Australian virtual power plant (VPP) operators have had to accept that the scale of customer-side energy storage projects is far less than originally planned. When Tesla announced its South Australia-based VPP in 2018, the Powerwall 2 battery was priced at AU$8,000 ($5,980). As of March this year, Powerwall 2 battery prices have risen to $12,000. High battery prices from Tesla and other suppliers have led to lower-than-expected sales.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicted in 2018 that lower energy storage costs will drive cumulative customer-side capacity to grow to 2.1GWh by 2022, while actual capacity is estimated to be only 1.6GWh. There are fewer energy storage systems, which severely limits the capacity that VPPs can register with their projects. When the South Australian VPP was first announced in 2018, Tesla aimed to cover 50,000 homes. By September 2021, Tesla has only achieved coverage of 1,100 households.
