Tesla Virtual Power Plant

The linked Tesla QCon presentation ▶ this video was an informative watch that covers the power problem space and their distributed software solution, something Tesla is uniquely positioned to pull off with their end-to-end platform.

Tesla calls this "Virtual Power Plant" and there's a talk by a couple of the software devs online somewhere. Found it: ▶ this video Some other people have mentioned that you just need to vary the price, but the price is set by bids from providers. Code that can learn demand patterns and integrate weather forecasts will let Tesla bid lower and so earn more money in the market while also lowering energy costs for everyone.

I'm not OP, but the timing context of this post is important: Today, California has issued a FlexAlert, and Powerwalls in PG&E and SCE will start discharging at 6pm to help reduce load on the grid. It's not a daily action, but it's emergency support when the grid needs it the most. And the time window when it happens is important: Powerwalls are contributing to to reduce load when the grid needs it the most . It's not meant to support the entire grid, just directly attack the problem at the time where every Watt and Watt-hour counts. You don't need to own Powerwall to benefit from this, just like how you don't own the peaker plants that typically spark up at these times. You benefit because there's a big chance that there won't be rolling blackouts in California this afternoon—distributed assets like this can be dispatched. Dispatch Info: link A VPP tracker in the Tesla community: link Some technical details of how Tesla VPPs work, as organized distributed systems: ▶ this video CAISO Grid Outlook: link

Technical innards of the Autobidder system in case you care to know more ▶ this video It’s basically a market forecasting system which allows the operator to place bids on various energy markets such as supply, contingency and ancillary services. The battery has limited resources (power output and energy storage) so it needs to plan well ahead for making the most money for each watt-hour it buys or sells.