Tesla Energy is working towards becoming a large, distributed electric utility. Aside from recently entering the European energy market, the latest news is that Tesla has been granted an electricity generation license in the UK and can now generate electricity in the nation.
Energy regulator Ofgem published a press release stating:
The Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (“the Authority”) hereby gives notice pursuant to section 6A(5) of the Electricity Act 1989 (“the Act”) that on 12 June 2020 an electricity generation license was granted under section 6(1)(a) of the Act to Tesla Motors Limited (company number 04384008) whose registered office is situated at 197 Horton Road, West Drayton, UB7 8JD, United Kingdom, authorizing it to generate electricity in the area specified in Schedule 1 for the purpose of giving a supply to any premises or enabling a supply to be so given.
The company is on a mission to deploy solar energy systems of all sizes – from residential to utility-scale – and then manage them all under a single platform, thus acting as a giant electric utility, from the looks of it, Tesla plants to use its real-time trading and control platform, known as Autobidder to develop virtual power plants in the UK.
The company describes the platform on its website:
Autobidder provides independent power producers, utilities, and capital partners the ability to monetize battery assets autonomously. Autobidder is a real-time trading and control platform that offers value-based asset management and portfolio optimization, enabling owners and operators to configure operational strategies that maximize revenue according to their business objectives and risk preferences.
Companies can use the platform to monetize energy storage assets, like Tesla’s Powerwalls, Powerpacks, and Megapacks. They can set up their operational game plan in the best way to maximize their revenue.
Autobidder has proven successful at South Australia’s Hornsdale Power Reserve, where it helped lower energy prices through market bidding. Tesmanian explained in an article that:
It seems Tesla’s Autobidder is the refined version of the company’s Grid Controller, which helped the island nation of Samoa go 100% renewable back in 2018. The Grid Controller’s software was developed by Tesla to give real-time control over grid stability, reliability, and security.
CleanTechnica’s Paul Fosse elaborated on the specific potential from Autobidder stating:
Let’s say you have a 75 kWh battery in your Tesla and you are willing to use 50 kWh a day to buy at low electricity rates (you could also use your roof to produce solar, but let’s leave that for another day) at 6 cents an hour ($0.06 times 50 kWh is $3.00) and sell it back to the utility at 15 cents ($0.15 times 50 = $7.50). You would make $4.50 a day. Let’s say the utility took half your profit for using the wires and you could net $2.25 a day. Multiplied by 300 days (you can’t do it when you are traveling), that would be $675 ($2.25 times 300 days). Well, that won’t pay for the car, but it might make one payment a year and help stabilize the grid.
This is all excellent news! It’s essential to have a source of clean energy to triumph over the climate crisis, and Tesla making it more convenient, surely helps. Who doesn’t like saving and making money?
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