Tesla to help roll out world's largest "virtual power plant" in Australia

[Judi Lynn]

Michael Irving
an hour ago

Last year, Tesla built what is essentially the world's biggest battery in Australia, and now the company is again partnering with the South Australian government to build the world's largest "virtual power plant." By installing solar panels and Tesla Powerwall batteries on thousands of houses, the proposed system would allow homes to generate their own electricity and feed it back into the state's power grid when needed.

Blackouts ravaged the state of South Australia through the summer of 2016, leading the state government to launch a plan to "take charge of the state's energy future." A key part of that plan was to build the world's largest battery system to store energy gathered by South Australia's extensive renewable sources. Tesla took up the challenge to build the facility with a series of Powerpacks, with Elon Musk offering to build it within 100 days or it's free – and meeting the deadline.

Less than a month after the new battery system booted up, it proved its worth when it was able to inject 100 MW into the national grid to compensate for a fault at a major coal-fired plant. The Powerpacks were reportedly able to respond to the shortage in just 140 milliseconds – far, far quicker than the 10 to 15 minutes it would usually take for emergency generators to fire up.

The newly-announced system is also designed to keep the grid stable, by decentralizing electricity generation and storage. Over the next four years, the South Australian government is planning to install 5-kW rooftop solar panel systems coupled to 13.5-kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 batteries in over 50,000 homes.

More:
https://newatlas.com/tesla-australia-largest-virtual-power-plant/53243/

[msongs]

1. gee maybe us democrats could start pushing alternative energy solutions nt