Sonnen and SOLRITE Are Adding Smart Breakers to Their Home Battery Network

Sonnen and SOLRITE Energy are adding smart breakers to their virtual power plant so a home battery can do more, both in a blackout and when the grid needs help, Electrek reported. The companies said they are integrating ADAPT Energy's controls and Eaton AbleEdge smart breakers with sonnenHub.

The announcement does not include pricing, how many homes will get the setup, or when existing customers can add it. Those details are simply not in the report.

A virtual power plant that can also turn things off

A virtual power plant links home batteries so they can act together as a larger energy resource. The new breakers give SOLRITE a second lever: besides discharging batteries, it can reduce how much electricity participating houses use. Sonnen and SOLRITE used a pool pump as the example, because it is energy-hungry, not essential, and often runs for a long time. When an event starts, ADAPT can temporarily switch off a pre-approved pump while the sonnen battery sends power to the grid. With less of the battery going to the pump, more can go to the grid.

Homeowners have to opt in to that grid participation, and ADAPT will switch off only pre-approved loads. Joining the program does not give the operator permission to turn off anything in the house.

"Instead of putting the pressure on homeowners to change the way their home is wired, and to manually manipulate loads during an outage, we're putting intelligence into their energy system, which provides a seamless and automatic backup power experience for their home," Troy Morgan, president of PanTech Design, the developer of ADAPT Energy, said in the announcement, according to Electrek.

Backup power that goes further

The same hardware is meant to help in an ordinary outage. Large appliances can drain a battery quickly, and the surge some equipment needs to start can overload a backup system just as the lights go out. ADAPT can coordinate the breakers with the sonnen battery to switch off large loads automatically during backup, then restore them when grid power returns, so residents do not have to walk around resetting circuits.

The companies said changing which smart-breaker-controlled loads are shed during an outage does not require rewiring those circuits. Some backup systems need electricians to move selected circuits into a separate panel. This setup manages compatible circuits where the breakers already sit, which they say reduces installation and inspection work. Whole-home backup still has limits. Managing large loads helps the available battery last longer; it does not mean every appliance can run at once through an outage.

SOLRITE finances, builds, and owns residential solar-plus-storage projects through what it calls Virtual Power Plant Agreements, with no upfront cost to homeowners. It said it operates in Texas, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Illinois, with more markets planned. Electrek also noted, separately, that sonnen has filed for insolvency in Germany even as U.S. sales have doubled, a reminder that the U.S. VPP business and the German parent are not the same story.