Tesla Virtual Power Plant in CA

[jboy210]

Tesla app says there will be a VPP event tomorrow, 9/19 from 5 till 9.

That being during peak, and later that I usually export, I'll get $2.58 X ~10 kWh, cool.

H2o can get way more, I hope!

I got that also. Any thought on where the power would be going?

By me, Tri-Valley, the max temp is 75 or so for the whole week. I got windows open and have to wear a sweater in the morning and evenings. Central and Sac valleys maxes out in low/mid 80s. LA is mid 70s also. So, no heavy A/C use nearby.

 

[Zorg]

Bizarre. I read that PG&E may have some PSPS events later this week.

 

[Redhill_qik]

What is the formula for figuring out how much you get back?

For PG&E it is just the annual net import kWh multiplied by the Net Surplus Compensation rate list in the AB920 document you posted for the month of your annual true-up.

I recall seeing somewhere where someone calculated for over production compensation and they used 200% For one of the variables and I have no idea what that is

That was likely me, as I am with a CCA, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, and they pay at twice the PG&E NSC rate. Other CCAs, having varying compensation rules, but as far as I know all are at least the PG&E NSC rate. Most seem to be the NSC + $0.005, but I think there is still one CCA paying the retail generation rates.

If one net over produces by 1000 kWh. Wouldn’t the compensation be 1000 x .07683 = $76.83. For a September 2023 true up?

That would be correct.

Then minus NBC and who knows whatever other charges?

See the PG&E annual true-up sticky thread for this.

 

[h2ofun]

Tesla app says there will be a VPP event tomorrow, 9/19 from 5 till 9.

That being during peak, and later that I usually export, I'll get $2.58 X ~10 kWh, cool.

H2o can get way more, I hope!

I do not do any of this.

 

[swedge]

Any thought on where the power would be going?

I seem to recall that when I signed up for VPP, they said there would be at least 10 events per year. So maybe they are using this one to clean a boiler at Diablo Canyon or some such. ;-)

Also, there is a PSPS alert for some northern counties, typically due to high wind forecasts. Perhaps they are worried about loosing transmission lines from Shasta? Who knows...

But I agree, this one seems odd. I expected VPP events to be on hot hot days when the grid would be stressed.

 

[swedge]

I got that also. Any thought on where the power would be going?

By me, Tri-Valley, the max temp is 75 or so for the whole week. I got windows open and have to wear a sweater in the morning and evenings. Central and Sac valleys maxes out in low/mid 80s. LA is mid 70s also. So, no heavy A/C use nearby.

Found it! In the Tesla App, under the VPP menu, Learn More, the topic labeled Events says:

Tesla and PG&E will call upon the Virtual Power Plant when the California grid operator, CAISO, declares an alert, warning or emergency in response to challenging grid conditions. Tesla and PG&E may also call events at other times to meet the program minimum of 20 hours of events. These additional events may include responses to CAISO Flex Alerts.​

So tomorrow's 4 hours are counting toward the 20 hour minimum. My records say we've had 14.75 hours already, so they will be very close to their minimum.

 

[hiddensolar]

There are other threads that go in more detail, but simply you get nothing if after it nets out at your true up. You get the whole sale price which is a few cents per kWh so that is why it doesn’t really make sense to over produce too much. With NEM 1.0 there was no NBC, but I assume they introduced it into NEM 2.0 so that they could always get some revenue from solar users even if they over produced. My yearly electricity cost is about $300 when I include NBC and the monthly minimum, luckily VPP last year offset that. Of course I basically paid for it all up front when you include cost of the system, but hope to break even in another 5 years or so.

Rebates & Incentives

California utility rebates and incentives from PG&E and others, including solar rebates and incentives.

www.pge.com

Our cca actually pays out for excess production. I think we were at an annual cost of-$200 our first year. We haven’t got our payment for last year yet.

And like you it is basically all prepaid with the initial system cost. Hopefully we do better with the vpp this year.

 

[Zorg]

Doesn't look like a VPP occurred

 

[Redhill_qik]

You get the whole sale price which is a few cents per kWh so that is why it doesn’t really make sense to over produce too much.

The compensation rates have gone up a lot over the last couple of years from the original NEM 2.0 literature that said 2-3 cents/kWh. PG&E's rate for true-up in April 2023 was $0.08478/kWh and my CCA, SVCE, doubles this, so I received $0.16956/kWh for my excess which is higher than the average SVCE generation rates over the same year.

Comparison for the three IOUs. over-production with PGE

 

[Redhill_qik]

Doesn't look like a VPP occurred

The VPP event is today (9/19) from 5-9pm, the announcement was yesterday (9/18)

 

[Redhill_qik]

So tomorrow's 4 hours are counting toward the 20 hour minimum. My records say we've had 14.75 hours already, so they will be very close to their minimum.

I went back through this thread and verified in the Tesla app Powerwall tab. It looks like the event today will bring us to the 20 hour VPP program minimum.

Date	Start	End	Duration
7/20	8:15	9:00	0:45
7/25	7:45	9:00	1:15
7/26	6:00	9:00	3:00
8/28	6:00	9:00	3:00
8/29	4:00	9:00	5:00
8/30	6:00	9:00	3:00
9/19	5:00	9:00	4:00
		Total	20:00

 

[Matt-FL]

Curious if anyone has concerns over warranty limitations when using Powerwalls with VPP?

 

[cwied]

Curious if anyone has concerns over warranty limitations when using Powerwalls with VPP?

Nope. As you can see, at worst there were 7 extra discharges in a year through this VPP program. In fact, since I'm on TOU with export everything, they aren't even extra discharges, just time shifts of when the discharge occurs.

 

[Redhill_qik]

Curious if anyone has concerns over warranty limitations when using Powerwalls with VPP?

Discussion already had up-thread: Tesla Virtual Power Plant in CA (this is the start).

 

[jboy210]

Found it! In the Tesla App, under the VPP menu, Learn More, the topic labeled Events says:

Tesla and PG&E will call upon the Virtual Power Plant when the California grid operator, CAISO, declares an alert, warning or emergency in response to challenging grid conditions. Tesla and PG&E may also call events at other times to meet the program minimum of 20 hours of events. These additional events may include responses to CAISO Flex Alerts.​

So tomorrow's 4 hours are counting toward the 20 hour minimum. My records say we've had 14.75 hours already, so they will be very close to their minimum.

Oh. So, this is just to get us to the 20-hour minimum.

 

[Zorg]

The VPP event is today (9/19) from 5-9pm, the announcement was yesterday (9/18)

Oops!

 

[charlesj]

Oh. So, this is just to get us to the 20-hour minimum.

We'll see as I already have 20+ hours and another 4 is scheduled for today.

 

[Redhill_qik]

We'll see as I already have 20+ hours and another 4 is scheduled for today.

What days and time did you record as VPP events?

 

[dailo]

I went back through this thread and verified in the Tesla app Powerwall tab. It looks like the event today will bring us to the 20 hour VPP program minimum.

Date	Start	End	Duration
7/20	8:15	9:00	0:45
7/25	7:45	9:00	1:15
7/26	6:00	9:00	3:00
8/28	6:00	9:00	3:00
8/29	4:00	9:00	5:00
8/30	6:00	9:00	3:00
9/19	5:00	9:00	4:00
		Total	20:00

Thanks for the info. Was curious myself if this was the last event to get to the required minimum and if that is why it was for 4 hours.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

VPP scheduled for today as well in So Cal. Mid 70's, not a cloud in the sky. Will take the extra $2/kWh