Tesla has introduced a beta program called Virtual Power Plant (VPP) to encourage owners of its Powerwall home batteries to contribute some of their excess energy to California’s power grid.
Powerwall is a home battery that allows its owners to store energy for later use. It’s most commonly used with Tesla’s solar products, but it can also complement the electrical grid and backup generators, and it’s compatible with other companies’ solar systems as well.
“The California grid operator forecasts a continued need for Californians to support the grid through 2021,” Tesla said. It asked Powerwall owners to “help create the largest distributed battery system in the world and avoid dependence on the least efficient fossil fuel power plants.”
The company said that VPP will draw energy from participating Powerwalls during peak usage periods for California’s existing power grids. Participants will receive push notifications a few hours before that period of peak usage and then again when power is actually being drawn.
“Your Powerwall will discharge until the event ends, or when it discharges to your selected backup reserve level,” Tesla said. “No action is required on your part to participate in the event, but you may raise or lower your backup reserve level at any time during the event.”
Tesla announced in May that it had installed 200,000 Powerwall batteries since 2015. It seems a quarter of those were in California, because the company said today that VPP participants could “help form the largest distributed battery in the world—potentially over 50,000 Powerwalls.”
VPP will be available to “PG&E, SDG&E and SCE customers who own Powerwall and solar,” Tesla said, and will require a Powerwall firmware update, “which will be released soon.” Participants won’t profit from their contributions to the network at launch, the company said, because it’s currently being pitched as “a public good program to support the California grid.”
The grid needs it: California declared a stage-two power grid emergency on July 9 because of increased usage caused by higher-than-normal temperatures, threats to the electric supply posed by regional wildfires, and limited production from solar energy sources at peak hours.
