en.Wedoany.com Reported - South African energy technology company Plentify has been appointed as the exclusive virtual power plant (VPP) partner in South Africa for Deye, a residential solar inverter and battery manufacturer. The two parties will coordinate more than 160,000 installed Deye residential batteries across South Africa, forming aggregated distributed energy storage resources with a controllable capacity of approximately 2.7 GWh. This partnership is expected to become Africa's largest residential virtual power plant.
Deye is one of the world's largest manufacturers of residential solar inverters and batteries. Previously, due to insufficient power generation capacity in South Africa, the country's power utility Eskom implemented "load-shedding" power cuts, prompting households and businesses to install solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery backup systems on a large scale. To date, households and businesses in South Africa have installed over 8.3 GW of solar PV, while utility-scale solar PV has grown to 2.8 GW, with hundreds of thousands of solar systems playing a significant role in the country's energy mix.
Plentify is a South African energy technology company focused on optimizing energy use in homes and businesses, known for its two controllers, SolarBot and HotBot. SolarBot is a smart companion for solar and hybrid inverters that maximizes solar self-consumption by analyzing weather, load-shedding schedules, and behavioral data; HotBot controls electric water heaters, providing hot water when needed and optimizing energy use during non-use periods to save costs.
Jon Kornik, CEO and co-founder of Plentify, stated that the approximately 2.7 GWh of existing battery capacity is nearly twice the size of Eskom's current 1.4 GWh battery energy storage program—a multi-billion-rand, multi-year infrastructure investment—and that distributed energy resources can complement traditional infrastructure investment by rapidly unlocking the value of existing assets.
Colin Chang, Director of Cloud Business at Deye, stated that South Africa holds a core strategic position in its global footprint, and over the past five years, the company has built one of the largest residential energy storage footprints in the country. Deye has already deployed VPP projects in markets such as Australia and France, accumulating operational experience in coordinating distributed residential batteries. He believes that a successful VPP requires combining proven global technology with deep local market knowledge, and that Plentify's understanding of the local energy system, its collaboration with utilities and municipalities, and its residential VPP capabilities make it a suitable partner for unlocking the value of the existing installed base.
Jon Kornik added that more than 90% of solar systems in South Africa are paired with batteries—one of the highest ratios globally—yet for most of the day, these batteries sit idle, especially as load-shedding has subsided. Plentify states that by coordinating thousands of distributed batteries as a single VPP, energy storage can be managed more intelligently, helping balance electricity demand, enhancing grid resilience, and creating additional value for participating households. Virtual power plants are increasingly being recognized internationally as a cost-effective alternative to building new grid infrastructure.
Plentify is a company that uses AI-driven hardware and software to connect household appliances to cheaper, cleaner energy. It recently completed an oversubscribed Series A funding round, bringing its total cumulative funding to nearly $15 million. Against a backdrop of intense venture capital competition in the climate technology sector, Plentify stated that this round reflects investors' confidence in its team, technology, and strategy. The round was led by Secha Capital, Buffet Investments, and a South African family office, with participation from existing investors E3 Capital, Fireball Capital, and new investors Endeavor South Africa's Harvest Fund and Satgana.
