Tesla has developed an advanced ecosystem of software to support its energy hardware products. Drawing on over 15 years in battery performance technology, Tesla has tailored its software specifically for energy products and improved performance through management of gigawatts worth of sites operating in 65+ countries.
A common software platform powers the entire Tesla product ecosystem from Tesla’s largest storage product, Megapack, to virtual power plants made up of thousands of Powerwalls. Beyond energy storage, Tesla software also supports solar, vehicle charging and non-Tesla assets required for operating microgrids and utility-scale power plants.
Tesla’s suite of optimisation software solutions, Autonomous Control, is composed of machine learning, forecasting, optimisation and real-time control algorithms used for utility bill reduction, demand response participation, microgrid control and wholesale energy market bidding. Tesla Autonomous Control algorithms automate the dispatch of energy assets to maximise economic value. Autonomous Control products driving value to customers today include: Autobidder, Opticaster and Microgrid Controller. Tesla has also developed software to enable more renewable generation on the grid with features such as Virtual Machine Mode.
Tesla is the world’s only major vertically integrated energy storage provider. Unique seamless integration of hardware, firmware and software means industry-leading performance, reliability and over-the-air updates to deliver continued improvements and new features over time.
Tesla software maximises the value of our energy products and helps us effectively address a diverse customer base including:
- C&I Fleet Managers
- Project Developers (Commercial Solar, Microgrids)
- Aggregators
- Power Plant Operators
- Utilities
- Independent Power Producers
- Energy Market Traders
Autobidder provides independent power producers, utilities and capital partners with the ability to autonomously monetize battery assets. Autobidder is a real-time trading and control platform that provides value-based asset management and portfolio optimisation, enabling owners and operators to configure operational strategies that maximise revenue based on their business objectives and risk preferences.
Powerhub is an advanced monitoring and control platform for managing distributed energy resources, renewable power plants and microgrids. Customers ranging from facility managers to power plant operators use Powerhub to maximise operational efficiency, uptime and asset value. Powerhub covers all common elements of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and offers standard customisations to meet the operational needs of small, large and virtual power plants.
Powerhub integrates with Autonomous Control products for a complete solution, satisfying the complex operational needs of a typical large-scale energy storage project.
Microgrid Controller autonomously maintains grid stability and reduces operating costs across all energy-generating sources within a microgrid. Fully integrated with Tesla’s Powerhub monitoring platform, Microgrid Controller provides real-time control of paralleled grid-forming sources and variable renewable generation, in addition to intelligent load and solar forecasting. Microgrid Controller optimises sites and systems that operate entirely or partially off-grid, supporting storage, load, solar, other generators and islanding control.
Opticaster is Tesla’s intelligent software designed to maximise economic benefits and sustainability objectives for distributed energy resources. As the fundamental machine learning and optimisation engine for Tesla energy software, it forecasts and optimises energy in real-time. Facility managers, business owners and renewable developers use Opticaster to reduce energy spend, increase renewable energy consumption and deliver clean power to the grid during times of need.
As more wind and solar power replace fossil fuel generation, less mechanical inertia is available on the grid, removing a natural stability buffer in the case of a grid disturbance. Tesla’s Virtual Machine Mode is designed to address these stability challenges by virtually emulating mechanical inertia. Megapack’s built-in inverters with Virtual Machine Mode create grid-forming dynamics that provide grid strength, respond to added and rejected loads and maintain quality voltage at the point of interconnection. In South Australia, the Hornsdale Power Reserve alone can provide up to 3,000 megawatt-seconds of inertia by using Virtual Machine Mode — roughly half of the state’s entire inertia needs.