Origin Sees EV, Battery Boom Driving Virtual Power Plant Growth

Australia’s biggest power retailer expects more households to link home batteries into “virtual power plants,” a shift it sees curbing the cost of the energy transition and easing pressure on the nation’s slow-moving grid build-out.

The number of customer devices connected to Origin Energy Ltd.’s “Origin Loop” VPP rose about 5% in the past year to 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, the company said as it released full-year earnings on Thursday. Almost 400,000 assets — including hot-water systems, batteries, solar panels and electric vehicles — are now connected to the platform.