Tesla Powerwalls supply most of record 745 MW California grid dispatch — SkimNews
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- Tesla Powerwalls delivered roughly 80% of a record 745 MW home battery dispatch to California's grid on October 6, with 85,000+ owners sending over 600 MW during an October heat wave
- The dispatch was 28% larger than the prior 580 MW record set less than a month earlier on September 9, 2026
- Sunrun shares credit since it owns or operates 55% of California's ~110,000 Powerwalls and now has 120,000+ home batteries enrolled in state grid programs
- The ~7 kW per-home average points to a fleet shifting toward Powerwall 3 units (rated at 11.5 kW) and homes running more than one battery
- The event marked the first time this year that DSGS and ELRP simultaneously dispatched across every investor-owned utility territory, triggered when CAISO's day-ahead price cleared $200/MWh
- A Google-funded San Jose virtual power plant with PG&E plans to enroll nearly 21,000 Tesla and Everyday Electric devices — the first concrete piece of the 16.8 GW data center VPP plan announced in June, though still under a non-binding letter of intent
Why it matters: California's residential battery fleet jumped from 580 MW to 745 MW in four weeks — a 28% leap — with homeowners earning real payouts through DSGS and ELRP programs few other states offer. The same model is now scaling to data centers via the Google-funded 16.8 GW VPP plan involving Tesla, Sunrun, and Everyday Electric.
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![Hurricanes, heat domes, and holding up the grid with home batteries [update]](https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/06/power_lines.jpg?quality=82&strip=all&w=1600)
