FranklinWH Batteries Now Eligible for Alliant Energy Grid Rewards in Wisconsin

Wisconsin residents who own FranklinWH home battery systems can now sign up for Alliant Energy’s Smart Hours program and receive payments for sending stored electricity to the grid when demand peaks.

What payments does the program offer?

Alliant Energy provides a one-time enrollment bonus of $100 for each kilowatt-hour of battery capacity, with a maximum of $1,500 per household. After joining, participants receive yearly performance payments of $100 for every average kilowatt their system contributes during grid events. The FranklinWH equipment automatically responds when the utility calls for power, though owners control how much reserve capacity stays available for their own backup needs.

How does enrollment work?

FranklinWH teamed up with Derapi, an energy technology firm, to simplify the connection process. Derapi supplies a secure integration layer that links FranklinWH hardware to the Smart Hours platform, handling device authorization, data access, and control signals across utility programs.

Why this matters for the grid

Alliant Energy already operates or plans 275 megawatts of battery projects across Wisconsin. Adding residential units through Smart Hours expands that capacity and gives the utility more flexibility to handle rising consumption without building as many new power lines or plants. FranklinWH now takes part in more than 30 utility-run virtual power plant programs nationwide, where aggregated home batteries provide services traditionally handled by centralized generators.

Recent legislation in California and Virginia pushes utilities to maximize existing grid infrastructure before approving costly expansions. California’s SB913 opens the state’s Resource Adequacy market to distributed storage and virtual power plant operators, making them more competitive with gas-fired peaker plants. These policies reflect growing recognition that customer-sited batteries can reduce infrastructure spending that ultimately appears on monthly bills.

Ecoverse analysis

The $100 per kilowatt-hour enrollment rate means a 15 kWh system hits the $1,500 cap (15 × $100 = $1,500). A system averaging 5 kW of discharge during events would generate $500 annually (5 × $100). Alliant’s 275 MW of utility-scale storage combined with distributed residential capacity creates a two-tier approach: large installations for bulk capacity, home systems for locational flexibility and customer resilience.