GeneracGrid Services, a subsidiary of Generac Power Systems (NYSE:GNRC), a leading designer and manufacturer of energy technology solutions and other power products, and German utility RWE today announced an expanded collaboration after Generac Grid Services delivered an automatic, fast-power control virtual power plant (VPP) solution to an energy market within Germany for the past six months. The success sets the stage for the two companies to expand market operations, with a plan to launch two more market products this year.
Generac Grid Services has facilitated uninterrupted automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) capacity, supporting the balance of power within the Amprion Transmission System Operator (TSO) Control Area, since December 2021. The solution is enabled by Generac Grid Services’ Concerto™ distributed energy resource control platform, increasing efficiency and performance by removing manual operations from this real-time market service. The achievement demonstrates the value the Concerto platform can unlock in efforts to create a sustainable and reliable power grid.
RWE’s D-Central program enables commercial and industrial customers to integrate their distributed energy resources (DERs) into RWE’s virtual power plant, and thereby benefit from participating in energy markets. Leveraging Concerto, RWE captures additional revenue by taking full advantage of available DER flexibility. When an aFRR market bid is accepted, RWE delivers its capacity automatically using Concerto’s closed-loop, real-time, transactive optimization engine. Concerto’s unique technology empowers RWE to dispatch the optimal combination of devices in its fleet of distributed assets. RWE thus can maximize the value of its available flexible capacity beyond simply meeting awarded energy capacity requirements.
“Concerto has performed flawlessly in providing 24/7 aFRR market operations,” said Patrick Luig, product owner for the D-Central program for RWE. “Having proven the high value of Concerto in providing fast-responding flexible and sustainable capacity to the German grid, RWE is excited to grow our collaboration with Generac Grid Services.”
Along with the aFRR solution, RWE now leverages Concerto to bid into the German interruptible load market. This solution enables RWE to stack additional value from its fleet of distributed energy resources.
“Generac Grid Services is proud to support RWE in providing grid-balancing solutions that support a reliable grid as more intermittent renewables connect to the system,” said Michael Ruth, VP of Product at Generac Grid Services. “Concerto’s successful, round-the-clock performance demonstrates distributed energy resources’ viability to support real-time grid needs when paired with our industry-leading control platform.”
