Tesla Electric Virtual Power Plant Pilot with ERCOT

Powerwall owners who are members of Tesla Electric are working together to accelerate Texas’s transition to sustainable energy. Become part of the first distributed battery to provide critical grid balancing services to the Texas grid. This Tesla Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is enabled through the ERCOT Aggregated Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) pilot project. As a participant in this VPP, your Powerwall will earn compensation by being available to provide power when it is needed, while still maintaining your energy security.

Learn more about program benefits, eligibility, compensation and more below.

Overview
Benefits
Eligibility
Participation
Compensation
Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

Tesla Electric members who meet the eligibility criteria will automatically become a part of the Tesla Virtual Power Plant. While participating in the Tesla Virtual Power Plant, your Powerwall will be dispatched when the grid needs support. For your participation, you will earn bill credits proportional to your level of participation in addition to your monthly sellback credit earned for energy that you send back to the grid. The Tesla Virtual Power Plant and sellback credit details may be found in the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) for both the Tesla Electric Fixed and Dynamic plans in the Tesla app. You do not have to compromise your own energy security to participate.

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Benefits

This community-driven program is designed to:

Stabilize the Texas grid with clean and reliable energy
Unite as a Tesla community to form one of the first distributed batteries in Texas
Increase your Powerwall value with program-based incentives
Maintain your energy security

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Eligibility

Powerwall owners with or without solar are eligible to participate in ERCOT's ADER pilot if they:

Are a Tesla Electric member in Texas in good standing
Are not enrolled in a conflicting ERCOT or non-utility demand response program or another virtual power plant
Have at least one Powerwall at their energy site (excluding Powerwall 1)
Have a valid interconnection agreement
Maintain an active Tesla account, Tesla app and internet connection for their Powerwall at all times
Are in one of the following TDSP (Transmission and Distribution Service Provider) service territories and corresponding load zone where we have established an aggregation:
- Oncor in the North Load Zone
- CenterPoint in the Houston Load Zone

As we expand our participation in the ERCOT ADER pilot, we will offer the Tesla Electric VPP program to customers in more areas of Texas. If you do not reside in one of the regions above, you may be eligible at a later date.

If you have enrolled in Tesla Electric but do not meet the TDSP criteria, you may still be eligible to receive a monthly VPP credit. Contact the Tesla Electric Support team to confirm your eligibility.

If you have enrolled in Tesla Electric and meet the eligibility criteria above, Tesla will work with your local utility and ERCOT to determine your qualification to participate in the VPP. This process can take up to two months from your enrollment date. Once you qualify to participate in the VPP, you will be enrolled automatically and will receive confirmation in the Tesla app. You will begin receiving virtual power plant bill credits on the billing cycle following your enrollment confirmation in the Tesla app.

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Participation

What to Expect

Most of the time, you won’t notice any difference in your Powerwall behavior. On a day-to-day basis, Tesla is telemetering the available power of the distributed battery to ERCOT, the grid operator. When the capacity of your Powerwall is needed, your Powerwall will be dispatched along with others to support the grid need, but never below your Backup Reserve.

While participating in this VPP, you are getting paid for having power available to be deployed when there is a strain on the grid. There may be times when the VPP has made a capacity commitment and your Powerwall is unable to discharge but only if you are already earning money for reserving energy for grid support.

Controlling Your Participation

Set your Backup Reserve

Powerwall will not dispatch to an energy level below your Backup Reserve. Setting your Backup Reserve is the best way to control how much energy you elect for participation and how much you maintain in case of an outage. If you are on the Tesla Electric Fixed plan, your Backup Reserve may be set to a fixed value.

Suspend Participation

To suspend participation, you may contact the Tesla Electric Support team, through email or the Tesla app, to assist you. When you suspend your participation, your Powerwall will not react to support the grid when ERCOT calls upon our distributed battery network. However, your Powerwall will still dispatch energy to the grid when the real-time energy price exceeds the grid support threshold – as is standard for all Powerwall owners with Tesla Electric.

After suspending your participation, you are still able to re-enroll in the Tesla Electric VPP and can resume your participation at any time by contacting the Tesla Electric Support team.

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Compensation

Participation in the Tesla Electric VPP will earn you a monthly credit on your electricity bill. You will still earn your monthly Sellback credit for any energy sent back to the grid. Your compensation depends on the number of Powerwall batteries in your home that you have enrolled in Tesla Electric. As we continue to evolve the program, you can expect to see your credit become proportional to your level of participation, dictated by your Backup Reserve and energy capacity.

Note: Considering these factors, compensation earned during a billing period will vary from customer to customer.

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Frequently Asked Questions Show All Hide All

There are a few reasons why you may be ineligible for participation at this time. Reasons may include:
1. You are not in a region of Texas that is currently supported under the Tesla Electric VPP.
2. You are in a conflicting demand-response program with your local utility.
3. Your interconnection agreement with your local utility is not complete or is inaccurate.
If you want to check the status of your eligibility, contact the Tesla Electric Support team, through email or the Tesla app.
On the Tesla Electric Fixed plan, your Powerwall settings including Backup Reserve, Storm Watch and grid charging and discharging are automatically configured in a way that maximizes the amount of support your Powerwall can provide to the grid. You are guaranteed a higher-valued monthly VPP credit on this plan, compared to the Tesla Electric Dynamic plan.

On the Tesla Electric Dynamic plan, your Powerwall settings are completely free for you to configure. Your VPP credit value may be lower than on the Tesla Electric Fixed plan. However, you may notice less capacity reserved for grid support commitment, enabling you to earn more sellback credits during real-time electricity price spikes.
You should expect to see minimal changes in your Powerwall’s standard behavior under Tesla Electric Mode. Your system is equipped to respond to price spikes in the real-time electricity market, dispatching your battery and earning you high-value electricity sellback credits on your monthly bill.

Generally, real-time electricity prices spike up in the late afternoon when energy demand increases significantly. This is when you will see most of your energy dispatch events.

With the introduction of Tesla Virtual Power Plant, Tesla will occasionally forego energy dispatches to make sure that your battery is at maximum capacity for these “peak” afternoon hours. This ensures that our aggregated battery is available to support the grid when it is needed the most.
No. However, if you are on the Tesla Electric Dynamic plan, you can increase your Backup Reserve level to limit your Powerwall’s discharge. Keep in mind that your Backup Reserve is strongly correlated with your monthly bill value. As you increase your Backup Reserve, less energy from your Powerwall will be used to provide energy to your home during the day. This may result in situations where you have to purchase energy from the electric grid to power your home instead of using stored energy. A higher Backup Reserve also limits your opportunity to maximize your sellback credits since you will have less energy to sell back for the grid in the event of an energy price spike. As the Tesla Electric VPP continues to evolve, you can expect to have more ways to control your participation.
On the Tesla Electric Dynamic plan, you can adjust your Backup Reserve level at any time, based on your own risk of outage. With the Tesla Electric Dynamic plan, you can make use of the Storm Watch feature to automatically charge your Powerwall in preparation for a severe weather event. 

On the Tesla Electric Fixed plan, Tesla will ensure that your Powerwall is never discharged below your fixed Backup Reserve.

If an outage occurs during an energy dispatch event, your Powerwall will still provide you with energy security using its stored energy that you have allocated to home backup. The excess energy above your Backup Reserve percentage will be used to provide grid support and earn you additional sellback credits on your electricity bill.

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