Following Tesla’s deployment of many solar panels, Megapacks and Powerwalls, the company is apparently looking to give owners of the energy systems a leg-up in Texas’ notoriously bad utility system.
Tesla is lobbying for Texas residents with solar power and energy storage systems to participate in the state’s energy market, as detailed by Arushi Sharma Frank, US Energy Markets Policy Lead at Tesla, on LinkedIn (via electrek).
Since officially moving its headquarters to the state, the automaker and energy systems provider has lobbied Texas’ state government to change the rules.
Tesla filed an OBDRR with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which essentially requests a change to the rules.
In the filing, Tesla wrote, “This OBDRR will enable Retail Electric Providers (REPs) with Customers with behind-the-meter controllable generation, energy storage or other technologies to provide bids to buy in Security-Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED) and participate in Non-Spinning Reserve (Non-Spin).”
Tesla continued, “This is already allowed under the policies established by ERCOT; however, minor clarifications are required to allow the first of these aggregations to register with ERCOT this year.”
Tesla was approved to sell electricity in Texas last year, and, if the current filing is approved, it could become authorized to let residents of the state participate in a Virtual Power Plant program like the company has made available in Australia and California.
“So basically, it’s horrendously hot in large parts of the country too early in the year compared to past years. The early heat waves are a huge challenge for electric grid operators, and that’s on top of other climate concerns. Home solar & battery customers have been providing their extra clean energy capacity back to constrained grids daily, around the world, and gotten paid for it,” said Sharma Frank on LinkedIn.
“We’re trying to enable that in Texas/ERCOT this year. I keep hearing how that will take 4-6 years and it’s like, what a joke! Let’s do it now and figure out something that doesn’t take years and cost the earth. If you’re in the weeds, you can read my filing about changing some rules. If you want the high level message, listen in to our virtual workshop on May 31,” added the Tesla employee.
The "OBDRR," a kind of rule change at ERCOT, filed by #Tesla, can be found here.#txlege #txenergy #energytwitter #storage https://t.co/UPgQGR0jNB
— Doug Lewin (@douglewinenergy) May 20, 2022
On Tuesday morning, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reacted to the news, saying “this will be a big deal over time.”
