Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Terms and Conditions
Joining Powershop Australia Pty Ltd’s (ABN 41 154 914 075) (Powershop, we, our, us) virtual power plant (VPP) program (VPP Program) is subject to your acceptance of the following terms and conditions (VPP Agreement). These apply in addition to the obligations set out in your Agreement, during the Term. If you join the VPP Program, you will be deemed to have agreed to this VPP Agreement.
1. Definitions
Unless defined below, all defined terms referred to in this VPP Agreement have the same meaning as when used in your electricity retail contract entered into with us.
Agreement means an electricity retail contract between us and you for the supply of electricity to you at the Premises and any documents referred to in your Welcome Pack which form part of your contract, including the pricing statement, document entitled important information, our privacy policy, credit reporting policy, direct debit terms, solar feed-in terms (if you have solar), and any other terms you have agreed with us.
API means application programming interface.
Battery System means your solar and battery storage system with a make and model that is compatible with our VPP Platform and as listed at www.evergen.energy/hardware-integrations.
NEM means the National Electricity Market
Premises means the residential supply address forming part of the Agreement on which the Battery System has been installed.
Term means the the later date of when:
the Battery System is fully operational and connected to a continuous and reliable internet connection at your Premises;
you have met the Eligibility Criteria; and
you accept the VPP Agreement,
until the termination date.
VPP Platform means the VPP platform software that we are using to connect to and control your Battery System.
VPP Reward means a monthly credit applied to your Premises electricity account in the amount applicable to your battery size as set out on www.powershop.com.au/virtual-power-plant.
2. Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to participate in the VPP Program, you must:
be a customer with a Premises in Victoria, South East Queensland, South Australia or New South Wales;
not be registered for GST;
have entered into an Agreement that has not ended;
have a functional Battery System installed at your Premises;
have agreed to all the VPP Platform’s terms and conditions of service, including for installing the VPP App and accessing the VPP Platform;
have a smart meter (preferably on a time-of-use tariff) or agree to have a smart meter installed at your Premises;
have a continuous and stable broadband internet connection at your Premises;
not be participating in another virtual power plant program; and
not have any person (including yourself) residing at the Premises that relies on life support equipment.
3. VPP Reward
Subject to you meeting the criteria below, we will apply the VPP Reward on a monthly basis during the Term.
You are only entitled to receive the VPP Reward during the Term if:
you have accepted the terms of this VPP Agreement;
you have provided us with all of the information and consents we have reasonably requested from you;
you continue to meet the Eligibility Criteria; and
we have commenced communication via the VPP Platform with the Battery System at your Premises on a continuous basis.
We may vary the amount of the VPP Reward at any time during the Term by providing at least 20 Business Days’ prior written notice to you.
4. Your Acknowledgements and Responsibilities
You agree to:
us monitoring, controlling and managing your Battery System via the VPP Platform during the Term for the purpose of the VPP Program, including making the electricity in your Battery System available for us to use;
pay the monthly API fees charged to us by your battery manufacturer (if any), which we will pass through to you on your next electricity bill. The list of applicable API fees charged by battery manufacturers is available at
www.powershop.com.au/virtual-power-plant-api-fees
; and
pay all the energy charges under your Agreement associated with The VPP Program.
You understand that as part of operating the VPP Program, at our discretion:
we may, from time to time, charge, discharge or maintain energy in your battery, including cease charging or discharging your battery for periods of time;
when we discharge energy from your battery, the energy may be used at your Premises or exported to the NEM;
you will receive our feed-in rate applicable to your Agreement at the time (if your current plan provides for a feed-in tariff) for all energy that is discharged from your battery and exported to the NEM;
when we discharge to the NEM, this may impact the amount of energy generated from your solar photovoltaic system that is available for you to use at your Premises.
if we charge your battery from the NEM, the electricity that is imported from the NEM will be charged to you at the applicable energy usage charges at the time in accordance with your Agreement; and
we may engage a third party to carry out any of our obligations under this VPP Agreement which may include, but not be limited to, the operation of the VPP Program.
At all times during the Term, you must ensure that:
to the extent that it is within your control, your Battery System is connected to the internet; and
no person is permitted to control your Battery System other than us or tamper with, or permit tampering with, or override our instructions to you in relation to your Battery System.
You expressly acknowledge and agree that you have considered your individual circumstances, including you have considered and are satisfied that any electricity supply interruptions caused by any third party or that may result from us discharging your Battery System under this VPP Agreement will not adversely affect your health or safety or that of any other occupant of the Premises, before entering into this VPP Agreement. You agree that life support equipment is not connected to or reliant on your Battery System for operation.
5. Privacy and data
You agree to make available to us or consent to us obtaining from third parties and using, information relating to the amount of electricity stored in your Battery System, generated from your solar panels, discharged from your battery or any other data relating to your Battery System transmitted to us and any other information needed for us
In accordance with our
and
, you consent to us sharing your personal and account information (such as, your name, address, electricity rates, electricity usage data, billing cycle and any data captured by your Battery System) with third parties, including but not limited to the VPP Platform provider, to enable us and the third party to provide the services in relation to this VPP Agreement. Where we exchange data and personal information about you with third party providers, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipient will deal with personal information in a way that is consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), however, you agree that in the event of a privacy breach by an overseas recipient, we will not be accountable for that recipient under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and you may not be able to seek redress under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
6. Termination
This VPP Agreement will terminate immediately in the event that:
you no longer have an Agreement with us;
you no longer meet the Eligibility Criteria;
your Battery System is permanently removed or not functional, disconnected, not operating as expected or experiencing a continuous communications failure;
you move out of the Premises; or
you otherwise end it.
We may also end this VPP Agreement at any time by providing at least 20 Business Days’ prior written notice to you.
7. Varying this VPP Agreement (with notice)
We may vary the VPP Agreement if:
we give you 20 Business Days’ notice of the variation; and
you accept the change by not ending the VPP Agreement during the notice period.
The notice we give you might be a link to details of the change on our website. We may also vary the VPP Agreement by giving you notice if we need to because the regulatory requirements change.
8. Transferring the VPP Agreement
You can’t assign, transfer or novate the VPP Agreement without our prior written consent. Subject to the regulatory requirements we may transfer, novate or assign this VPP Agreement to any third party, any of our related bodies corporate or as part of any transfer of substantial number of customers to a third party. We’ll let you know if we do this.
9. Disclaimer and limitation of liability
To the extent permitted by law, in no event shall we be held liable to you for any damage, claim or loss arising directly or indirectly from your participation in the VPP Program].
You acknowledge and agree that the information or data received via the VPP Platform (including the VPP App) may be incomplete or vary from the data received by other devices or displayed on your Powershop App, including any network electricity meter at the Premises. It is intended as a guide only and does not replace your bill.