Your Tesla and Powerwall may soon do more than just use and store energy if you’re in the UK. Instead, they could help power your home and earn you money. For the first time outside the United States, Tesla has officially applied for a license to supply electricity directly to homes across the United Kingdom.
Tesla’s plan to deploy Tesla Electric in the UK will apply to homes across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The Tesla Electric Model
The best preview of what this service could look like comes from Texas, where Tesla is already operating Tesla Electric as a retail power supplier. The Texas model is designed to create a fully integrated ecosystem for Tesla’s customers.
It allows customers to charge their vehicles with cheaper electricity, and pays them for feeding surplus power from their home batteries back to the grid during periods of high demand. This system is known as a Virtual Power Plant, or VPP, which helps to stabilize the grid, while rewarding participating homeowners.
Tesla has implemented this system with great success in Puerto Rico, deploying Powerwalls and the Virtual Power Plant to stabilize the island's aging and unstable grid.
Benefits for Subscribers
Once Tesla Electric arrives in the UK, owners of Tesla products will likely see a series of benefits from subscribing to the service. Starting off, this includes access to cheaper electricity rates, as well as discounted rates for EV charging.
For those who drive a lot, that makes a big difference - some Tesla Electric owners in Texas get to drive for nearly free based on the low rates offered by the program in conjunction with charging during off-hours.
Alongside that, you’ll have the ability to sell stored energy - up to a customizable minimum limit from your Tesla Powerwalls. You can set any minimum limit you like, so that you’re left with enough energy for yourself. The Powerwalls will then charge back up during off-hours when electricity is cheaper. This essentially allows you to sell when the energy price is high and buy it when it’s low.
On top of that, your Powerwall will automatically charge to 100% automatically if a major storm or outage is predicted, enabling you to keep your home powered when you need it most.
It integrates your car, home battery, and electricity supply into a unified energy system, all managed via the Tesla App.
A Massive, Built-in Network
Tesla isn’t starting from scratch in the UK. The company already has a massive potential customer base of more than a quarter of a million Tesla owners, and tens of thousands of Powerwalls already installed in the country.
That’s thousands upon thousands of customers who are ready to build Tesla Electric UK into a single network - making Tesla a significant player in the UK energy market overnight.
The application was filed late last month with the UK’s energy regulator, Ofgem. The regulator can take up to nine months to process such applications, which means that if approved, Tesla could begin supplying energy to UK homes as soon as next year.
