Yet another major Texas heat wave is inbound, and the state's fragile electricity grid braces for impact. According to weather consulting firm Maxar, last Sunday was Texas' second-hottest day since 1950, and temperatures are supposed to hit extreme highs over 110F statewide throughout the week. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued a Conservation Appeal for Monday, asking businesses and Texans to conserve electricity as the state's power grid attempts to remain functional.
Tesla is lending its hand amid the strenuous happenstance, urging Texas-based Tesla owners to circumvent charging their vehicles between the times of 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM, lessening the overall load on Texas' power grid. The EV manufacturer has utilized such an alert in the past, posting a long-winded explainer that reads as follows via Reddit user KarlanMitchell:
"A heat wave is expected to impact the grid in Texas over the next few days. The grid operator recommends to avoid charging during peak hours between 3pm and 8pm, if possible, to help statewide efforts to manage demand."
These alerts will most likely be issued for the next several days as Texas tries to combat the heat and keep its power grid stable. In the face of the ever-rising heat surge, Tesla's EVs represent mere controllable load potentials for electricity conservation. This means that while ceasing Tesla charging amid the heat wave helps limit the output of electricity, there is no real way for Tesla to input electricity onto the grid - aside, of course, from the utilization of its Powerwalls.
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Since June, Tesla has been forwarding the potential for its so-called virtual power plant to the ERCOT with seemingly little to no affect. Tesla aims to provide additional support to the Texas electricity grid through its Powerwall customers by literally channeling electricity back into the power grid when it's needed. Thus far, a total of 64 Texas Powerwall owners have joined Tesla's virtual power plant (VPP). Yet, none are being compensated for this energy consumption, which in the face of the Tesla Powerwall cost of $10,000, isn't exactly an ideal situation.
Thus, additional amendments are needed within the rules governing ERCOT, specifically its compensation parameters surrounding homeowners and their in-home battery packs. Several hundreds of Tesla Powerwalls exist within Texas, a veritable gold mine of necessary backup energy for the state's fragile power grid being left on the table due to regulatory concerns. Tesla already runs a similar VPP model in parts of Australia, proving that the potential is there, but the stopgaps persist due largely to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order 2222, which allowed many various grid operators except Texas to leverage distributed energy resources.
In an article via Energy Wire, Guidehouse Insights analyst Dan Power posits the ultimate potential of Tesla's VPP project, citing that it "represents an opportunity to take advantage of these resources that are already connected to the grid, but are siloed and only providing backup power to a single household."
He adds, "it's a big step, and ERCOT is going to have to decide how they're going to treat energy storage going forward. The adoption rate is only going to increase."
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