Electric vehicles have been used to help balance the grid in what has been dubbed a first for vehicle-to-grid tech in the UK.

This edition of news in brief focuses on recent developments in the US distributed energy resources (DER) market.

Technologies from US V2G solutions company Nuvve and NGK’s sodium sulfur batteries will provide ancillary services and other grid stability applications in Japan. 

Enel X will participate in a pilot in Ontario aggregating behind-the-meter battery storage and demand response.

Swell Energy, a US company specialising in virtual power plant (VPP) projects aggregating residential solar PV and battery storage, has launched a distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) software platform. 

A programme incentivising the deployment of customer-sited energy storage systems (ESS) has been launched by the two main investor-owned utilities serving the US state of Connecticut.

A residential virtual power plant (VPP) pilot programme in Maryland will bid to participate in ancillary services in the PJM Interconnection wholesale market. 

A US$25 million virtual power plant (VPP) programme has been launched in Perth, Western Australia, while in the US, technology providers Enphase, Sunverge and LG have announced their involvement in VPPs in Arizona and California. 

Red tape, costs and logistical hurdles for large-scale battery storage and hybrid systems to participate in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) will be cut under new Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) rules. 

SunPower has launched its ConnectedSolutions virtual power plant (VPP), enabling customers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut to earn “hundreds of dollars a year” for allowing utility access to their stored energy during peak demand.