Maine VPP, sort of

[Gwgan]

“Efficiency Maine: We will manage your EV charging on September 6 beginning at 3:00 pm.”

“Manage” means “turn off”

First time after signing up last week. Probably won’t have any impact since car charges either on excess solar or after midnight.

EfficiencyMaine pays $50/yr to have the ability to do this.

They are putting together a more lucrative battery program but have delays while working out Tesla app integration for Powerwall users, like Massachusetts’ National Grid program. Efficiency Maine will trigger battery discharge to effectively reduce the home load during some high demand times. Payment is a function of battery capacity, not based on amount of energy discharged.

 

[Gwgan]

Load Management - Efficiency Maine

The Load Management Initiative offers incentives to individuals and small businesses who allow Efficiency Maine to manage their eligible device(s) during periods of high demand and electric grid congestion. Participants can opt out of individual events or stop participating at any time. Eligible...

www.efficiencymaine.com

The battery program sign up won’t actually sign anyone up. Once the program is live consumers should be notified by their installer with enrollment info.

 

[Matt-FL]

Just keep in mind that if you sign up for one of these programs that allows a power company to drain your batteries, you are moving yourself into a different Powerwall warranty category - based on aggregate throughput rather than the full 10 years. For me personally, I'd do some hard math on whether that might be worth it or not. I know some programs pay out extremely well - perhaps enough to pay for a decent % of the Powerwall cost itself. But if it only nets you a few hundred a year, you may want to think it over.

Unless someone can correct me on this, I'm open ears.

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/powerwall/Powerwall_2_AC_Warranty_USA.pdf

 

[cwied]

Just keep in mind that if you sign up for one of these programs that allows a power company to drain your batteries, you are moving yourself into a different Powerwall warranty category - based on aggregate throughput rather than the full 10 years. For me personally, I'd do some hard math on whether that might be worth it or not. I know some programs pay out extremely well - perhaps enough to pay for a decent % of the Powerwall cost itself. But if it only nets you a few hundred a year, you may want to think it over.

37.8 MWh is about 2800 full discharges of the battery. Even discharging the full battery every day it would take abut 7 years and 8 months to hit this limit. As long as the VPP doesn't involve full discharges 365 days a year and your reserve is set to 0%, I don't think a VPP is going to be an issue.
In any case, the warranty you're quoting was written before Tesla had VPP functionality. Arguably a Powerwall that is configured for VPP is still set in Time-Based Control mode, so I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla considered this normal use.

 

[Matt-FL]

I'm not disagreeing, and I hope someone comes back with a definitive answer. I'm just putting out the data. The warranty text is identical for the PW+.
Looking at the fine print, it doesn't specifically call out VPP, then again, it specifically doesn't either. Written by lawyers for lawyers

https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/image/upload/powerwall%2B-limited-warranty-en

 

[Gwgan]

Hard math not required. Very infrequent partial discharges requested at times when batteries would likely be discharging anyway vs odds that a manufacturing defect will appear well after installation.

 

[Gwgan]

No word yet on the battery program but just got notice about the EV program

Due to unanticipated technical limitations, the program deviated from our planned daily shifts to the targeted "demand response" events you were notified about over the summer. We are taking time to pause, take stock, and rework the program design with a new understanding of these limitations. You will be automatically re-enrolled in this program in the spring, at which point I will send along updated program materials reflecting these changes. You should not anticipate any charging management activities until that time. These program changes will not impact your eligibility to receive your annual incentive payment next October as long as your vehicle remains enrolled.

 

[zƬesla]

Hopefully Maine won't do what Eversource did in NH and rework the program to drop Tesla batteries and require recently installed ones:

In order to qualify for the enrollment incentive, your battery system must be from an approved manufacturer. Your battery must also have been purchased after October 1, 2022.

At this time we are only accepting enrollment for Sonnen eligible models: eco batteries (generation 2 or above), ecoLinx battery (all generations), sonnenCore (all generations), sonnenCore+.

I know your post is about EVs but we're not even there yet in NH.

 

[Gwgan]

Maine’s battery program is live
Enrollment in Small Battery Management - Efficiency Maine