Tesla's giant battery in Australia reduced grid service cost by 90%

[4now]

Tesla’s giant Powerpack battery in Australia has been in operation for about 6 months now and we are just starting to discover the magnitude of its impact on the local energy market.

A new report now shows that it reduced the cost of the grid service that it performs by 90% and it has already taken a majority share of the market.

When an issue happens or maintenance is required on the power grid in Australia, the Energy Market Operator calls for FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services) which consists of large and costly gas generators and steam turbines kicking in to compensate for the loss of power.

Electricity rates can be seen reaching $14,000 per MW during those FCAS periods.

Tesla’s 100MW/129MWh Powerpack project in South Australia can provide the same service cheaper, quicker, and with zero-emissions, through its battery system.

https://electrek.co/2018/05/11/tesla-giant-battery-australia-reduced-grid-service-cost/

[Quemado]

1. Great news!

Can't happen soon enough where I live.

[S.E. TN Liberal]

2. Americans are going to be soooo much better off when we get...

... alternative energy systems and battery back-up across the nation.

We spend something like a billion dollars a day importing oil from places like Iraq and Iran, (yes, even as we pretend to be against them over nuclear development, we import their oil, which is a huge boost to their economy).

If, instead, we would spend half of that on alternative systems we could probably never need to import any oil ever again.

But then; oil company profits, bribes to politicians, outrageous executive salaries,...etc. Typical of the crap the people suffer when big money gets involved.

[hunter]

3. Australia will happily export any coal or gas they don't use themselves...

... so I'm not sure this is "save the world" news.

These batteries are an interesting solution to problems caused by fluctuating wind power inputs on conventional fossil fuel electric grids.

In California the problem of fluctuating wind and solar inputs has largely been dealt with by building nimble gas power plants and using the state's large hydroelectric capacity to sink and source electricity much as these batteries do.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. If Australia exporting gas is not "save the world" news, then nimble gas plants aren't a solution,

are they? What you're saying is that California hasn't yet dealt with this problem, and still has to rely on fossil fuel.

[RandomAccess]

4. THIS is just one reason that

despite his objectionable political ideas sometimes, I just LOVE Elon Musk. He's absolutely a hero of mine.

This is SUCH thrilling news.