Tesla Virtual Power Plant in CA

[Redhill_qik]

That’s not the case for SCE to my knowledge

All three IOUs (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E) were operating under the same CPUC ELRP pilot program and the Tesla VPP was covered under the A.4 section in those rules. When this was happening last year I had reached out to PG&E ELRP program that was being operated by Olivine and looking at SCE ELRP program Olivine is also managing them as well.

Tesla PG&E VPP - Emergency Load Reduction Pilot | Tesla Support

Compensation​

The Tesla and PG&E ELRP pilot will compensate you $2 for every additional kWh that your Powerwall delivers during an event beyond typical behavior.

Tesla SCE VPP - Emergency Load Reduction Program (SCE) | Tesla Support

Compensation​

The Tesla and SCE ELRP pilot will compensate you $2 for every additional kWh that your Powerwall delivers during an event beyond typical behavior.

The information one the PG&E, SCE and Tesla sites are almost identical and operate with the same CPUC rules, so I don't know why they would be different. For more information please this prior post: Tesla Virtual Power Plant in CA

 

[Redhill_qik]

I like how you're confident that your specifically flakey grid will actually be operation/online for you to export to it during the VPP.

Well, if the grid goes down then you can drain your Powerwalls by recharging your EV. I actually did this last year when I lost power near the end of a VPP event. Somewhat shady, but it is their rules.

 

[jboy210]

I like how you're confident that your specifically flakey grid will actually be operation/online for you to export to it during the VPP.

The grid should stay up. It worked last year during the VPPs. And there are no weather issues today.

 

[holeydonut]

Well, if the grid goes down then you can drain your Powerwalls by recharging your EV. I actually did this last year when I lost power near the end of a VPP event. Somewhat shady, but it is their rules.

Lol what that is amazing … this is why the energy sub-forum is the best forum.

 

[sorka]

7 minutes to liftoff.....

 

[hiddensolar]

3 minutes and people are still charging from the grid.

 

[sunwarriors]

I got the same notice. I was pre-cooling the house until 3:30 with PWs at 100% and pulling from the grid. I checked the app and saw the notice. I love it when a plan comes together, even if it is just a happy accident.

We will likely not need the power here in the East Bay with temps predicted to be mid-60s by 8 PM, so hopefully, those kWs will help someone else out.

As a casual observer to this, it sounds like people were mostly getting the full $2/kWh and none was deducted based on regular PW discharge behavior. It could be that they were generous or it's "new" for now or they don't care and they want to get more folks signing up, etc...

Guess we'll know in March 2024 to see how this period ends up being.

 

[sorka]

Only 10.5 KW. Yesterday it was 13.4 KW. Although to sustain that for 3 hours would required going down to 0% and starting from 100.

 

[sorka]

It's rising at the same rate that the solar is falling as such to keep the total export to 11.9 kw which is what it did yesterday too but it started after sunset. So if it holds at 11.9 kw for 3 hours, that's good for $71.40.

Fleet is 37.6 MW.

 

[paladaxar]

I wonder if these events are a good deal or bad deal for the power companies. We think getting paid $2/kWh is great, but I wonder if the power companies are saying “oh man, those suckers…we’d have to pay $10/kWh during this time to get the power from the leaker plants”

I’ll gladly take my ~$47 per event (2 powerwalls), but how good (or bad) of a deal for the power companies will likely determine how much longer they do this for.

 

[yblaser]

I wonder if these events are a good deal or bad deal for the power companies. We think getting paid $2/kWh is great, but I wonder if the power companies are saying “oh man, those suckers…we’d have to pay $10/kWh during this time to get the power from the leaker plants”

I’ll gladly take my ~$47 per event (2 powerwalls), but how good (or bad) of a deal for the power companies will likely determine how much longer they do this for.

The way IOUs are structured I don't think it is possible for anything to be a bad deal for them. Regardless if they are under or overpaying for the power they aren't the ones paying for it.

 

[paladaxar]

The way IOUs are structured I don't think it is possible for anything to be a bad deal for them. Regardless if they are under or overpaying for the power they aren't the ones paying for it.

Yeah, but it’s all about the margins…how much can they make while charging the general public as much as they can bear.

 

[bmah]

The grid should stay up. It worked last year during the VPPs. And there are no weather issues today.

"Should" be the operative word. The grid is up in my neighborhood, but there's a 1900-customer outage a couple miles away from me.

Bruce.

 

[BGbreeder]

"Should" be the operative word. The grid is up in my neighborhood, but there's a 1900-customer outage a couple miles away from me.

Bruce.

Gosh, your area seems to have so many of these. Any idea why? Old equipment? Poor tree trimming? Bad driving? I'm curious.

 

[bmah]

Gosh, your area seems to have so many of these. Any idea why? Old equipment? Poor tree trimming? Bad driving? I'm curious.

I've lived in Lafayette for 14 years now and I can cite multiple instances of all of these. My non-expert guess is that old equipment is the main factor, because PG&E has actually been replacing a number of poles and transformers around our fair city.

Bruce.

 

[sunwarriors]

I wonder if these events are a good deal or bad deal for the power companies. We think getting paid $2/kWh is great, but I wonder if the power companies are saying “oh man, those suckers…we’d have to pay $10/kWh during this time to get the power from the leaker plants”

I’ll gladly take my ~$47 per event (2 powerwalls), but how good (or bad) of a deal for the power companies will likely determine how much longer they do this for.

I think in the east coast, some folks were originally getting like $500-$750 a season or something for participating in some version of this (they can chime in please). As more and more people join VPP, I think like supply/demand, your power will be worth less and less to the IOUs so if they don't need to pay anyone $2, they won't.

It's still a pretty new thing really.

 

[sorka]

Hit an even 35 kWH for the final tally for $70.

Also, last year they let you double dip. My exported VPP power also counted towards net metering at the peak rate. I wouldn't be surprised to see it different this year. They didn't credit the way they were supposed to which ended up resulting in most of us getting larger checks than we expected.

 

[charlesj]

Space mirrors?

Yes. When operational, next century?

 

[swedge]

Here in Oakland, East SF Bay Area, PG&E, VPP enabled, I received no VPP notification at all today. But.... my PW sat at 100% till 18:00, then dumped down to my usual backup reserve of 20%. So it looks like a VPP event, but with no notification. PW did the right thing though, so it knew. Usually it exports starting at 4pm, when our EV2-A rate goes to peak, but today it let solar cover the house and didn't export till 18:00.

So, cool PW did the right thing, but not cool on the lack of notification, 'cause I could have adjusted my backup to sell another kWh for $2

Tesla app just sent a notification that there is an event scheduled today from 6-9pm.

So it looks like they did do VPP up here in the north, but only sent notices out to So Cal.

SW

 

[Vines]

I managed to get 95% discharged into the grid, so about 62 kWh for about $124. I would appreciate a few more of these and will re-invest the money into other infrastructure projects at our place.

We just got the approval from PGE for another approx 12 kW of PV and another Powerwall under NEM 2.0. This means our 25 kVA transformer is going to have very near 25 kW of DC STC PV Generation and another 30 kW of Powerwall inverters.