Brookfield-owned Intellihub has acquired Pooled Energy, a former retailer that focused on the energy efficiency of backyard swimming pools but collapsed during Australia’s recent wholesale power crisis.
Intellihub has acquired Pooled Energy to tap into demand from owners of backyard swimming pools who worry about energy use. Once seen as just a billing tool for electricity providers, smart meters are increasingly used by consumers to use energy more efficiently and reduce their bills, and by utility providers to better manage a surge in intermittent renewable energy that can make the grid more susceptible to demand-supply squeezes and blackouts.
A VPP pools thousands of households with rooftop solar and batteries. Households use their batteries to store excess energy generated through rooftop solar. If they deem they have sufficient energy in their battery, they could approve the discharge of some stored energy into the wholesale market when prices are high, offering them a financial return and helping to ease the squeeze on the grid.