physics

Tesla Powerpack

Tesla Powerpack is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tesla Powerpack rather than just read about it. In short: The Tesla Powerpack is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary energy storage item, intended for use by businesses or on smaller projects from power utilities. The device was manufactured by Tesla Energy, the clean energy subsidiary of Tesla, Inc.

Key takeaways

Tesla Powerpack belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tesla Powerpack to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tesla Powerpack from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Tesla Powerpack is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary energy storage item, intended for use by businesses or on smaller projects from power utilities. The device was manufactured by Tesla Energy, the clean energy subsidiary of Tesla, Inc. The Powerpack stores electricity for time of use load shifting, backup power, demand response, microgrids, renewable energy integration, frequency regulation, and voltage control. The first prototype Powerpacks were installed in 2012 at the locations of a few industrial customers. After July 22, 2022, the product was no longer listed for sale. Tesla Energy offers other battery energy storage devices: the Powerwall, intended for home use, and the Megapack, intended for electrical grid use.

History As Tesla, Inc. developed batteries for its electric car business, the company also started experimenting with using batteries for energy storage. Starting in 2012, Tesla installed prototype battery packs (to later be called the Powerpack) at the locations of a few industrial customers. The batteries allowed customers to store energy to be used for peak shaving, load shifting, backup power, demand response, microgrids, renewable power integration, frequency regulation, and voltage control. Using these techniques, some early customers were able to reduce their electrical bill by 20%. In November 2013, Tesla announced that it would build Giga Nevada, a factory to produce lithium-ion batteries, like those used in the Powerpack. The success of the early Powerpack installations led Tesla to announce in April 2015 that it would apply its technology to a home energy storage system, the Powerwall. During 2015 and 2016, Tesla deployed a combined 300 MWh of Powerwall and Powerpack technology.

Powerpack specifications The Powerpack is a bigger unit with 100 kWh (first generation) and 210 kWh (2nd generation) of storage for commercial and utility grid use. To meet the variety of energy needs in industry, "Powerpack is infinitely scalable", said Elon Musk. The late 2016 Powerpack 2 probably uses 21700 cells. As of March 2020, the 232 kWh version with inverter cost $172,707.

Examples of Powerpack installation Tesla installed a grid storage facility for Southern California Edison with a capacity of 80 MWh at a power of 20 MW between September 2016 and December 2016 to reduce the local loss of peak power after the Aliso Canyon gas leak. As of January 2017 the storage unit was one of the largest accumulator batteries on the market. Tesla installed 400 Powerpack-2 modules (80 MWh) at the Mira Loma transformer station in California. The battery storage serves to store energy at a low network load and then to feed this energy back into the grid at peak load. The principal way of adding peak generation capacity prior to this was the use of gas-fired power stations. In 2017, Tesla used Powerpacks to deploy 100 MW/129 MWh of battery storage at the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, the biggest deployment of lithium-ion grid battery storage in the world at the time. Powerpacks continue to be used by utilities to meet smaller-scale grid energy storage requirements. For example, a 25 MW / 52 MWh deployment of Powerpacks is in use at the Lake Bonney Wind Farm in South Australia.

Market At the announcement, a larger battery called Powerpack—storing 100 kWh of electrical energy—was projected to be available for industrial consumers, reaching a price point of $250/kWh. The Powerpack was projected to comprise the majority of stationary storage production at Gigafactory 1 while Powerwall would play a smaller part, giving Tesla a profit margin of 20 percent.

Price tendency In September 2016, Tesla priced the Powerpack at $445/kWh, and a system with 200 kWh of energy and 100 kW of peak power was the cheapest available priced at $145,100. A bi-directional 250 kW inverter costs $52,500. By October 2016, a limited system of Powerpack 2 cost $398/kWh. A 22 MWh system can cost €15 million.

Volume tendency Musk predicted in 2016 that the utility power will need to increase to supply more electric vehicles, eventually reaching an equilibrium with about 1/3 of power coming from distributed energy and 2/3 from utilities. Battery storage is one of the ways to mitigate the increasing duck curve, particularly in California.

Competition BYD's energy storage system is another competitor of Tesla's Powerpack. UC San Diego installed this system, which has 5 megawatt-hour (MWh) capacity—enough to power 2,500 homes—in September 2014. BYD is a large supplier of rechargeable batteries, and is also known for its leading position in electric buses. Sonnen and AutoGrid collaborated on combining house batteries into a large-scale utility-level grid storage system. Eos claimed a battery price of $160/kWh in 2017, before the cost of integration by Siemens.

See also Net metering systems with integrated energy storage

References

External links Official website Why Tesla is backing batteries, BBC 2015 Conference call with Elon Musk (Whole transcript, subscribed. Transcript in 15 pages)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tesla Powerpack

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tesla Powerpack claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tesla Powerpack before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tesla Powerpack ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tesla Powerpack

In research: Tesla Powerpack appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tesla Powerpack in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tesla Powerpack is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2012 in technology, Grid energy storage, Lithium-ion batteries, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tesla Powerpack outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tesla Powerpack in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tesla Powerpack means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tesla Powerpack out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tesla Powerpack in simple terms?

Why does Tesla Powerpack matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tesla Powerpack?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tesla Powerpack.