As retailers, distributors, asset owners and end consumers all take advantage of and benefit from evolving distributed energy generation and storage technologies, the value of Virtual Power Plants (VPP) is increasingly being shown to address challenges such as frequency and voltage imbalances, supply disruptions, and stability (to name a few).
With the size of the VPP market expected to reach US$1.10 billion by 2030, there’s certainly no lack of desire to get VPP up and running around the world. But what’s hampering the roll out of these aggregated energy systems is the complex nature of billing them!
Barriers to billing VPP
VPP is an important one to get right. Consumers are increasingly demanding VPP because there are many benefits to be gained, such as:
Financial: Households with the right technology can provide energy back to the grid and be paid for it
Environmental: Measurement of CO2 saved
Transparency of usage: For example VPP event data vs traditional energy consumption
However, many traditional energy businesses find the rigidity of incumbent legacy billing software an impediment to successfully offering VPP. Payment must be made to the asset owners for use of the generated and stored energy, and with the potential for multiple parties transacting energy at a site, the billing software needs the ability to expose and calculate the cost of energy for each party (multi-party billing). From a billing standpoint, this is the element that often constrains the scaling of multi-party products like VPP.
How modern tech can mobilise VPP
Speed to market, diversity of products and services, and demonstrable return for participation are fast becoming the currency by which success is measured. And navigating the constraints of legacy energy billing software is up there in terms of barriers to delivering the sustainable products and value consumers are demanding.
This is where modern, configurable, flexible, scalable energy billing software like Flux comes in - to put the power of change and innovation back into retailers’ hands.
The API-driven flexibility of Flux means energy businesses can deliver almost any VPP offering they can think of. Where legacy billing software makes adding or updating things like non-energy charges such as VPP credits to a customer's bill, or price components including spot, time-of-use charges, or environmental charges difficult, these things, and more, can also be easily managed in Flux without dev time.
Flux ingests both on and off-market measurement data and can easily absorb data streams from solar and battery hardware that can then be displayed on bills, customer apps and other communication channels, creating a seamless and value-adding customer experience. Furthermore, the configurability of Flux billing means new pricing structures and components can be added without affecting the core code base. This translates to lower development costs, and faster speed-to-market.
Operationalise your VPP solutions with Flux
Operationalising VPP at scale requires a billing system that can expose and calculate the cost of energy each participating party is responsible for, and accurately bill it.
Flux mobilises and supports organisations leading the charge towards the future of energy. We’re here as a vital partner on your transformation journey. Our energy-specific billing platform makes managing greater complexity and delivering new capability at lightning speed effortless. And, our team of experts are here to support yours, every step of the way.
Talk to the team at Flux today to learn how you can make your vision for VPP solutions a reality.
