Tesla Unveils New Virtual Power Plant In Japan (electrek.co) 34
Tesla has unveiled a new virtual power plant using Powerwalls home battery pack, and this time, it's on an island, Miyako-jima, in Japan. Electrek reports: A virtual power plant (VPP) consists of distributed energy storage systems, like Tesla Powerwalls, used in concert to provide grid services and avoid the use of polluting and expensive peaker power plants. Tesla launched one in California earlier this year, and it had its first emergency event earlier this month with great results. Now the company is trying to deploy a virtual power plant in Texas, and of course, it also had one in operation for years in Australia that is still expanding.
But now we have learned that Tesla also quietly built a new virtual power plant in Japan, and it has now decided to unveil it. The project is called "Miyakojima VPP" because it is located on the island of Miyako-jima, the most populous island in the Okinawa Prefecture. Tesla announced that it started to install Powerwalls in partnership with the local electric utility in 2021, and it now has over 300 Powerwalls on the island as part of the VPP. [...] Tesla explains that VPP is helping the island take better advantage of its renewable energy, but it is also proving more grid resilience, especially in the case of a natural disaster. The Miyakojima VPP is still growing, and Tesla expects that it will include 400 Powerwalls by the end of this year and 600 Powerwalls by the end of 2023. In 2024, Tesla expects to start installing Powerwalls for similar projects throughout the Okinawa Prefecture. "[W]hen power supply and demand are tight on Miyako Island, electricity generated by photovoltaic power generation is stored in Powerwall before the tight time period and discharged from Powerwall to the home during the tight time period," said Tesla in a statement translated to Japanese. "It contributes not only to the households where the is installed, but also to the stabilization of Miyako Island's grid power supply, and stabilizes the power supply on the island. In addition, in the event of a power outage due to a typhoon, etc., power will be supplied from the Powerwall to the installed home, making it possible to prevent power outages in the home."
But now we have learned that Tesla also quietly built a new virtual power plant in Japan, and it has now decided to unveil it. The project is called "Miyakojima VPP" because it is located on the island of Miyako-jima, the most populous island in the Okinawa Prefecture. Tesla announced that it started to install Powerwalls in partnership with the local electric utility in 2021, and it now has over 300 Powerwalls on the island as part of the VPP. [...] Tesla explains that VPP is helping the island take better advantage of its renewable energy, but it is also proving more grid resilience, especially in the case of a natural disaster. The Miyakojima VPP is still growing, and Tesla expects that it will include 400 Powerwalls by the end of this year and 600 Powerwalls by the end of 2023. In 2024, Tesla expects to start installing Powerwalls for similar projects throughout the Okinawa Prefecture. "[W]hen power supply and demand are tight on Miyako Island, electricity generated by photovoltaic power generation is stored in Powerwall before the tight time period and discharged from Powerwall to the home during the tight time period," said Tesla in a statement translated to Japanese. "It contributes not only to the households where the is installed, but also to the stabilization of Miyako Island's grid power supply, and stabilizes the power supply on the island. In addition, in the event of a power outage due to a typhoon, etc., power will be supplied from the Powerwall to the installed home, making it possible to prevent power outages in the home."
So how much does the owner get back? (Score:2)
You'd need a substial subsidy or payments to offset the added wear on top of the general unprofitability of home batteries, how much are they getting?
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How much does the owner get back from what? Tesla's quote says this VPP only time-shifts demand from within the house. There's no feedback into the grid going on:
Powerwall before the tight time period and discharged from Powerwall to the home during the tight time period.
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For the other one (California) it was pretty substantial. Also, who says home batteries are unprofitable?
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Also, who says home batteries are unprofitable?
A Powerwall costs $10,500, stores 13.5 kwh, and has a lifespan of 20 years.
My nighttime cost of power is $0.07/kwh, and my daytime cost is $0.12. So by shifting a kwh from night to day, I save 5 cents per kwh, 68 cents per day, $250 per year, and $5000 over the life of the product.
Future predictions (Score:2)
Also, who says home batteries are unprofitable?
A Powerwall costs $10,500, stores 13.5 kwh, and has a lifespan of 20 years.
My nighttime cost of power is $0.07/kwh, and my daytime cost is $0.12. So by shifting a kwh from night to day, I save 5 cents per kwh, 68 cents per day, $250 per year, and $5000 over the life of the product.
The original Powerwall 1 price was $10,500, but the current price is $8,500 for twice as much storage (Powerwall 2, 13.5 kWh).
Tesla powerwall has an average lifespan of 24 years according to Tesla, but more realistic estimates show that the powerwall will retain 70% to 60% of it's capacity after 20 years (a really hard figure to estimate because it depends on usage and a host of other things like temperature).
So the powerwall doesn't become useless after 20 years, after 20 years the capacity goes down.
Also,
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My nighttime cost of power is $0.07/kwh, and my daytime cost is $0.12. So by shifting a kwh from night to day, I save 5 cents per kwh, 68 cents per day, $250 per year, and $5000 over the life of the product.
Ah, you are talking about your specific, a-this-time situation only and then do an invalid generalization to everybody. No surprise your results are crap.
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The California VPP pays 50c per kilowatt-hour. A kilowatt-hour is 2 cents of wear worst case, but in practice is 0.2 cents of wear as long as you tell it to take from the middle of the battery capacity rather than the top or bottom.
Interesting idea (Score:3, Interesting)
The idea of installing batteries in homes, subsidised by the power company, is interesting. The power company benefits from a load of batteries providing smoothing for the grid, and the home owners benefit from lower costs.
Perhaps this could be a model for the rest of the world to help people get batteries and solar PV. The only issue is that it will need to use an open standard so that it's not tied to Tesla, and the power company can request any manufacturer's batteries to participate.
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It is even better: The power supplied gets injected decentrally, in some cases directly to the home with the battery.
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Interesting that this was modded down. Too socialist? Suck it up, it's already happening in Japan.
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Interesting that this was modded down.
Most likely by a Tesla fanboi or fangoil.
Too socialist?
Your proposal needs no socialism. The obvious source of standardization is IEEE, which is a private organization.
The standardization could be very simple. The power company can run a SOAP server to set the spot buy/sell price for power. Then, individual battery packs could be programmed to either charge or feedback power to the grid depending on the price. This could work for both Powerwall-like storage and in-vehicle batteries. Consumers could also use the pricing i
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That is not how it works.
The central software of the VPP tells every power bank what to do.
The other way around sounds only "good on paper" for software engineers, who have no clue about electric engineering and how a grid works.
You want to know precisely how much power the VPP now is either sucking up or delivering, that can not be done via "a market" where suddenly everything is sold out, or during the selling processes constantly new offers flow in.
Example:
It is 10:00, you want to sell a 15MW band, from
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Okinawa has no particular interesting tides. It is completely unsuited for a classical (behind a dam) tidal power plant.
Perhaps you mean tidal currents?
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The idea of installing batteries in homes, subsidised by the power company, is interesting. The power company benefits from a load of batteries providing smoothing for the grid, and the home owners benefit from lower costs.
At least in the US, since the power company is politically powerful while voters are not, they will be under no obligation to reimburse the homeowner after they write the laws. It will become a bad deal for the homeowner.
How About (Score:1)
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Nickel-63 costs 4000 $ a gram. Check your calculations.
Naaa, nuclear fanatics are not constrained bu facts or actual reality. It is all great!
$4? A little higher I think... (Score:1)
From your link " The developed converter costs only RUB300 ($3.8), but the battery is still very expensive because of the high cost of nickel-63 (about $4000 per gram), so there are as yet no offers to start mass production using the MISIS technology."
The real money is made on refills! Still, a hundred years is somewhat better than the razor model, and a downright bargain compared to inkjet ink!
Japan's energy problems aren't with storage (Score:2, Interesting)
It's the way they build their homes and buildings in general.
Anyone that's ever visited or lived in Japan for a period of time greater than the standard trip knows what I mean.
Most homes have really poor insulation, especially old homes. They also lack central heating and/or AC. Many homes are still heated with indoor kerosene heaters, which are only safe (to a degree since they still emit pm2.5 pollution at home) when there's good ventilation (which you'll get in Japanese homes).
Many apartments have mini
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This is not about storage. This is regulation energy. Fundamentally different.
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The project is on a sub-tropical island south of Okinawa. No heat is needed and an open architecture to catch the ocean breeze is a benefit.
Disclaimer: I lived on Okinawa for 18 months. SF.
Why LFPs are not playing in this sector? (Score:2)
This use case does not have weight/size limitations. Non flammable electrolyte would be a big plus point. Still, Li-ion is beating LFP. Why? How? Round trip efficiency and cost, may be.
Still I dont count LFP out. Patents are expiring, more R&D money and capex will flow to LFP. It might take over all non transport use cases. Lower power density does not matter, cant set it on fire, a big plus. Cost will come done once we pour some R&D in it. Can it come down faster than Li-i
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Actually, flow batteries will make it and they already start to do so. Just not in homes. These need staff and maintenance. Hydrogen is unclear.
As to LFP, that is probably just some engineering delays. You do not want to change a proven design every 6 months.
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They are, the new Tesla Megapack XLs use LFP.
Power purchase agreements (Score:2)
The VPP concept is in the awkward proof of concept stage. They need to demonstrate the viability so that they can issue bonds at reasonable rates to fund the deployment.
Read the article (Score:1)
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Tesla are hiding used car batteries in plain sight (Score:3)
Indeed (Score:2)
"and of course, it also had one in operation for years in Australia that is still expanding. "
Yes, we all remember Scott 'Big Banana' Morrison making fun of it.
Why is it called virtual? (Score:1)
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