Virtual solar power plant in Australia is expected to grow massively

The virtual solar power plant made up of small systems, which is already functioning successfully in South Australia, is now being extended to the state of Victoria – and a tariff has been added.

Buyers of solar roofs with the Tesla Powerwall storage module can now also become part of the virtual solar power plant in the Australian state of Victoria, which has been under construction in South Australia since 2019. The virtual power plant has now reached a capacity of 250 megawatts. This can supply more than 50,000 households. Tesla boss Elon Musk had agreed with the government of South Australia that up to 50,000 solar systems are to be combined to form a huge solar power plant.

Australia already has the problem more than other countries that electricity is becoming more and more expensive because the infrastructure for its generation is becoming more and more ailing and because of the energy transition to renewable sources, it is no longer being renewed. At the same time, renewable energies have the problem that they cannot be produced when required, but only when the weather conditions allow it. For example, solar systems could provide large amounts of electricity on a day full of sunshine and households would still have no light at night.

The virtual power plant that Tesla is building together with Australian electricity providers therefore uses the distributed storage capacity of the house batteries sold under the name Powerwall. Tesla’s home storage product, the Powerwall 2, enables homeowners with solar panels to store energy during the day and feed that energy into the grid when needed. As a result, the power grid is stabilized and at the same time relieved, because a high proportion of the electricity required can be supplied from neighboring storage facilities, virtually over a short distance.

To this end, the manufacturer has launched the “Tesla Energy Plan”. It consists of several components. On the one hand, it guarantees the number of an annual “network support credit” of 220 Australian dollars per year and connected Powerwall. On the other hand, participants receive certain electricity prices when they draw energy and remuneration when they feed large amounts of electricity into the grid.

The virtual solar power plant is not designed to be of particular economic interest to those feeding in. Rather, the aim of the solar systems remains to largely cover their own needs and only to help other households with a kind of “electricity loan” at peak times. These lending processes are remunerated with network credit, which makes the submission and refilling a zero-sum game for the submitting party.

Since this type of operation has a long-term damaging effect on the battery capacity due to increased charge-discharge dynamics, participants in the Tesla Energy Plan receive a 15-year guarantee on their storage systems instead of a 10-year guarantee. Tesla also discounts new purchases.