Simply Energy partner with FareShare to launch VPP
As part of the roll out of its first Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in Victoria, ENGIE has brought long-standing charity partner FareShare, Australia’s largest charity kitchen, onto the virtual grid. Through the partnership, ENGIE’s energy retailer Simply Energy has donated and installed three Tesla Powerwall Batteries at the kitchens’ Melbourne operations hub and connected it to the VPP.
By joining the VPP, FareShare can now store over 40 kWh per day in excess energy generated from its onsite solar system and significantly reduce energy bills, using excess power in the evenings. Additional excess energy from the batteries will then be shared, via the ENGIE VPP, with the local community enabling FareShare to extend its sharing philosophy to support the transformation of the energy system.
This collaboration between ENGIE and FareShare is the latest milestone in the ongoing partnership between the two organisations. ENGIE has been supporting FareShare in Victoria for 14 years, and the VPP project is another example of ENGIE’s innovative and sustainable approach to CSR. Rather than single financial donations, ENGIE is focussed on establishing long-term relationships with its charity partners, which can deliver lasting value. In addition to the cost and energy savings, the VPP will also accelerate FareShare’s transition to being fully carbon neutral.
“This generous support from ENGIE enables FareShare to reduce our electricity bills and CO2 emissions and increase our financial and environmental sustainability,” said Marcus Godinho, FareShare’s Executive Director. “With industrial-scale freezers and coolrooms running 24/7, the ability to bank our energy to keep our meals frozen overnight and share excess energy with the ENGIE VPP is a fantastic outcome for us as a charity.”
The FareShare partnership marks the public launch of the wider ENGIE residential VPP in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland which started in January. The scheme follows the highly successful, award winning VPP project in South Australia where 1350 residential battery storage systems were rolled out, aggregated together and remotely controlled in order to support the local grid and trade available energy into wholesale energy and ancillary services markets.
Through the new national VPP, residents will be able to register their Powerwall home battery system with ENGIE’s energy retailer Simply Energy and join the VPP, receiving up to $2,250 in bill credits. The scheme will enable participants to immediately switch to 100% sustainable energy, store and use excess home generated renewable energy, and share this energy to support the grid when it is under stress.
As well as delivering significant savings to home energy bills, the scheme also enables participants to play an active role in theirs and their communities transition to carbon neutrality. ENGIE is aiming to build its national VPP fleet to over 9MW of energy storage capacity by registering approximately 500 additional VPP users by the end of the year.
The residential VPP schemes further strengthen ENGIE’s position as the leading commercial and residential renewable energy company in Australia. ENGIE is also playing a central role in development of Australia’s EV-charging infrastructure while last year it began construction of Australia’s largest privately funded utility-scale battery at the site of the former Hazelwood Power Station, adding further to the group’s portfolio of low-carbon electricity assets.
