Thousands of people with Tesla Powerwalls will back up the grid in a virtual power plant test
Tesla and California electric utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is launching a pilot program that will use Tesla Powerwall home energy storage batteries as a “virtual power plant” to support the grid. electricity.
On June 22, Tesla invited about 25,000 Powerwall owners who are PG&E customers to join the program, according to PG&E. In the two weeks following the announcement, more than 3,000 interested customers participated and more than 1,500 officially signed up to participate in the pilot program.
“Allowing Powerwall customers to support the grid and their communities is an important and essential part of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy,” said Drew Baglino, Senior Vice President of Systems Tesla’s powertrain and energy engineering, said in a statement. “We seek to work with utilities and regulators everywhere to unlock the full potential of storage that delivers more renewable, resilient, and low-cost electricity.” worse for everyone.”
Tesla Powerwall Home Battery
According to PG&E, participating customer Powerwalls will form a “distributed” battery that can absorb excess energy during times of low power demand and discharge it back to the grid during times of high demand. That’s one aspect of the utility’s Emergency Offload Program, a five-year pilot program launching in 2021 to encourage reduced electricity use during times of particularly strain on the grid.
In this case, the Powerwall battery will be directed by PG&E to discharge during the hours of high demand between 4pm and 9pm. those customers, since PG&E’s base population rate is 32 cents/kwh. They can still use the Tesla app to reserve enough power for personal use, as well as opt out of the program, PG&E notes.
Using batteries in this way can help balance the grid by avoiding spikes in demand. A more balanced grid means less chance of power outages, and it will also make electric vehicle charging more reliable.
The 2022 Tesla Series (Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.)
California aims to end sales of most new non-electric vehicles by 2035, but a 2020 report proposed that the state’s grid would need a major update to support all the electric vehicles it is policying around. And In 2021 heat waves Public warning about electric vehicle charging in California.
Increasing energy supply to meet this year’s summer heatwaves will more expensive and uses more carbondue to the ongoing drought. Drought is limiting hydroelectricity production capacity, forcing California to become more dependent on carbon-intensive energy sources, the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last month. That also effectively increases the carbon footprint of electric vehicles running off the California grid.
PG&E and Tesla’s experiment is just one of a number of pilot programs seeking ways to smoothen the grid through two-way charging—some use the means themselves as two-way backup power banks. It’s something that hasn’t been activated on Tesla cars.
