Sunrun, FranklinWH expand BESS virtual power plant capacity in California, Texas

In May 2025, Sunrun noted that its CalReady VPP programme had enrolled approximately 75,000 residential BESS installations. The company uses Tesla’s Powerwall 3 system, which features an integrated inverter with reported solar-to-grid efficiency of 97.5%.

Now, the VPP will dispatch energy through the California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) programme and the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) Emergency Load Reduction Programme (ELRP), which is operated under bilateral contracts between Sunrun and utilities Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE).

Sunrun “coordinates all dispatch operations to maximise grid reliability while providing a seamless experience to customers,” who participate in only one of the two programmes.

Sunrun provides grid support in California daily from 4 to 9 PM during the summer and fall months, when demand peaks and grid constraints are most severe. In May and June, Sunrun executed several dispatches utilising portions of its battery capacity in Northern and Southern California.

DSGS was introduced in 2022 by the CEC. It compensates customers for discharging stored energy from residential and commercial BESS during peak demand or grid stress.

In 2025, DSGS faced cuts to its budget that would significantly reduce its operating time.

California Governor Gavin Newsom then proposed using funds from an expiring programme to keep DSGS operating until the end of 2026. Participants will be shifted to CPUC’s ELRP, “a 5-year pilot programme designed to pay electricity consumers for reducing energy consumption or increasing electricity supply during periods of electrical grid emergencies”

In June, Energy-Storage.news Premium spoke with Arnab Pal, executive director at Deploy Action, a nonprofit focused on accelerating decarbonisation efforts in California. Pal said of DSGS and the participant shift to ELRP:

“DSGS is not meant to be a permanent solution. It’s an inelegant but effective way of being able to pull these demand-side resources in situations where otherwise there might be blackouts. We need a bridge for the next two to three years, and this program has worked really well at the CEC. Why would we change something that’s working really well?”

He continued, “The PUC, for all of its strengths, speed is not one of them. So, our whole thing is let’s keep it here for two or three years, and then let’s develop the appropriate marketplace so these resources can be used most cost-efficiently.”

If configured as a single front-of-the-meter (FTM) battery project, Sunrun’s California distributed power plant, with 425MW of peak dispatchable capacity, would rank among the top 10 utility-scale batteries in the state.

However, unlike conventional FTM projects, Sunrun’s VPP utilises existing residential infrastructure, eliminating the need for new land acquisition, additional transmission lines, or extended interconnection procedures.

Recently, Sunrun, energy management platform Renew Home, and Tesla announced a framework to aggregate “hundreds of thousands” of home battery systems operated by Sunrun and Tesla with more than 8 million smart thermostats and devices managed by Renew Home, into a VPP, providing more than 16GW of energy capacity to hyperscalers and utilities.

FranklinWH participating in two Texas VPPs

FranklinWH Energy Storage, a San Francisco Bay Area-based manufacturer of home energy management and BESS, will participate in two new Texas VPP programmes.

Announced 14 July, FranklinWH was selected to participate in the Austin Energy Power Partner Battery Pilot and the Entergy Battery Storage Solutions programme.

The programmes enable Texas homeowners with a FranklinWH system to earn upfront incentives and annual payments by allowing their residential BESS to provide stored energy during periods of peak electricity demand.

Under publicly owned utility Austin Energy’s Power Partner Battery, customers receive a US$500 upfront incentive toward the purchase of a FranklinWH system and average annual payments of more than US$300.

Participants earn US$75-per-kW of average output delivered during demand response events. The pilot is limited to 1,500 systems and supports Austin Energy’s goal of reaching 78MW of demand response capacity by 2027 and 270MW by 2035.

Through regulated utility Entergy Texas’ Battery Storage Solutions programme, enrolled FranklinWH customers earn up to US$325-per-year for allowing Entergy Texas to draw on their stored energy during peak demand.

The utility sends an automated signal to participating FranklinWH systems, allowing batteries to respond without homeowner intervention. The stored energy helps reduce strain on the grid while supporting greater integration of renewable energy across Entergy Texas’ service area.

FranklinWH claimed the programmes strengthen grid reliability while creating new financial value for homeowners.

The company also stated that both programmes are managed through the FranklinWH App. “Battery dispatch occurs automatically, homeowners can monitor system performance in real time, and participants may opt out of any individual demand response event.”

Earlier this year, FranklinWH announced its participation in similar programmes in Arizona through utilities Salt River Project (SRP) and Arizona Public Service (APS).

Both programmes involve the company’s lithium iron phosphate (LFP) aPower residential BESS. The aPower2 system has a 15kWh capacity.

FranklinWH also made its European trade show debut at Intersolar Europe 2026, ahead of its planned 2027 entry into the European market.