Powerwall owners in Texas are being invited by Tesla to join its new retail electricity provider that lets users sell electricity back to the grid. Any excess energy in the Powerwall units can be sold back to the grid in test markets – Houston and Dallas – but users will need to wait for the invitation via the Tesla app.
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Once joined, users of the new new Tesla Electric service will become part of an automated system that sells energy from owners’ Powerwalls to the grid and vice-versa when most viable. And when pulling from the grid, Tesla provides offsets from renewable energy sources. This solution is therefore ideal for users that also have connected solar panels to the Powerwall units.
Texas has amongst the loosest regulated energy markets in the world, allowing multiple private energy providers to operate alongside one another in a free market. Allowing users to sell power back to its energy supply could set the Tesla power supplier apart from the competition.
Tesla Electric in Texas is the latest development in the company’s quest to build out virtual power plants (VPPs), including projects like the 250-megawatt one in Australia built in 2018. Another plant in Japan, which Tesla started building in 2021, is powering homes on the island of Miyako-jima using more than 300 Powerwalls.
Elon Musk’s company also has a virtual power plant endeavour in partnership with utility company PG&E in California. That deal is set up to pull power from participating Powerwall owners at times of emergency or major energy shortages. Powerwall owners who opted in would not only help prevent power outages in their surrounding communities, but they would also earn $2 per kilowatt hour used during those events.
Texas has undoubtedly become the new headquarters for Elon Musk and his companies. He moved the Tesla headquarters from Fremont, California to Austin last year, and his company SpaceX also has its “Starbase” located in Boca Chica. Tesla also built a new $1.1 billion Gigafactory in the Lone Star state, where it’s building Model Y vehicles and plans to build Cybertrucks.
