Tesla’s ‘Storm Watch’ was activated for ‘hundreds’ of Powerwall owners living around the California wildfires, says CEO Elon Musk.
Last year, Tesla started integrating features for Powerwall and solar customers to its mobile for vehicle owners.
Earlier this year, it included adding a new ‘Storm Watch’ to detect storms and prepare by storing energy in case of power outages.
Tesla described the new feature:
“When a storm or severe weather is on the horizon, increasing the likelihood of a utility power outage, Powerwall triggers Storm Watch. This mode automatically charges Powerwall to maximum capacity so it can provide backup power.
The Tesla app notifies customers that Powerwall has activated Storm Watch. The mode remains active until the weather event ends, at which time the system returns to its previously selected mode. It is possible to disable this mode by going to the Tesla app, selecting ‘Customize’ and then ‘Storm Watch.’”
It quickly proved useful as homeowners with the Tesla Powerwall in Queensland, Australia have reported that Tesla activated the feature ahead of a cyclone coming.
Tesla now says that the feature was also activated in California for some homeowners with Powerwall.
CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter:
“Storm Watch was active for hundreds of Powerwall customers this weekend as a result of the National Weather Service’s Red Flag Fire Warnings in California, and we will continue to activate it whenever there advance awareness of a potential power outage or physical danger.”
Some wildfires in California have been recently causing power outages.
Tesla decides when to activate Storm Watch and push it to Powerwall owners, but they can opt out of the program if they are not worried about the weather, or the possibility of losing power, and they want their home battery pack to keep cycling like it normally does.
As we recently reported, the rollout of Powerwalls has been relatively slow, but Tesla says that it is planning to ramp production throughout the second half of 2019.
We have heard of a batch of 250 Tesla Powerwalls going to the UK just last week.
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