Tesla Stabilises Battery Tech

Tesla just announced that they have a new software product called the “Virtual Machine Mode”, which is being used at its battery farm project in South Australia, the “Tesla Big Battery”.

Tesla has a couple of software products for managing their power systems, and most of them revolve around making the use of their solar, wind and battery products more efficient.

The Virtual Machine Mode is no different, but is made to tackle a very specific problem - Lack of inertia.

In any of our usual energy methods - Hydroelectric, coal, nuclear, etc. - the processes involved generally include the use of mechanical generators. Whenever the power gets cut off in one of those systems, the generators still have a bit of mechanical energy - some inertia - left in the spin, so the power ebbs off slowly. Not to mention, with those systems the power doesn’t normally cut off except in emergency situations.

Not so with Solar or Wind. Yes, we do need to transition off of fossil fuels, but our grids just aren’t made for power that stops and starts frequently as conditions change. That just doesn’t happen with mechanical systems.

So, Tesla has devised the Virtual Machine Mode to mimic this machine-like inertia. From Tesla’s description, the Megapack’s inverters work with the new program to take the excess power during peak times, and use it to even out the dips whenever conditions drop the power levels. This makes the grid much more stable, without having to add any additional machinery to compensate.

And honestly, that’s the biggest news about Tesla’s battery farms so far. Most legitimate criticism of swapping to renewables is how unreliable they are. But with the Virtual Machine Mode, we can even that out, and get to work on increasing capacity.