Can you please explain virtual power plant?

[Crissa]

Even not having access to on-demand price changes... Having a battery backup can definitely pay for itself by just displacing some of your peak power consumption.

Sure, my dumb time-base set-up will only pay for itself in ten years, but it would be faster with a VPP or a higher peak/offpeak difference.

And you also basically never need to worry about power going out, even when the lines are being worked on. Which is even more important if you have solar, because when you can't generate - they're just slowly dying in the sun.

VPP's are why California hasn't had to do very many 'rolling blackouts' over the past 2-3 years!!

...This is definitely not true, as they've been a tiny percentage of the on-demand power so far. But it may be true in the future! So still do it!

-Crissa

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[SlegMD]

I read this and seemed uninterested.

My batteries reach my set minimum during these summer months (Phoenix) so it’s bless this is only happening during peak solar I don’t see the value. Some mention setting their PW3 to single digits which is not really recommended by Tesla.

Seems like you would go through more battery cycles and I don’t see the utility willing to buy my lithium for me.

I also am an amateur with all this and could be totally off base!

 

[hemiarch]

I am equally amateur. The thing I’d like to be able to do is set a separate lower limit for selling power and using power.
kind of like a reverse “charge on solar”. So basically, be willing to “sell” or use until my battery hits 50% then only use. Is that possible?
it would ensure that Virtual power plant doesn’t end up costing me peak time demand use.

 

[DJAlan2000]

DJAlan2000 said:
VPP's are why California hasn't had to do very many 'rolling blackouts' over the past 2-3 years!!

...This is definitely not true, as they've been a tiny percentage of the on-demand power so far. But it may be true in the future! So still do it!

-Crissa

Actually it's QUITE true! Just this month alone California 'tapped into' over 100,000 home battery/solar systems from VPPs to create 535 MW of power. According to the utilities this is comparable to the output of a medium sized LNG electric plant...

Even allowing for the facts that VPPs are only supplying for a few hours a day (usually 4-9pm), they don't supply power through that entire time, but rather for 2 hours at a time (depending on the VPP it could be 5-7, 6-8, 7-9). VPPs are supplying about 5% of power this year, up from 3% last year and, (before they made changes to NEM 3.0), is expected to go as high as 15% by 2035...

I know that doesn't SEEM like a lot, but it really is!

But there are several factors:
1) When people get solar/batteries, they CUT the power used from 'the grid' and, usually, even when NOT in an event, supply quite a bit of power to 'the grid' directly from individuals (not VPPs) power systems. In other words, if you took 5000 people 'off grid' for 8-10 hours a day (longer if they run their house from the batteries at night when NOT in an 'event') that would be a significant reduction in power NEEDED... Especially during PEAK periods when usage is high...

2) No extra 'infrastructure' needs to be added to 'the grid' (as in adding towers, wiring, transformer stations, etc.) because the power is fed from the homes to the EXISTING grid.

3) The power on the grid is generally used 'locally' to the 'supplier' (me in this case) first before any 'excess' would be pushed out to 'the grid'... In other words, the power is likely to be used 'locally' rather than to another city or such...

4) By NOT having to put in MORE power plants and MORE towers, lines, transformer stations, etc. it saves money and they can keep the power use a little more local...

All this means is that, if you had 1 million 'customers' using power from 'the grid', then, the next year you LOST 5% of your customers (to Solar), that would mean 50,000 LESS POWER USERS!!!

It IS making a difference... This year, 2025, there have been NO 'rolling blackouts' in California... NONE!! Same with last year and the year before that!!

In fact, it was Sept. 2022 for the last one in California... And, in fact, 2020 was the last year they 'scheduled' a 'rolling blackout' in CA... Although there were a couple of 'near misses' in 2022...

So, Solar/Battery VPPs mean LESS USAGE as well as MORE POWER AVAILABLE...

BOTH things need to be factored in...

MY bill for power has been in the NEGATIVE (they owe ME) 10 months out of the year... And most wouldn't think that my 'highest' grid usage is in May and June, but because we live near the beach, we get the "May Gray" and the "June Gloom" to the point where most days I am only generating about HALF what I could be for a nice, clear, sunny summer day... I do better in Jan, Feb, and March!! But it's okay because overall, the only money I pay for "E" is the meter fees and silly little taxes and such that everyone pays... The rest is in the form of a 'credit'...

So, MY VPP has 5,882 'members' in it supplying power AND not using 'the grid' either at all or a lot less... And that's just the Tesla VPP for CA... There are many others here in CA as well... But not everyone that has solar/battery systems is on a VPP (as we know) and there are about twice as many that are not involved...

It all comes down to LESS/NO GRID USAGE combined with FEEDING power TO the grid... For every solar system out there, it's like the utilities have 1.5 less customers at peak times... It works...

 

[hemiarch]

Some pretty good info on here. Thank you everyone.
Sounds like the socially responsible thing to do is to participate, but I really would like to reserve some of the battery for my own peak hour use. Not just backup but enough to keep me from incurring demand charges.
What’s the best way to do that? Anyone have advice?

 

[mongo]

Some pretty good info on here. Thank you everyone.
Sounds like the socially responsible thing to do is to participate, but I really would like to reserve some of the battery for my own peak hour use. Not just backup but enough to keep me from incurring demand charges.
What’s the best way to do that? Anyone have advice?

There is a setting for that (in the link I posted)

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