Tesla Electric customers in Texas are reporting making as much as $150 a day during the heatwaves as Tesla’s virtual power plant is coming together with now over 6 MW of power.
Late last year, after gaining experience through its virtual power plants (VPPs), Tesla took things a step further with the launch of “Tesla Electric.”
Instead of reacting to specific “events” and providing services to your local electric utilities, as Tesla Powerwall owners have done in VPPs in California, Tesla Electric is actively and automatically buying and selling electricity for Tesla Powerwall owners – providing a buffer against peak prices.
The company is essentially becoming an energy retailer.
Tesla Electric is currently only available to Powerwall owners in Texas, but the company has plans to expand the products through this new division.
In Texas, it is being tested through the ADER (Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource) Pilot Project, and it is proving really successful right now during some summer heatwaves.
Some Tesla Powerwall on the Tesla Electric program report having made as much as $150 a day selling electricity back into the grid. Jonathon Blackburn shared a screenshot from a Tesla Electric customer on LinkedIn showing that they were selling electricity for over $5 per kWh:
Tesla has now over 6 MW of power capacity signed up in its pilot program, and while it might not sound like much, it can sometimes make the difference between a brownout or not in the Texas electricity market.
The Tesla Electric interface is really interesting as it shows homeowners in real time what they are earning from their system:
It literally looks like they are running their own micro-electric utility. All they need is some solar power and Tesla Powerwalls.