Energy regulators in Texas have given full approval to an aggregated distributed energy resource pilot, or ADER, to harness 80 MW of energy resources on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid. 

Expanding energy resources in Texas

The Public Utility Commission of Texas accepted new documents for the energy programme in addition to a participant registration form. The pilot will run for up to three years and it is hoped that it will advance grid reliability and reduce energy costs.

According to Doug Lewin, Stoic Energy President, this will enable many small sources to contribute to ‘Grid reliability, lower energy costs and reduced emissions’.

The first part of the pilot programme will be limited to 80 MW of total ADER capacity on the ERCOT grid, yet regulators plan for that to grow.

Clean energy on the market

Staff involved across the project are excited for the future. 

“[The ADER project] will allow customers to share stored clean, local electrons from their home solar and battery systems to the electricity market and get compensated for these services, making these options more accessible and affordable,” agreed Amy Heart, Vice President of public policy at Sunrun.

Commissioner Will McAdams said that the development of the virtual power plant will help to ‘put consumers in control of their energy future’.

“A massive amount of work has gone on, in a short amount of time, by some dedicated stakeholders and our staff,” said McAdams.