Tesla Solar Panels & Powerwalls: Virtual Power Plant - The Follow Up

[@katdeskinner]

Nice interaction on Reddit. I’m south of San Jose.

[@TheMahkus]

Nice to meet you!

[@Kevin-bh4og]

That VPP needs to come to the US Virgin Islands I would join we lose power a ton. I would love to help my neighbors out.

[@katdeskinner]

So to get a general idea, I could divide by 3 since you have 3 power walls , and I would be getting one?

[@TheMahkus]

If you're referring to compensation, if you set your backup reserve to 0% like I do, yep, that sounds like the case!

[@aspelin1]

Have you published something about the economics of it? Would be interesting to know the costs, earnings and payback time. Or do you buy this mostly to have a backup solution due to poor grids? Not very familiar with US grids since I live in Europe.

[@TheMahkus]

I haven't done one yet on the economics of the system...on the list to-do! We did get the Powerwalls to protect ourself from outages - our particular area doesn't get many though - but mainly because we wanted to be as independent as possible from the grid.

[@aspelin1]

@@TheMahkus ok thanks, looking forward to it :-)

[@tomswiftTTT]

I did the math on that idea last year for a neighbor. Her 20 kW Kohler generator burns 3.7 gallons of propane per hour at full load, and she pays about $3.78 per gallon. Her generator costs about $11.000 to install and has a useful lifetime of maybe 3000 hours. If she has service done every 100 hours total cost over the life of the generator would be $18.70 per hour. She would be making money listening to that generator for 3000 hours, and the fact that Tesla's VPP is only for Tesla Power Walls makes the idea not very persuasive.

[@kansaIainen]

Sound level sounds to be very low.

[@TheMahkus]

I actually boost the levels to 120% but I will keep an ear out for that in the future. I'm contemplating getting a better microphone set up - so stay tuned! Thanks for the feedback.

[@jaysonstebbins2539]

Omg could you imagine someone that had a 20kw backup generator that could tie to the grid! I know! I know! It's gas propane, or diesel.... but thought that would be a money maker for someone that had a 20kw backup gen sitting around that could tie in! Lol. But wow I can't wait for my solar and powerwall. Very cool! This is such a small fraction of how much renewable can help the grid. And everyone limiting their usage during this event as well makes such a difference! I lobe how you brought up the graphs for the power company to show all this . Very detailed!

[@olemissjim]

No

[@TheMahkus]

Crazy late reply but I believe I read somewhere in the interconnection agreement that you can't hook up a separate generator, etc. PG&E does have the ability to sniff out when you've sent back more kWh to them than you should be. I believe in some of these households they'll install monitoring hardware in your panel for real time data. But it would be awesome!

[@jaysonstebbins2539]

@TheMahkus lol I'm sure and also those powerwalls try to straight into charge mode. It would take a beast to power them and a house! I'm officially 2 years waiting for my solar and powerwalls from tesla lol 2 years!!!

[@TheMahkus]

@@jaysonstebbins2539 Two years? That's crazy. Solar roof or panels?

[@jaysonstebbins2539]

@TheMahkus 8.12 kw of panels and 1 powerwall. But I've been in the new house for 2.5 years now and decided on 2 powerwalls because the whole house is electric. Every company I have give me quote is $55k-75k for even 5kw of panels and 1 powerwall AFTER the tax credit. Everyone I see that ordered tesla has paid less than $50k before the tax credit! So I'm like heck no! Thank God I didn't go with solar titan or pink energy (powerhome solar) lol.

[@olemissjim]

This is a great video, but I have to politely disagree. I believe that you’ll see compensatory rates go up from two dollars as the utilities get addicted to this VPP they’re also getting green carbon credits because all power walls are solar-green energy. they’re avoiding peaker plants and tesla will be able to use their auto bidder cloud software as more utilities in California join the VPP program. And As They start accepting VPP Tesla be able to pick utilities the market who will pay you the most and then they were going to take 30% so this is a huge start and I believe that you’ll make more money not less. Not guaranteed, but very likely.

[@TheMahkus]

Hi Jim! I think it will be interesting to see how the programs evolve as more and more households install ESS. I've been following the program in Texas and it seems very very promising. I know the ELRP program in California doubled rates last year (2021 was $1, 2022 was $2), so hopefully we'll see an increase in compensation going forward!

[@olemissjim]

@@TheMahkus absolutely. And Massachusetts and RI have been paying $1000’s for Tesla VPP. $2 seems fantastic, but that’s a massive BARGAIN for the utilities… instead of NG or propane plants trying to ramp up, Powerwalls look like Tesla Mega Packs to the utility company’s. Tesla could start offering MId or TID or SanJose access and maybe they want to buy it for California’s carbon offset credits for $4 per kWh because it’s EOQ of something.

[@larryetzel9847]

Is the money you get for your power wall donation taxable?

[@TheMahkus]

I'd have to assume that I'll get a 1099 but I haven't been asked for a TIN or SSN yet.