First Tesla Megapacks deployed at world’s largest battery project with PG&E

The first Tesla Megapacks have been deployed at what should become the world’s largest battery project with PG&E in California.

We first learned of the project at PG&E’s Moss Landing substation when they submitted it to CPUC and the company was in talks with Tesla in 2017.

It involves four separate energy storage projects and two of them should become the world’s largest battery systems.

Dynegy is going to deploy a 300MW / 1,200MWh project on PG&E’s grid while the Tesla project will be 182.5MW / 730MWh, which could eventually go up to 1.1GWh.

In 2018, we obtained Tesla’s proposal for the project and it shows that the company plans to use ‘Megapack’ instead of its usual Powerpack for large utility-scale projects.

In February, the project was officially approved and they started construction on the first phase of the project in July.

Now PG&E confirmed that the first Megapacks have been deployed:

They released a few pictures, including a look at how they deploy the giant batteries with an interesting machine:

The project will consists of 256 Tesla Megapack battery units like this one.

The energy capacity is going to be used to replace peaker plants and it is expected to save the electric utility over $100 million:

“PG&E forecasts the Moss Landing BESS will save more than $100 million over the 20-year life of the project, when compared to the forecasted local capacity requirements and associated procurement costs that would have been necessary in absence of the BESS.”

There are several other projects of similar size currently being deployed that could compete for the world’s largest battery system.

PG&E’s Moss Landing project is not expected to be completed for almost another year.