The World’s Largest Virtual Power Plants – Australia, Tesla and Elon Musk
It has been a very busy past six months for the TESLA group and CEO Elon Musk.
From powering and switching on the world’s biggest lithium battery in Australia, back in December 2017; to launching a mannequin and a billionaire’s ‘whip’ into space (the Roadster), the electric car company has been pretty busy technologically.
Despite their tight deadlines and schedule, the tech company and most especially TESLA CEO, Elon Musk, isn’t done with his innovations and desire to take technology to great heights.
Having set the record for the biggest lithium battery in the world (although that record may soon be broken by a South Korea energy firm), Tesla has gone for another record by building and setting up the world’s biggest virtual power plant (VPP)
There are parts of the world where electricity is a big issue, due to its unavailability, especially in Nigeria and neighbouring African nations. I sincerely hope TESLA and Elon Musk, would come tap into the highly demanding electrical energy market in Nigeria and Africa.
Nigerians have grown used to power outages, to the point that residents have become accustomed to expecting power outage on a regular basis, 😁. Funny as it may sound, the expectation is not of regular power supply, but rather the expectation of power outage. So, if you think you know what power outage is (lolz), then visit some countries in West Africa. 😁😁
The World's Biggest Virtual Power Plant in Australia
With a lot of TESLA’s innovations based and springing out of Australia, a lot of concentration seems to be going the way of the country located in the southern hemisphere.
Considering the growing concerns of power outages in Australia, homes in the southern state of Australia are set to be equipped with a massive electric energy generation, from the biggest virtual power plant the world has seen yet.
About 50,000 homes were penciled down for the project that would see homes equipped with solar panels and Tesla battery storage units, which in turn connects all the homes to an electricity grid.
In a tweet, by Jay Weatherill, (South Australian Premier) on Monday, 6500 homes have indicated interest in the project.
How do Virtual Power Plants work?
Virtual power plants (VPP) function via the concept of multiple sources of energy; as against the traditional one big power station. The concept of multiple energy sources is to create and ensure a stable and reliable supply of energy.
The Virtual power plants capitalizes of the flexible nature of distributed energy facilities for use cases in the trading of energy for stabilization of energy grids.
The VPP is simply a decentralized network of power generating units on a medium-scale, in the form of solar parks, winds farms, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units, as well as flexible power consumers and batteries.
South Australia's Energy Challenges and VPP
In the case of South Australia, the solar panels would generate electricity which is then stored in battery units, before being supplied to customers.
The benefits accruing to houses that would participate in the project include; cheaper energy bills and not having to pay for installation since it was being financed from electricity sale. The VPP would also generate energy for the South Australian grid, according to the state government.
The project scheduled for four-years, is being paid for by taxpayers money, funding from a state-funded tech fund, and government grants totaling about $32 million (AUS$25 million)
The VPP system would assess data across network of solar panels and connected batteries to be to supply reliable and more efficient energy; due to the issue of frequent power outages and shortages of energy in South Australia, recently.
About 1.7 million South Australia’s residents suffer power cuts and shortages (they surely won’t complain if they were in Nigeria). A major blackout was experienced in February of 2016, owing to the heat wave that caused an increase in demand.
Also, late in 2016, a storm damaged transmission line left a large part of the state in darkness. This led to the government’s switch to the largest lithium battery in the world, spearheaded by the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, in December 2017.
Conclusion
For countries struggling with epileptic or complete lack of energy and power supply, the Tesla built Virtual Power Plant would definitely sound like heaven on earth. There really can't be anything compared with the luxury of having adequate and sufficient energy or power supply, especially, when it is needed.
Economies that thrive on energy, suffer a great deal due to erratic power supply. Businesses collapse, revenue generation nose-dives, and so much more - due to energy shortage and cuts. The niggling effects and implications of absence of power in a nation whose economy revolves around it, can be very drastic.
In the end, it takes a great deal of ingenuity, generosity, and selflessness for a mogul like Elon Musk, to fast-track the development of a reliable and more efficient source of power supply, for people and thousands of homes, who would get to pay very little for the huge benefit and service.
Reference: r1, r2, r3, r4, r5, r6, r7
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This a gigantic project which will serve humanity, This what our government should invest on to help and improve our power sector.
There is a great shortage of electricity in most African countries, where they face frequent interruptions of time, due to poor weather conditions in Africa, affecting electric wires, as well as large consumption of electric power, making electricity generation a deficit due to lack of existing capacity.@rickie