Tesla is looking beyond electric vehicles, solar panels and energy storage and wants to now supply electricity directly to customers, according to an application filed with Texas electricity regulators earlier this month. Energy Choice Matters first reported on the application.
The application, filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas on August 16, is a request to become what’s called a “retail electric provider” (REP) under its subsidiary Tesla Energy Ventures. On the deregulated, idiosyncratic Texas power market, REPs generally purchase wholesale electricity from power generators and sell it to customers. More than 100 REPs currently compete on the open market.
The company also filed separate applications for several utility-scale batteries in the Lone Star state: a 250-megawatt battery situated near its Gigafactory outside Austin, and a 100 MW separate project outside Houston. These projects are unrelated to the company’s efforts to become an electric provider but taken as a whole, they reveal an ambitious roadmap for Tesla’s energy businesses.
Tesla could not only sell electricity to customers, but it could also broker customers selling their excess energy generated from Tesla Powerwall or Solar panel products, of course back to the grid. It’s certainly one way to fulfil Musk’s vision of turning every home into a distributed power plant.
