
Vermont utility says it will be the first to install Tesla powerwalls in the US - nkurz
http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2015/12/vermont-utility-says-it-will-be-the-first-to-install-tesla-powerwalls-in-the-us/
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ZeroGravitas
This seems to be the most important bit, but Ars skip over it:

 _Or, a GMP customer can buy a Powerwall outright for $6,500 and share access
with GMP, receiving a $31.76 monthly credit, which a GMP press release says
"represents the value of leveraging the battery to help lower peak energy
costs."_

So this utility (which is generally progressive compared with their peers) is
acknowledging that people having energy storage in their home is a benefit to
the utility, and are even prepared to put a price on that.

There's a parallel battle going on with rooftop solar, with some utilities
paying money for the value they recieve from this which is above the consumer
cost of electricity in many cases, and other utilities trying to shut down
users by imposing fees to cover the costs they claim they are incurring.

~~~
Shivetya
More likely they just want to be seen as hip and serving their customers as a
single unit isn't going to going to let you run your house fully during an
outage and buying multiple units to support a power user typical wattage need
and who else besides those types are buying into this?

It might be good for time shifting expensive electrical rates but where in
America is that going to happen?

I don't think they see value in home storage of power, first off the amount
stored is way way WAY too minuscule if you look at it from a grid perspective.
If you wanted efficient, safe, and reliable, battery storage the utility or an
independent would be better off setting up a dedicated facility for it. Even
if just a series of boxes at the front of a subdivision/apartment complex the
manageability goes up a lot.

tl;dr utility company just riding the cool wave as it really doesn't benefit
their consumers. far better options than relying on small storage spread
across private homes

~~~
Spooky23
It happens all over the place. The problem with electricity is that the
marginal cost of adding capacity to the grid is very expensive, and you only
hit peak capacity a few days a year.

For a decade or more New York has paid commercial and industrial customers
something like $50M to shut down capacity on demand in exchange for lower
electric rates.

Doing that delays or avoids $500M investments in power plants. Time shifting
and solar build on this idea.

If you live in the boonies where power interruption is routine, partial power
preservation means your fridge, well pump and heat continue to work. You don't
need to worry about frozen pipes in the winter when your on vacation or lost
groceries after a thunderstorm in the summer.

~~~
toomuchtodo
This is called "Demand Response".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_response](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_response)

[http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-
grid/deman...](http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid/demand-
response)

[http://www.enernoc.com/our-resources/term-pages/what-is-
dema...](http://www.enernoc.com/our-resources/term-pages/what-is-demand-
response)

------
PinguTS
That is an interesting article in many ways:

1\. Elon Musk announces the PowerWall in April with delivery end of 2015
(still on the site).

2\. SunEdision announces end of September to deliver the first PowerWalls in
Australia by November: [http://cleantechnica.com/2015/09/22/sunedison-
australia-taki...](http://cleantechnica.com/2015/09/22/sunedison-australia-
taking-delivery-tesla-powerwall/)

3\. SunEdision will partner with LGChem to deliver a competing product:
[http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/14040502-tom-
collins/44245...](http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/14040502-tom-
collins/4424576-lg-chem-sunedison-just-leapfrogged-tesla-solarcity-in-
distributed-storage-but-partner-eguana-tech-are-the-real-story)

4\. Vermont utility announces to be the first with 10 PowerWall beginning
January 2016.

So, why there are no PowerWalls available? Seems that there are production
issues.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> So, why there are no PowerWalls available? Seems that there are production
> issues.

Because production is starting up, with equipment being moved from Fremont.

[http://cleantechnica.com/2015/11/04/tesla-gigafactory-
ahead-...](http://cleantechnica.com/2015/11/04/tesla-gigafactory-ahead-of-
schedule-production-beginning-in-q4/)

------
johnm1019
I believe the article author confuses the pricing. As presented I'm guessing
the price quoted by GMP includes the inverter, while the price given by Tesla
does not.

side note: original article appeared on arstechnica.com
[http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/12/vermont-utility-
says...](http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/12/vermont-utility-says-it-will-
be-the-first-to-install-tesla-powerwalls-in-the-us/)

~~~
PinguTS
Which is clearly written in the article as you may have read along:

> Now, according to GMP, buying a 7kWh Powerwall outright will cost $6,500,
> including the inverter and the installation fee.

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sremani
There is lot of potential out there for retrofitting used Car battery to wall
mounts. That is the approach, I would be more interested. Has Tesla reused any
of its roadster batteries that have gone stale in wall mounts? Does Tesla as a
company has a plan for having old roadster batteries along with Model S etc.
to convert into home batteries in the future ?

~~~
greglindahl
80% of the power-wall business is expected to be industrial installations, not
home installations. Big installations like that are a much better home for
"tired" batteries - a homeowner cares about their 7kWh, a business with a 500
kWh install might not mind if 1/3 of it was used batteries with 1/2 max
capacity.

And yes, Tesla's been talking about that for more than a decade.

