Ever since its San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station went offline forever in 2013, Southern California Edison, the station’s owner, has had to fill the electricity supply gap by any means available, and to adapt as a business from the old wasteful model of unlimited centralized generation and one-way delivery to a leaner, two-way interactive relationship with customers. This measure signals another step in the new direction:
“Tesla has just won a massive contract to provide Southern California Edison with grid-scale power, a deal intended to prevent future power shortages like the one experienced following last October’s Aliso Canyon natural gas leak, the worst in U.S. history.
“Tesla Motors Inc. will supply 20 megawatts (80 megawatt-hours) of energy storage via its Powerpacks, a contribution the company claims is enough to power approximately 2,500 homes for a full day. The most significant aspect of the deal (besides the tens of millions of dollars the packs are worth) is the record time in which Tesla will be delivering them: by the end of the year.”
One day’s power for a small town-size market might seem insignificant given the magnitude of SCE’s territory and its needs, but the sheer size of the order, the financial support it gives to a fledgling company, and the vote of confidence from an established energy provider in the reliability of Tesla’s technology all signal that the ground is shifting under the utility industry and therefore under the settlement pattern. Tesla is aiming to make as many homes as possible largely energy-generators and self-reliant, with the car as part of that technology. As this takes hold it can revive communities in eastern Southern California that were decimated by the mortgage crisis. As the houses in those sun-soaked communities begin to power themselves, they can create value again instead of draining it.