Vermont will use Tesla Autobidder software and Powerwalls to help balance the grid

Vermont-based electric utility Green Mountain Power (GMP) announced a new program to use Tesla Autobidder software and Powerwalls in order to replace fossil-fuel-powered power plants, thus helping to balance the grid.

GMP has been one of Tesla’s best partners when it comes to deploying Powerwalls in a decentralized way with electric utilities.

The relatively small electric utility operating in Vermont was one of the earliest adopters of Tesla Powerwall.

It has been leading the deployment of Tesla Powerwalls, with 2,000 units as of 2018, and in 2020 it signed a deal to get up to 1,000 more Powerwalls from Tesla per year.

GMP also disclosed that as of now, there are now more than 3,000 Powerwalls installed in homes on their network.

The company runs several programs using Powerwalls, and it reported that it saved ratepayers $3 million in Vermont last year.

Now it is announcing yet another program to harness the capacity of the Tesla Powerwalls on its network with Tesla’s Autobidder software:

ISO-NE is continually calling on qualified regional energy producers to increase or decrease output to help maintain that important balanced flow of power on the grid at all times. Typically, this cycling on and off of energy is done by ISO-NE with fossil fuel generators through the Regulation Market, a wholesale energy market that also pays participants for their consistent, quick, and accurate responses to grid needs, which can shift minute-to-minute. Using their network of Powerwall batteries and Tesla Autobidder software, GMP is the first utility to perform this essential grid service in the wholesale power market with clean stored energy distributed from customers’ homes. In addition to cutting carbon, this pioneering project is also benefitting all GMP customers through reduced power supply costs. It creates a new value stream for all GMP customers in addition to the ongoing benefits of GMP’s earlier home energy storage programs.

Last year, Electrek spotted a previously unknown new product from Tesla: Autobidder.

It’s a real-time trading and control platform for energy assets, like Tesla’s Powerpacks, Powerwalls, and Megapacks, optimized through machine learning to better use and more directly monetize the assets.

Autobidder already has over 1.2 GWh of energy storage in management.

GMP to date has 200 customers in the program who each have two Tesla Powerwalls.

Now it’s looking to expand the program:

GMP plans to expand this pilot program in the future. Customers sharing energy through the program are paid $13.50 per month on their energy statements. This includes a share for their program participation and for the increased use of their batteries, which can charge and discharge rapidly for periods of time each month. GMP takes steps to ensure that customers have backup power available if weather is predicted to cause outages. All GMP customers also benefit from the Frequency Regulation Pilot program because additional payments from ISO-NE flow to customers to lower costs.