Virtual power plant (VPP) platform profile
Tesla Virtual Power Plant: the Powerwall fleet by the numbers
How Tesla builds, enrolls, dispatches and in Texas sells power from the largest single-brand home battery fleet, with event data in kW per home.
VPP Economics has no affiliation with, sponsorship from, or endorsement by any utility, aggregator, platform, or device maker named here.
The short answer
- Tesla runs the largest single-brand home battery fleet in U.S. VPPs. It reports more than 2 GW of fleet capacity and 2.38 GW of dispatchable capacity across five markets: Australia, California, Puerto Rico, New England and Texas (ESS News).
- California is the proof point. About 110,000 Powerwalls delivered 517 MW on September 9, 2026, and Sunrun owns and operates 55% of them (pv magazine USA). In October, Tesla’s dashboard showed 601 MW from 85,774 homes (Tesla North).
- Tesla plays more roles than most. It builds the battery, enrolls owners in the Tesla app, dispatches through its own software and, in Texas, sells the electricity.
- Pay depends on the channel. Some programs pass utility payments through; in others, such as California’s Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS), Tesla says payment depends on Tesla receiving program funds (Tesla).
Where Tesla fits
Highlighted boxes are the roles this company plays; the green bar shows where its programs sit from demand response to an orchestrated VPP.
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Tesla Powerwall peak output in California events
Megawatts (MW) at peak, with average kilowatts (kW) per home or battery
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Where the Tesla fleet earns
In California, Powerwall owners enroll from the Tesla app in DSGS and utility emergency programs. Tesla says DSGS can pay up to $280 a year per Powerwall, subject to Tesla receiving the program funds (Tesla). The September 9, 2026 dispatch, together with about 30,000 other Sunrun batteries, totaled more than 580 MW (Energy-Storage.news).
In Texas, Tesla Electric members join a VPP that runs through ERCOT’s Aggregated Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) pilot, earning a monthly bill credit that depends on how many Powerwalls are enrolled (Tesla). In August 2026, Tesla added a zero-down Powerwall lease paired with a Tesla Electric plan in parts of the state (ESS News).
Co-ops show the per-kW economics most clearly. Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC) in Texas pays $515 per installed kW upfront for the first 11.5 kW and $75 per kW a year after that, capped at 23 kW: about $5,923 upfront and $863 a year for one Powerwall 3 (Tesla). In Puerto Rico, Tesla says customers consistently deliver 80 MW for four hours when the island needs it (ESS News).
How dispatch decisions are made
The homeowner decides whether to enroll and how much backup to keep. After that, Tesla’s software decides when to discharge, within the program’s event windows or, in Texas, against wholesale prices. That makes the Texas channel closer to an orchestrated VPP than the California event programs, which still work as emergency demand response.
Because Sunrun owns more than half the Powerwalls in California’s biggest events, the same battery can sit in a Tesla-run program or a Sunrun-run one (pv magazine USA). For program designers, that means counting capacity by operator, not by brand.
What it means for program design
Price per kW, not per battery
GVEC’s $75 per kW-year is a clean reference price for dispatchable home battery capacity. Per-device payments hide how much power each site delivers.
Expect around 5–7 kW per home
California event data implies roughly 4.7–7.4 kW per site at peak, below the 11.5 kW a single Powerwall 3 can deliver, because of reserves and state of charge.
A vertically integrated competitor
Tesla can enroll from its own app and, where retail choice exists, sell the power too, which reduces the room for third-party aggregators.
Method and caveats
Figures are company-reported or from trade press, checked October 15, 2026. kW-per-home averages are VPP Economics arithmetic: peak MW divided by participating homes or batteries. Program payments are gross and are not net of battery wear or efficiency losses; see the Battery Economics VPP eligibility page for a wear estimate.