Tesla have just launched a Virtual Power Plant in the UK

Water John

Tesla have just launched a Virtual Power Plant in the UK. This creates a market for PV. It's an interesting concept and hope variations of it become possible here.
Worth reading:
https://www.electrive.com/2020/10/28/tesla-to-launch-virtual-power-plant-in-the-uk/

unkel

Was mentioned by someone in the EV forum earlier today. That's worth it's own thread!

Interesting point is that the system requires participants to own a Tesla. Now I'm pretty sure that a Tesla home charger (or any other charger for that matter) is not bi-directional. In other words, it can charge the car, but not discharge it. So not sure why having a Tesla (or any other EV) is relevant to this offer, apart from that the system can decide to only charge the EV when electricity is really cheap (or even negative price) wholesale

Water John

Two levels, the second level is not owning the Tesla car but having a Powerwall.

Agree it's a very interesting development. With a bit more innovation a more flexible option could be introduced in this country. A thread of it's own, discussing the imagined options would be interesting.
This is the best article I have on it:
https://www.current-news.co.uk/news/tesla-energy-plan-launched-inviting-homes-to-become-part-of-virtual-power-plant

....the power of PR....

Frickin' cold air car thrusters man...that company's made of teflon...

Water John

Not supporting that specific model but rather looking at those possibilities.
Any grouping of householders with PV and battery linked to the grid should be able to do this. This could be a coop, residents of a town, LA area linking to an electricity provider.

Dya think they'll get paid more for export than import? It'll cost the user more to import.

unkel

Water John wrote: »

Any grouping of householders with PV and battery linked to the grid should be able to do this. This could be a coop, residents of a town, LA area linking to an electricity provider.

Getting common in the Netherlands. Shared EVs that are plugged in most of the day charged mostly from excess shared PV (and acting as batteries in the same manner)

Quantify Under-Unity and I'll bite.

...smells like a duck...

celtic_oz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLnlVYG2zaE

Tesla PR Dept.

Tesla PR Dept. wrote:

When temperatures are low, all batteries have a reduced ability to charge. To help Powerwall counteract this, Powerwall uses Preconditioning. When temperatures are below freezing, Preconditioning turns on and heats your Powerwall to improve operation and charging performance.

To heat itself, Powerwall draws a small amount of energy, which then allows high-power charging. During a cold night, your Powerwall automatically preheats before sunrise so that maximum solar energy can be captured during the day.

You cannot customize this mode because Powerwall can best detect its internal temperature and knows when to enable Preconditioning.

During Preconditioning, the Power Flow screen may show energy flowing to your Powerwall from solar or the grid. This is normal behavior, and the energy is only being used to heat, not to charge.

During winter months, a small amount of your Powerwall capacity is reserved to improve performance in cold weather. This may change your visible total capacity in the Tesla app. Rest assured, your total capacity has not changed – this small reserve is just set aside to improve performance.

Preconditioning, in combination with Tesla’s unique liquid thermal management system, allows your Powerwall to operate at lower temperatures than any other home battery.

Definitions:
A small amount of energy = 300W
Below freezing: maintains an operating temp of 20°C

unkel

Very good terms though. Zero standing charge and you pay 8p for every kWh you buy from the grid and you get paid 8p for every kWh you give back to the grid

That means that in a house with south facing 6kwp install, that uses about 6MWh per year, your annual electricity bill will be zero.

A typical annual bill for someone using 6MWh in the UK would be roughly about GBP1200, so a massive saving here

Obviously a Tesla powerwall is very expensive to buy though...

Idbatterim

I assume Tesla will incorporate its newest battery technology, the one they currently released, into the powerwall?

unkel

I wouldn't assume anything like that

Not sure what you mean with their latest battery technology either. Perhaps you mean the cheaper LiFePo4 batteries that are now in Chinese made Tesla Model 3? That would be a great improvement as these cells are safe, so can be used in living areas (pretty much all other manufactures of home attached batteries use this and install inside, like in an attic), which means they will no longer need to be installed out doors and heated, basically wasting a lot of winter time PV generation or worse (as per Liam's post)

Idbatterim

this is the battery tech I meant...

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/22/21449238/tesla-electric-car-battery-tabless-cells-day-elon-musk

graememk

Idbatterim wrote: »

this is the battery tech I meant...

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/22/21449238/tesla-electric-car-battery-tabless-cells-day-elon-musk

Don't believe the marketing w... Linguistics

Good explanation by Dave jones of the eev blog
https://youtu.be/hbPKE62aM0U

"Longer and thicker better, obviously"

Battery is bigger thus it has more power.

You can't even get a power wall here due to them not complying with Irish regs.. but that's another story.