humm group limited has entered into a partnership with LG Energy Solution to provide Virtual Power Plant (“VPP”) solutions.
Diamond Energy, the renewable energy generation retail electricity company has been appointed as the electricity retailer.
humm is the leading financier of solar installations in Australia, financing over $2.2 billion of residential rooftop solar panels (Photo Voltaic, or PV).
This has delivered more than 1 gigawatt (1 billion watts) of electricity generation capability for use in Australian homes each year, representing 1.7m tonnes of CO2 offset, equating to 68.9m trees planted, or 431,000 cars off the road each year.
hummgroup CEO Rebecca James said making renewable energy affordable for Australian homeowners has been a cornerstone of humm for over a decade now, with more than 350 active solar merchants and $547 million of Climate Bond certified Green bonds issued during this time.
“Forging into the VPP market, with a technology partner like LG Energy Solution and a retail partner like Diamond Energy will enable us to deliver quality, simplicity and great energy savings to our customers,” she said.
VPP is a natural progression for us with 265,000 solar systems financed since 2010. This new channel advances humm’s leadership position by adding to our existing in home sales and corporate energy finance channels as green energy continues to evolve.
A VPP is an alternative to traditional power stations. Rather than one big facility, a VPP delivers energy by aggregating the energy from rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems across the country.
Through technology, the system can be controlled remotely and deliver electricity across the grid. In addition, energy stored in batteries enables customers to “trade” energy through the VPP. This might mean selling energy generated during peak times or purchasing energy when the cost is low and storing it.
The retailer directs your energy to offset the costs of installing the equipment, and when combined with solar, reduces the payback period.
LG Energy Solution general manager of residential sales, Philip Crotty, is confident the partnership will be a success.
“We believe there is a potential market of more than 10,000 homes that this new product construct will appeal to over the next few years, and we aim to create the largest residential VPP network in Australia,” he said.
To be eligible, customers must purchase and install solar and an LG Energy Solution VPP battery and finance the purchase through humm (average expected transaction value: $17.2k).
Customers will then sign up with a humm-referred VPP energy retailer (Diamond Energy). The customer will own the solar and battery system installed on their house.
The energy retailer manages and directs energy from the solar and battery respectively at the customer's house. The customer will directly benefit by receiving a guaranteed discount on the electricity reference rate from the VPP energy retailer (Diamond Energy).
Customers will also receive an additional energy credit matched to the monthly instalment to humm. The customer then pays this monthly instalment to humm for the solar and battery system.