Tesla Expands Australian Virtual Power Plant

Tesla’s successful power operations in Australia are growing!

Some of you might remember back in 2018, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk committed to helping the folks of South Australia with their abysmal power grid. The South Australian government was looking for any solution that could help keep reliable power flowing through the remote province, and Tesla stepped up.

Originally, the program was meant to install a large Powerpack energy storage - “Tesla Big Battery” - to help stabilise the province's shaky power, but Musk soon saw this was the perfect opportunity to test out their new Powerwall systems and help folks at the same time. Musk committed to installing solar arrays and Powerwalls in over 50,000 homes. 

Very quickly it became clear that you could create a sort of virtual Big Battery with the Powerwalls, linking them in what came to be called a Virtual Power Plant.

The VPP works by coordinating the discharge of all Powerwalls on a network so that their stored energy hits the grid all at once. This way, the grid can be supported during periods of peak demands or outages - even for homes that don’t yet have a Powerwall installed.

How it works in practice is that folks who opt into the Virtual Power Plant get subsidies and credits for time they’re generating power for the grid, which is then usually used to offset peak power usage costs when they take from the grid in turn.

Needless to say, this decentralised Big Battery is doing well, and Tesla’s announced that they’re expanding their VPP program to New South Wales, South-East Queensland, and the Australian Capital Territory; allowing Powerwall owners to opt in to this large, virtual energy support system.

And given that current users are seeing energy bills around 20% less than they would have without the VPP, it’s really not surprising we’re seeing the program spread. It’s likely only a matter of time until the system is adopted country-wide.