability to entirely remove the need and justification for gas.
The function that coal seam gas can play in the National Electricity Market is two fold; to provide instant response to an unmet increase in demand on the grid and provide frequency stability to the grid.
Well, guess what? VPP's can play those same two roles, without government subsidy and with the benefits flowing into everyday people and businesses across communities.
A Virtual Power Plant is a fleet of generation and storage assets - solar panels, batteries - in homes and businesses that can be orchestrated remotely to pull that stored energy and provide it to the grid when it is needed.
We don't need to poison water and industrialise natural areas to achieve this same outcome. It can be done by you and me. And what's best is that you get paid for providing this service to the grid!
In live trials across the country, VPP's are already providing energy at these crucial moments into the grid and we want our northwest NSW energy to be helping too.
You can take the very first steps towards this vision today by contacting Geni.Energy about your solar and battery needs.
