Tesla Providing Substantial Energy Storage to Australian Homes
Years ago Tesla aligned with the Australian government to build a virtual power plant.
Last year by September, Tesla motors received funding to install rooftop solar systems and battery energy storage. Also installing energy system in 3000 residential consumers in South Australia.
Furthermore, there are no issues with the power systems so far, like power shortage or other such issues. It is said that with a quote bunch of Powerwall and houses, the power can be buffered.
Funding for installing
Being Australia’s largest virtual power project, they received Aus $8.2 million funding. Besides, Tesla’s equity contribution was $18 million. And the project included $30 million in debt finance from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Tesla installed a 13.5 kWh Powerwall battery at each property, free of cost. Which included a 5kWh rooftop solar.
Not only is this project providing power to homes, but lowers energy bills and a more resilient energy grid. It is said that the electricity rates are 22% lower than traditional electricity coming from power plants. As the Tesla power grid of 80% of the total energy consumed by a house.
Lower power prices
According to AEMO ( Australian Energy Market Operator), the average local power process is hitting lower as solar has come. Also, the country’s power prices are hitting below zero with AU $9.28/MWh in January- March this year.
As estimated by Financial Times, the virtual solar project has a capacity of 20MW of power with a 54MWh energy storage. As said by Jeremy King, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, “The magic is in how it’s aggregated. On an individual basis, economically it doesn’t stack up, but once you aggregate it and have centralized control over thousands of systems, economically it starts to make sense.”
Pinsent Masons is the law firm helping Tesla with its installations in Australia. As Tesla started out with its installations, there were multiple challenges from competing with the local power prices to managing solar panel surges. Eventually, now the prices have hit lower than expected in Q1, 2021.
Trading power
Tesla has recently released Powerwall+ energy storage system specs. As the company continues to install, this new energy storage system can even aim for lower prices. It has peak and steady power capacity achieved with the data obtained from the data available from before installations.
The new Powerwall+ is to have more than 50% power at 30c ambient temp.
Additionally, Tesla’s VPP traded the power during Australia’s National Electricity Market to the charging grid and discharge the Powerwalls. By selling their power in the National Electricity Market, Tesla can now generate revenue.
This could be used to repay the $30 million loan taken from Clean Energy Finance Corporation for 3A Phase.
Source: techstory
