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Tesla opens direct orders of up to 54 Powerpacks and reveals pricing

Today Tesla updated its ‘Tesla Energy’ website to include a lot more information about its commercial and utility-scale products, and even added a ‘Design Your Powerpack System‘ page with pricing information and an option to directly order a system of up to 54 Powerpacks (5.4 MWh).

The smallest order you can place for the stationary energy storage system is for 2 Powerpacks costing $47,000 each or $470/kWh. 

The system also includes a $65,000 Bi-Directional 250 kW Inverter as well as the cabling and site support hardware for $3,000. Without installation, the cheapest Powerpack system you can buy costs a total $162,000 for 200 kWh of energy and 100 kW of peak power.

You can build up the system and configure it with your necessary power output and energy storage of up to 54 Powerpacks (5.4 MWh) and 10 Bi-Directional inverters (2.5 MW) for $3.2 million excluding installation.

Placing an order requires a $1,000 deposit.

If you want an even bigger system (you are probably a utility or building a giant off-grid James Bond villain lair), you can contact Tesla to request a quote.

For the first time, Tesla also released details of some of its grid interface products for the Powerpack:

  • Bi-Directional Inverter: The inverter converts AC grid power to DC for Powerpack storage, then converts this DC power back to AC for grid interconnection.
  • Powerpack Controller: This onsite computer interface creates control signals and relays commands to the inverter and DC combiner based on integrated application control software, or control signals relayed from a SCADA system.
  • Powerpack Combiners: The combiners allow for multiple Powerpacks to be wired and controlled together.
  • Software: State of the art battery management software controls performance at the cell, pod and pack level. Built in control software enables dispatch from a locally hosted interface, a direct Modbus/DNP3 connection and scheduled or autonomous operation. No additional software or integration is necessary.

The company is advertising the system as being useful for several different applications from demand response to peak shaving or even for microgrid installations and utility-scale grid integration.

Tesla even shared a few “customer testimonies” from its early commercial Powerpack clients. Jackson Family Wines installed 24 Powerpacks and had this to say:

“With Tesla Energy, we have taken a two-fold approach to energy management at our wineries by improving operational efficiency across all levels of our organization and reinvesting those savings in onsite renewable energy systems.”

Target and Advanced Microgrid Solutions also shared a few words about their experience with Tesla Energy. You can visit the new page for more information.

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Comments

  1. Richard Labaš - 8 years ago

    that is… pretty expensive. basically you cannot get below $500/kWh. Since the cells should be below $150/kWh, packs maybe around $200/kWh, the other hardware is 2 and half times more expensive than batteries? Seems pretty high to me

  2. Nøderak - 8 years ago

    2nd pic from bottom on the left shows the bus bars. I just built and priced one to 1.7 mil. lots of kWh. On their website its now called “Energy” instead of Powerwall. A couple of IL superchargers were noticed to have plenty of space in their enclosures. Some people thought it would be for power packs, others for more cabinets in a couple years so as to prevent congestion. Does anybody know if there are any tax credits/incentives or anything for this?

  3. Taylor Marks - 8 years ago

    If Tesla really thinks this is a good product and people should actually buy it, why not eat their own dog food and hook up these power packs to their Superchargers?

    My understanding is the utility companies don’t like the superchargers (or fast EV chargers in general) because of how much load they suddenly put on the grid when a car hooks up to them. If Tesla hooked up the power packs to the superchargers, they could have more consistent load. Or they could charge the power packs when the grid doesn’t have much load, and then charge the cars from the power packs when the grid is at peak load.

    Also, it would provide a backup power source. Just because power is out doesn’t mean the supercharger should be down.

    If they won’t use their own product, why would they think other people would?

    • md - 8 years ago

      Doesn’t make economical sense. They will probably use them in south african superchargers where the grid is garbage.

    • DSurber - 8 years ago

      Why do you think they haven’t? Gilroy has them. I’m sure other Superchargers do as well.

    • Yegor KS - 8 years ago

      Correct me if Im wrong, but a single “powerpack” would be enough to rechnage only a single car (90D).

    • Holger - 8 years ago

      Tejon, Barstow, Gilroy, Rocklin, Hawthorne, Fremont, Mountain View and many more superchargers have today batteries. That is where Tesla developed the powerpacks as the superchargers are the ideal test application.

      The average charge at a supercharger is around 30 kWh… so a single powerpack would be good for about 3 cars without grid support.

      • Bob C - 8 years ago

        And it’s more likely that the power packs are being used as line conditioners. The load spikes are smoothed out. (Oversimplified, but yeah.)

        Have a look at a proper AVR UPS or whole home line conditioners. Pretty wicked stuff.

    • Nathanael - 8 years ago

      Tesla already HAS hooked up Powerpacks (or prototype equivalents) to their Superchargers. They’ve been doing it since at least 2014. JB Straubel gave a presentation on it.

      They’re using them for peak shaving. Obviously the Superchargers have a very high peak usage and then sit idle most of the time. Tesla doesn’t want to pay high peak usage prices to the utilities, so they put in Powerpacks suck up the energy from the utility continuously, and then discharge from the Powerpacks to the automobiles when the autos are charging.

  4. František Kubiš Jr. - 8 years ago

    Elon boldly proclaimed 250 $/kWh for power pack at unveiling and now we see 470 $/kWh ??? What the f*ck just happened here? 😀

  5. Rikaishi - 8 years ago

    Hopefully the high price is temporary while Tesla cashes in on high demand.

  6. Bradley - 8 years ago

    The “-13°F to 122°F / -25°C to 50°C” rang will be something that will rule out several sites. I hope they can add in cooling/heating systems for locations outside of that range.

    • Bradley - 8 years ago

      Looking closer, I see they already do. Oh well, I guess they will be limited to select areas of the world.

    • Nathanael - 8 years ago

      Yeah, the -13F restriction is a killer. I hope they can develop a beefier heating system for cold-weather areas (maybe a “cold weather variant”).

  7. Rambo - 8 years ago

    Wait $47,000 for 2 powerpacks comes out to $235/kwh not $470

    • Fred Lambert - 8 years ago

      You missed the word “each”

  8. James Rowland - 8 years ago

    This is nearly double the price Powerpack was initially teased at. What happened there?

  9. vinay - 8 years ago

    I think due to high anticipated demand for Model 3, there isn’t going to be enough batteries available to make Powepacks at volume initially , If they can not supply demand for product ,why generate demand through low price.

  10. EV_Laci (MSC in CS) - 8 years ago

    I’m not an energy expert of any kind.
    But as far as I understand it, Musk was claiming $250/kWh for bare battery price as in the packs inside those black units.
    However Powerpack is a plug n play thing for energy companies.
    You must factor in software, battery management, connecting hardware, cooling, enclosure prices etc.
    Those especially utility software, engineering time etc involved will be reduced with this product.
    After I read several one year old articles they claim $1000-$2000 per kW (note it’s not kWh/stored amount/ it’s different, it’s max constant power back) for Li-ion systems.
    A powerpack combo with 500kW and 1mWh costs $607,000(+installation) which equals to $1214 per kW.
    If these numbers are legit Tesla have (as they say) one of the most advanced energy storage for a very competetive price.

    In big scale, price is not just messared on base material costs. Lifetime maintance and engineering hours added to the equation.
    I’m glad Tesla looks competetive in this $billion dollar field as well, and I hold few shares.

  11. Prober into - 8 years ago

    Too expensive. Price should be half of what it is now.

  12. Nathanael - 8 years ago

    Darn it. If I want one Powerpack, 100kwh, 50kw inverter, what am I supposed to do? That’s way more than any reasonable number of Powerwalls, but half the minimum Powerpack order size.

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