Tesla Aggregates into PG&E’s Emergency Demand Response Program

In June 2022, Tesla and Pacific Gas & Electric launched a program to aggregate the storage in ratepayers’ Tesla Powerwalls to provide emergency power to California’s grid when intense heat drives up demand on the system. Participating residential and other distributed battery owners will be paid $2 per kWh for exporting power to the system when supplies are crimped from 4 p.m.–9 p.m. between May 1 and October 31.

Owners of one of Tesla’s 50,000 distributed storage systems in PG&E’s service area can take part in the Emergency Load Reduction Program, which was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission last December to shore up the grid with 2-3 GW of new resources as well as negawatts – energy use reductions – to avoid blackouts during late summer afternoons and early evenings.

The Tesla-PG&E project allows Powerwall owners to reserve storage capacity to ensure juice in their battery remains after responding to a grid warning so they can power their home as needed or preferred. They also can opt out of a grid warning event.