Australian clean energy company Plico has partnered with energy retailer Alinta Energy to launch a new battery, solar, and virtual power plant (VPP) offer for eligible households in New South Wales.
The partnership means Plico’s VPP is now the first to span both of Australia’s major electricity markets—the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) in Western Australia and the National Electricity Market (NEM) on the east coast.
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Plico manages a fleet of household battery systems, discharging energy from these systems when wholesale electricity spot prices are very high. Eligible Sigenergy, Alpha ESS, and Redback battery owners in NSW can now join the Plico VPP to participate. The Plico VPP program includes rewards of up to 50c per kWh feed-in tariff during VPP events.
For Plico VPP members, Alinta Energy can offer electricity retail services via their Sunshare Plan, delivering further value with a feed-in tariff of 10c per kWh for the first 10kWh exported each day.
NSW households without a battery are also able to purchase a solar and battery package, or battery-only, through Plico, and receive an additional $1,500 discount when joining the Plico VPP.
The initiative marks the first electricity retail partnership for Plico in NSW and expands the company’s independent VPP network, which already connects more than 5,000 members across Western Australia’s South West Interconnected System (SWIS).
Plico CEO Robbie Campbell said, “Plico has spent years building and refining a solar-plus-battery-plus-VPP model that empowers households to take control of their energy while strengthening the grid. What we have built in Western Australia shows that, when VPPs are designed around real household needs, they can achieve strong participation and deliver practical value for both customers and the energy system.
“With Alinta Energy, we’re bringing that model to New South Wales in a way that supports participation in the energy transition and enables households to access additional value streams from their solar and battery systems.”
Plico’s VPP technology connects household batteries into a coordinated energy network that can respond to grid needs in real time, supporting electricity supply when it is needed the most, while reducing reliance on fossil fuel generation.
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The network is enabled by advanced orchestration technology from energy software provider GridAI, which helps coordinate distributed batteries so they can operate as a flexible, grid-supporting energy resource.
