Vermont’s largest utility, Green Mountain Power (GMP), wants to install battery storage for all 270,000 of its customers by 2030.
Instead of building more power lines like most utilities to accommodate new clean energy and prevent outages, GMP is taking a different approach. The plan for its 2030 Zero Outages Initiative, which it filed with state regulators yesterday, is to make its existing power lines more resilient, bury power lines, and install residential battery storage for all of its customers…
The Zero Outages Initiative would… provide residential batteries to customers in remote locations first, and then roll out energy storage to all customers by 2030. GMP already offers a home battery program in which customers can lease Tesla Powerwalls and other brands for $55 a month. Everyone wins – the customer then has backup power, and when it isn’t needed, power feeds back into the grid.
Vermont regulators recently agreed to GMP’s request to lift the enrollment cap on its home battery program (there was a huge waiting list), so all customers who’d like to get Tesla Powerwalls can now do so. There are currently 5,000 Powerwalls installed in customers’ homes.