Tesla does more than just build electric vehicles, and one of the things that the American company sells is called Megapack. It is a system that includes battery modules, bidirectional inverters, and a thermal management system to help customers stay clear of power outages.
The idea is not entirely new, and Tesla is not the only company to do it. In fact, we have several reports of previous Tesla Megapack installations. Not all of them have happy customers on the other side of the wire, as you may have read.
The latest installation was in Angleton, Texas, which was selected for the fitment of 81 Tesla megapacks. These total 200 MWh of energy can be put back into the grid when the conventional power supply is overwhelmed, as it was almost a year ago.
The community can also participate in the energy market since it can store green energy and then sell it to other consumers. Naturally, this is done automatically, so people do not have to do things to make that happen.
Solutions like the Megapack are meant to help electricity grids handle demand peaks, which may come without warning. For example, back in February 2021, the power was down for three days in the city of Angleton, which is possibly why the town was selected to install 81 Megapacks.
In a smart energy grid, installations like these do more than just help manage demand and cover the peaks. They can also be employed to lower energy costs, as connecting them to renewable energy sources will make the latter more effective, as well as provide a way to store energy and deliver it when the network needs it.
As you may know, Tesla also offers solutions for homeowners who want something like this on a household scale, and it is called Powerwall. Instead of a conventional generator, Tesla (and many other companies) offers a specially designed battery that is linked to a home's electrical system, and covers peaks in demand, stores unused energy gathered by solar panels, and can also operate as a backup during multi-day power outages.
Just like the Powerwall, the Megapack is not capable of generating electrical energy. Instead, both devices store energy and deliver it back to the network or its “clients” whenever required or demanded by a dedicated controller.
You may not be aware of this, but the electronic appliances that we plug in at home are sensitive, and many of them can be damaged or destroyed in the case of spikes from the power grid, as well as in the situation of frequent power outages.
Be sure to use a UPS for important electronic devices in your home and other power stabilizers for other equipment. Even something as mundane as a refrigerator or a microwave oven can be affected if you often get power outages in your area.
The most dangerous ones are those that are extremely short, almost imperceptible, where the lights in your house just fade in a blink of an eye, then return to normal, but you find your TV off, and your rooter rebooted.
Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland. Full profile
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