The government will overhaul the expense-sharing structure of the Sunlight Income Village energy storage system (ESS) project. The plan is to shift installation and operating expenses, which village cooperatives had shouldered, to private virtual power plant (VPP) operators, and to let operators secure revenue by running the ESS.
A VPP is a business model that integrates and operates distributed power sources such as solar and ESS as if they were a single power plant.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment held a meeting on the Sunlight Income Village ESS project on the 4th at the Han River Flood Control Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, chaired by Minister Kim Sung-hwan. The Sunlight Income Village Promotion Team, energy-related agencies, VPP companies, relevant associations and groups, and experts attended to discuss directions for improving the project.
The Sunlight Income Village ESS project was designed on the premise of installing and operating an ESS in each village so that residents in areas with inadequate power grids can also gain renewable energy revenue. The problem is that village cooperatives must directly bear part of the equipment costs and operating expenses. Local governments and cooperatives have consistently raised concerns, even before the project began, about the difficulty of securing initial expense and the deterioration of profitability.
On this day, related industries and groups suggested bundling multiple Sunlight Income Village projects to jointly install ESS and shifting the installation and operation主体 to private VPP operators. They also requested support for reducing ESS equipment expense and securing installation sites to ensure project viability.
In response, the ministry plans to revise the implementation approach so that VPP operators bear the installation and operating expenses that villages had been responsible for, and so operators can secure appropriate revenue through ESS operations. The government expects that, once the structural overhaul is carried out, more regions will apply for Sunlight Income Villages and that it will also help create a new VPP-based energy market.
Minister Kim said, "We will press ahead with the project swiftly so that the residents' burden is reduced while leveraging the private sector's expertise, enabling both an expansion of resident revenue and stabilization of local power grids."
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