I think for those with lower export limits this makes a lot of sense, especially if your baseline wouldn't let you get any compensation. If you can manage your baseline (e.g. by not using export everything during possible event hours), I think it's worth considering that this payment is actual dollars rather than NEM credits, so could have a higher value than the lost peak offset if you might end up with a net credit at true up.
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Tesla Virtual Power Plant in CA
- Thread starter power.saver
- Start date
Another Flex from 4-9 today should trigger another VPP event. Wonder why they aren’t scheduling in advance, I’m sure they will need it for next few days. Even my company is asking us to shed load where possible because PGE is jacking up prices this weekend because apparently they need to get power from out of state.
I don't see a rate increase scheduled starting this weekend. Do you have link to the rate schedules with increased pricing?
There is a Flex Alert today, but no Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) Watch. The last two VPP events overlapped EEAs, so I would not be surprised if there's no VPP event today. The forecast of demand vs. supply looks much tighter Sunday through Tuesday, though, so I think VPP events are likely in the next few days.
See California ISO - Today's Outlook for details. Note the definition of Resource Adequacy: "Resource adequacy (RA) is energy designated by the state to be bid into the market for the reliable operation of the power grid, minus the impacts of outage derates. Any energy needed over that designated amount has to be procured in the real-time market."
Tesla virtual power plant is rocketing up, reaches 50 MW
Tesla's virtual power plant in California is growing at a fast pace with more Powerwall owners joining. It can now output up to 50 MW.
electrek.co
From the above article "Many Tesla Powerwall owners participating in the event are reporting being credited between $30 and $40 for the short event."
Has anybody actually received credit for these events?, very curious to know how much VPP is actually paying out.
I believe businesses have a different rate schedule, especially with all the data centers and buildingd my company has.
While it hurts the soul drawing peak power when you have a battery, for me at least it ends up a net benefit.
In round numbers since I haven't pulled the actual data. Even if my AC was running continuously from 4-6pm, that's about 8 kWh from the grid. During the one hour event I was exporting to the grid about 6 kW on average and exporting from the powerwall around 8 kW. My baseline is probably around 2 kW since we don't generally use the AC except on these really hot days. That ends up with a $12 cash from the VPP and 2 kWh of excess peak usage at a cost of $1 (ignoring NBCs). Since I will probably end my year with NEM credits, that $1 isn't really even a true cost either.
Critical point. If you are expecting NEM credits better to export during the events and draw peak power later or earliar in day. Think of it as a way of using up those credits efficiently.
You have two Powerwalls, each of which can discharge up to 5kW each which is 10kW total. Your house connection to the grid is limited by the PTO agreement which you should be able to find in your PTO application or by logging into the gateway and clicking on Summary.
If your PTO maximum grid export is 7kW and your solar is producing 3kW and your house load is consuming 1kW then that is 7kW - 3kW + 1kW = 5kW. If your Powerwalls discharged more than 5kW then you would exceed the PTO maximum allowed.
That is one option and the more likely reason. The less likey option is that the grid in your area was already saturated and PG&E and the VPP controlling software had your system scaled back which I'm not really sure is even a thing.
Today is supposed be "cooler". We are projected to peak at around 95 instead of 101. Perhaps that is enough to keep rates from other suppliers low enough to not need the rather expensive VPP. Option 2 is they have just not declared the event yet. I don't think I saw yesterday's event appear until 1 PM or so.
My PTO is 10KW, so it was definitely due to throttling on Tesla/PG&E side. Interesting. We will see if that changes with the next VPP event.
Did you participate in 8/17 or 8/31 events? If so what did your Powerwall and Grid charts look like?
There is no place to go and see how much you actually earned. I guess the people saying how much they made are guessing?Tesla virtual power plant is rocketing up, reaches 50 MW
Tesla's virtual power plant in California is growing at a fast pace with more Powerwall owners joining. It can now output up to 50 MW.
From the above article "Many Tesla Powerwall owners participating in the event are reporting being credited between $30 and $40 for the short event."
Has anybody actually received credit for these events?, very curious to know how much VPP is actually paying out.
I have PWx2 as well. I did look up my application, and it says under the Export section:
Export Generator Nameplate Export 04.726
Export Max Expected Net Export 04.679
Is this what is limiting my export? -- it is odd that I have achieved slightly over that limit in 5.3kW in both events, but it is clear that is the limit based on the graphs.
To be clear that is the export to grid maximum. If solar is producing and your house load is 1.5kw. then the Powerwall(s) can discharge 6.226 kW and not go over the PTO export limit. 6.226 (Powerwall) + 0 (solar) - 1.50 (house) = 4.726 (grid)
Also, your site might be configured slightly higher. My PTO was 7.68kW, but the gateway settings is showing a max of 7.8kW which is what I'm seeing exported to the grid during the events.
I have tried to sign up for the VPP twice and both times the app told me I was ineligible. The first time I was not surprised because I knew I was enrolled in JuiceNet from Enel X, which is another demand response program. I cancelled it and cashed out my JuicePoints. However, a month passed and I was still ineligible. After calling the PG&E ELRP department phone number showed in the app, I found out how to check your PG&E account for a conflicting demand response program.
On the PG&E web site, click "Your Account" in the header bar. This brings up a menu. Click "Share My Data Program" under Account Management. Click the yellow "Sign In" button in the middle of the page. Then click the link at the bottom of the page "View the complete list". This brings up a list of your Existing Authorizations. In my case, it showed that Enel X was still authorized.
On the PG&E web site, click "Your Account" in the header bar. This brings up a menu. Click "Share My Data Program" under Account Management. Click the yellow "Sign In" button in the middle of the page. Then click the link at the bottom of the page "View the complete list". This brings up a list of your Existing Authorizations. In my case, it showed that Enel X was still authorized.
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