Tesla held its first Virtual Power Plant (VPP) event yesterday to support the California grid during a heatwave, and the event was a success with an army of Tesla Powerwall batteries sending large amounts of energy back to the grid.
Over 2,600 PG&E and SCE customers with Powerwall batteries installed took part in the event, which kicked off at 5:00am local time. Each Powerwall battery was charged up during the day, and at 6:00pm, the time at which the highest energy demand was expected, they began sending energy back into the grid.
According to the Tesla app and data collected by lastbulb, as much as 16,597kW was sent back at the peak. Although there was no data for the total amount of energy sent back by the Powerwall units, the creator of lastbulb and VPP participant Rick Davis estimated it was as much as 28MW.
While this means each owner will get $2 per kWh sent back to the grid, this VPP event shows the value and potential in Tesla’s Energy business, and how disruptive it will be to the energy sector.
This first event was a success by all accounts, and it was achieved with a little more than 2,600 homes with Powerwall units in California. Expanding this further to even just more parts of California, let alone other parts of the country, will provide tremendous value to other utility providers to support their grid with clean, renewable energy at a minor cost.
