A group of heavy hitters, including Ford, General Motors, Google Nest, OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker, has formed a coalition that aims to scale up the market for virtual power plants in a bid to increase the resiliency of the grid and help decarbonize the electric … [continued]
Volvo is planning to enable bi-directional charging on all its future electric cars, starting with the EX90 that debuts in November.
What defines sexy? Lots of press. Frequent headlines. Gushing talking heads who should know better. Promises of massive deployment and profits. Glistening Photoshop renders. Curves. Lots of fanbois and fangrrrls who proselytize on its behalf.
The heatwave that’s been hitting California and other states in the West has been a beast of a problem. It’s crippling grids, which even has utilities and governments asking people to not charge their electric cars, turn down their AC, and wear dirty clothes rather than do the laundry*. What’s … [continued]
Let’s start with the ABCs: what are inertia services on an electricity grid? Even before that, what is inertia in a grid setting? Most of us should remember “inertia” from our younger years in primary school. Inertia is an object’s natural inclination to just keep moving (if it weren’t for … [continued]
OAKLAND, California — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Tesla Inc. have launched a new pilot program that creates a virtual power plant, to help support electric grid reliability and save customers money. On June 22, Tesla invited approximately 25,000 PG&E customers with Powerwalls to join the VPP and … [continued]
A new solar-enabled virtual power plant in Richmond, California, will not leave low- and middle-income households out in the cold
Through the Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) pilot, participants will receive $2 for every additional kWh their Powerwall delivers during an event.
A recent study into the use of virtual power plants (VPPs) in Australia has shown that the market is not quite ready for them. The returns to the participants appear to be less than what they would achieve by storing their excess solar generation in their home batteries and using … [continued]
Tesla held a virtual power plant (VPP) workshop for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on May 31. Gail Alfar, the writer at What’s Up Tesla?, attended and shared her thoughts. Also in May, Tesla made a request for Powerwall owners in Texas to opt into the Tesla ERCOT Demonstration … [continued]
