Blackout I’m not afraid of you, the idea of Elon Musk
Elon Musk's latest thought is to avoid blackouts in California through Tesla's Powerwalls and the agreement with the local power company PG&E. The billionaire also provided an economic reward for the participants. All the details
Elon Musk intervened against the fear of a blackout in California and with his Tesla he signed an agreement with the local electricity company Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).
The partnership calls for the owners of Powerwall, a battery system made by Tesla that stores electricity generated by solar panels and acts as a standalone generator, to be paid in exchange for their surplus electricity in the event of a blackout or emergency.
MUSK'S IDEA
Tesla, which in addition to electric cars develops photovoltaic panels and energy storage systems, has announced a program designed for the Californian owners of its Powerwall home batteries. By registering, you become part of what the company calls Virtual Power Plant (VVP), or “virtual power plant”.
“Be part of the largest distributed battery in the world and help keep California's energy clean and reliable. If you join Tesla's Virtual Power Plant with PG&E, your Powerwall will be sent when the network needs emergency support, ”the announcement reads.
By participating in the project, in fact, you agree to make the extra electricity produced by the batteries available to the electricity grid – especially in periods when demand is high – to compensate for the shortcomings and avoid blackouts.
THE REWARD
Musk, however, also thought of a reward: "Thanks to the pilot program of emergency load reduction [of the public grid, ed ], you will receive 2 dollars for each additional kWh provided by your Powerwall".
Charging the battery from the PG&E network – reports Ars Technica – generally costs less than 0.50 dollars per kilowatt hour. For every kilowatt hour a person's battery takes away from the system's demand during these events, attendees will be paid $ 2.
“At the end of the season – says Tesla – generally towards the end of the year, PG&E will calculate the contribution and the payment of the incentive based on data from the Powerwall. The payment will be made by Tesla and is expected by the end of March 2023 ".
HOW DOES IT WORK
After joining the project, users can set a minimum reserve, below which, even in an emergency, the software will not allow the battery to go down, while in the event of a network failure, the reserve could be used regardless.
Tesla and PG&E will resort to the “virtual powerhouse” when California's grid operator, California Independent System Operator (CAISO), declares an alarm, alert or emergency in response to difficult grid conditions.
Attendees can choose not to attend a particular event where there is an increased demand for electricity, suspend participation, or withdraw at any time.
BLACKOUT EMERGENCY IN CALIFORNIA
The idea stems from the fact that power outages in California are frequent and the increase in electric cars suggests that this summer there may be even more problems than usual, so much so that the grid operator has estimated a deficit of 1,700 MegaWatts.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/blackout-non-ti-temo-lidea-di-elon-musk/ on Tue, 28 Jun 2022 10:27:45 +0000.