Photo: @mr_calico
Tesla’s first California Virtual Power Plant event on Wednesday had thousands of homes providing electricity to the grid across the state
Tesla and PG&E had 2,342 fleet homes actively using the Virtual Power Plant program in Northern California on Wednesday, as shown in a screenshot of the mobile app during the first power event on Wednesday (via @mr_calico).
The 2,342 homes scattered across PG&E’s service region of Northern California represent a total of 16 Megawatts of power being provided to the grid.
The screenshot also shows the individual’s household personally providing 13 kilowatts back to the grid.
The news came in response to a tweet showing a similar screenshot from a participant with utilities from Southern California Edison showing that 268 homes were generating roughly 1,535kW to the grid.
How Long Can Tesla’s Powerwall Keep Lights On During Grid Outage? [VIDEO] https://t.co/BAZYBJJ3kx
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) August 19, 2021
Tesla officially expanded the Virtual Power Plant program to Powerwall owners in Southern California just this week.
The program works by letting customers use stored power from their Powerwall units to send electricity back to the electrical grid. In return, customers are paid in credits toward their utility bill for helping keep the grid stable.
Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant program is also piloting in Victoria, Australia and the company has entered a partnership with CenterPoint Energy to debut the program in Texas.
Update August 19: Tesla says over 2,600 homes with Powerwall participated and “pushed up to 18MW of power to the grid.”
