An interview with Evergen customers Scott and Vanessa, Australian Paralympians, Canberra, NSW.
ACT based Australian Paralympians, Scott and Vanessa, installed solar onto their rooftop in early 2020. Prior to that, Scott spent many months researching the best value solar system, as well as options for battery storage. Given they are large energy consumers, they were looking for a robust system with back up protection and an ability to decrease their carbon footprint. Just as they were about to install their solar and battery, financial priorities changed and it was not until February 2021 that they added a battery to their solar system.
“Now that I have finally installed a battery, it’s really exciting to be part of something bigger. To be able to be a part of something that’s looking into the future, and being involved in a Virtual Power Plant is a really big seller for us. Without a battery connected to Evergen, what we had was only two dimensional. Now, not only does it have big effects from a sustainability point of view, but we can actually optimise our battery to generate greater savings than what you would just get out of your solar system. This is changing the game.”
Scott and Vanessa installed the following system:
- Tesla Powerwall 2 – connected to Evergen Intelligent battery optimisation software
- Paired with an exciting 7kW LG PV array
Benefits of Evergen Intelligent Control for Scott and Vanessa
Scott and Vanessa are professional athletes so are in and out of their home every day at random times, without a regular pattern of electricity use. They also run three businesses from home so need reliable electricity, but at the same time, want to optimise what they already have and generate greater electricity savings.
“With our battery connected to Evergen Intelligent Control, our system is enabled to monitor our usage habits, and pull information such as the weather to predict the most optimal way to use energy between the battery, solar and the grid. For us, the biggest consumer of electricity is the air conditioning. Our battery now has the ability to think, realize it’s going to be hot and calculate that we’re probably going to be running the air conditioning that day. So it optimises our system and we get the best out of it.”
As a young couple, being part of a Virtual Power Plant was absolutely essential for Scott and Vanessa to optimise their investment. With their battery connected to Evergen, it means their battery is enabled to export some of their energy back to the grid on demand, and make money from that too.
“It just means that the system’s able to pay itself off much faster, and you’re getting a much bigger benefit from the entire investment that you make. Overall though, VPPs are the way of the future. And we wanted to be contributing to a renewable future.”
Watch the full video here.
