Tesla just won a competitive bid to supply utility-scale power in Southern California—providing security in the event of a catastrophe like the Porter Ranch methane leak.
"Tesla Motors Inc. will supply 20 megawatts (80 megawatt-hours) of energy storage to Southern California Edison as part of a wider effort to prevent blackouts by replacing fossil-fuel electricity generation with lithium-ion batteries," reports Tom Randall.
The Tesla blog announced the deal, which comes as a response to the Aliso Canyon natural gas rupture, which displaced more than 8,000 Southern Californians between October 2015 and February 2016.
Tesla will build and deliver a 20 MW/80 MWh "Powerpack" system to the Southern California Edison Mira Loma substation by the end of the year. Of the speed of the project, according to Randall, is the "real significance" of the deal.
Randall also puts the deal in context of an expanding market for utility-scale battery storage, as well as Tesla's long-term vision as a clean-energy company.
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