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Tesla is preparing to launch a virtual power plant in Puerto Rico. There are tens of thousands of Powerwalls in the country ready to benefit the country's power grid.
Tesla Energy is working on launching a virtual power plant (VPP) in Puerto Rico, Senior Vice President of Energy Engineering and Powertrain, Drew Baglino, confirmed. He said that there are more than 350 MW of Powerwalls in the country, which can help solve the problem of energy shortage. The company is actively working to make this possible by partnering with Luma Energy Puerto Rico. The VPP is expected to be activated as early as this summer.
Absolutely. We have over 350MW of Powerwalls in Puerto Rico that could help the grid shortage in Puerto Rico overnight. We are working with @lumaenergypr to activate a VPP for all Powerwall customers this summer. Stay tuned for more…
— Drew Baglino (@baglino) June 15, 2023
In 2017, Puerto Rico's power grid was hit hard by a major hurricane. Tesla sent help in the form of Powerwalls, which helped secure the power supply. In addition, Tesla has deployed a number of Powerpack systems at various key locations. Since 2017, Puerto Ricans have been able to amass a significant number of Powerwalls, reaching over 44,000 in 2022. Such a huge number of home energy storage systems can become a serious support for the local power grid and provide people with an uninterrupted power supply when they need it.
In October 2022, Tesla reported that its Powerwall powered 44,000 homes in Puerto Rico for five days when the grid was completely down. It also shows that the country is in dire need of a solution to ensure an uninterrupted power supply, as it often has problems with this. In the summer, hurricanes hit Puerto Rico, causing great damage to the power grid and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power for several days.
© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts; follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
