With the addition of wifi to the HPWC i'm wondering if this is Tesla's step into offering their home chargers up as a DER to the electric utility. Distributed Energy Resources are the hot topic in the industry as regulatory agencies are pressuring utilities to explore non-wires alternatives when looking at system upgrades. With a wifi connected charger this can allow communication between the utility and the charger to determine optimal charging schedules & rates.
EVs are one of the largest single residential loads on the system. As more EVs are purchased, utilities will want to have the ability to adjust charge rates & times to shift this additional charging load away from peak times. The benefit to the utility is two-fold:
Obviously this won't be handing complete charging control over to the utility as this won't work for everyone. In this scenario the default charging rate/schedule would be set by the utility and could be overridden at anytime by the customer. However customers will be incentivised to limit their charging to off-peak hours.
Other 3rd party chargers already offer this ability and some utilities are taking advantage of it. This is just my speculation that Tesla is looking to enter this domain.
Thoughts?
EVs are one of the largest single residential loads on the system. As more EVs are purchased, utilities will want to have the ability to adjust charge rates & times to shift this additional charging load away from peak times. The benefit to the utility is two-fold:
- This reduces peak system load thus avoiding having to spend money on infrastructure upgrades.
- Moving load to off-peak times will increase overall base load allowing more generation assets to stay online and lessens the need for expensive peaker plants. The ideal load profile for a utility would be a flat, constant load.
Obviously this won't be handing complete charging control over to the utility as this won't work for everyone. In this scenario the default charging rate/schedule would be set by the utility and could be overridden at anytime by the customer. However customers will be incentivised to limit their charging to off-peak hours.
Other 3rd party chargers already offer this ability and some utilities are taking advantage of it. This is just my speculation that Tesla is looking to enter this domain.
Thoughts?