South Australia's $800 million 'virtual power plant' will utilize Tesla for landmark project [Video]

South Australia has been coming up big down under. After installing the world's biggest battery a few months ago, a new (bigger) project in South Australia was just announced this past week. Renew Economy reports, "The South Australia Labor government has unveiled plans to build a 250MW 'virtual power plant', linking household rooftop solar and battery storage, in what it says will be the [new] world’s biggest." 

Above: South Australia's Premier Jay Weatherill and Tesla's Elon Musk (Twitter: Jay Weatherill)

It's reported that, "The project aims to connect at least 50,000 households, beginning with low-income Housing Trust (social housing) properties, which will be each fitted with 5kW of rooftop solar and one 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 battery system. The involvement with Tesla further strengthens the links between the US solar, storage and electric vehicle company, but this project will be significantly bigger than the so-called Tesla big battery next to the Hornsdale wind farm."

Furthermore, "The $800 million project will ultimately bring together 250MW of capacity and 650MWh of storage, allowing the combined resource to be pooled to help provide grid stability and extra capacity when supply is short." 

Above: South Australia's new 'virtual power plant' should result in 30% savings off energy bills (Vimeo: Jay Weatherill)

Tesla said in a statement, "When the South Australian Government invited submissions for innovation in renewables and storage, Tesla’s proposal to create a virtual power plant with 250 megawatts of solar energy and 650 megawatt hours of battery storage was successful."

Tesla also added that, "A virtual power plant utilises Tesla Powerwall batteries to store energy collectively from thousands of homes with solar panels. At key moments, the virtual power plant could provide as much capacity as a large gas turbine or coal power plant."

Above: Danny Price, Founder and Managing Director of Frontier Economics explains South Australia's 'virtual power plant' (Vimeo: Jay Weatherill)

Regarding the timeline, it's reported that, "Around 100 homes have already or are being installed and... [Tesla] will install Powerwall and solar panels on up to 50,000 homes in South Australia by June 2022, starting with 600 homes in 2018."

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Source: Renew Economy