LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 30: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, with a graphic unveils suite of batteries for homes, businesses, and utilities at the Tesla Design Studio April 30, 2015 in Hawthorne, California. Musk unveiled the home battery named Powerwall with a selling price of $3500 for 10kWh and $3000 for 7kWh and very large utility pack called Powerpack.
With the help of the Powerwall home battery pack, Tesla has introduced a new virtual power plant, but this time, it is located on the Japanese island of Miyako-jima, according to a report by eElectrek.
The term "virtual power plant" (VPP) refers to a group of distributed energy storage devices, such as Tesla Powerwalls, working together to offer grid services without the need for polluting and using costly peaker power plants.
Tesla started selling one in California earlier this year, and it had a successful first emergency event earlier this month.
The company also has a virtual power plant in Australia that has been running for years and is still developing. The automaker is currently attempting to deploy one in Texas as well.
We know that Tesla also secretly constructed a brand-new virtual power plant in Japan, and the company recently revealed it to the public.
Miyako-jima VPP
The project is known as "Miyakojima VPP" since it is located in Miyako-jima, the island with the highest population in the Okinawa Prefecture.
Over 300 Powerwalls have been installed on the island as part of the VPP, according to Tesla, which began installing them in conjunction with the local energy company in 2021.
"In Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture, the virtual power plant (VPP) project (hereinafter referred to as this project) using Tesla home storage battery Powerwall started in 2021, and the number of units installed on the island has exceeded 300." the company said
"This is the first commercial use of Powerwall for a VPP project in Japan, and it will be the largest commercial VPP using household storage batteries in Japan."
The local utility, Miyakojima Mirai Energy Co., offers incentives to residents in the area to install solar panels and a Powerwall so that the utility can use them as part of the Tesla VPP.
According to Tesla, VPP is improving the island's use of renewable energy while also demonstrating greater grid resilience, particularly in the event of a natural disaster.
As a result, for instance, when power supply and demand are constrained on Miyako Island, electricity produced by photovoltaic power generation is first stored in Powerwall and then released to the home during the constrained period.
Tesla anticipates that the Miyakojima VPP will have 600 Powerwalls by the end of 2023 and 400 Powerwalls by the end of this year as it continues to expand.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
