Keep Summer Safe - Hot Summer Power Outages

Tesla Powerwall backup power events for Summer 2022

Summer is here and it's a hot one. Texas, Louisiana, Ireland, India, Mexico, Beijing, Siberia (yes, Siberia) and other areas are setting new record high temps during these heatwaves. When it's this hot, for most homes, air conditioning is a *must-have*. High indoor temps come with higher all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and more emergency hospitalizations. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to the negative impact of high temperatures on health. So just like I wrote in your high school yearbook:
Stay Cool This Summer!

When it's this hot, the electricity grid can feel a strain on its health too. Last summer, as you can see in the image above, we lost power 5 times of note in July for a total of 16 hours, with the most extended outage lasting 6 hours. If you're without power for 4 or more hours, that's long enough for freezers to defrost and for food to go bad. 

Above I said that we lost power 5 times; I should correct that: our grid went down 5 times, but our home didn't lose power at all because we have Tesla Powerwalls to provide backup power to our entire home. So even after 6 hours without the grid, our air conditioner continued to run and our refrigerator stayed cold; we didn't have to throw away our milk, cheese, and leftovers.

I hope our grid stays up all summer this year, but hope is not a strategy nor the pathway to energy independence. If you want to learn more about Powerwalls, check out All You Ever Wanted To Know About Powerwalls.

The Texas grid is currently stressed as people are trying to stay cool during this heatwave. I​t recently reached 118°F at Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park and it's still June.

During this heatwave, some Texan Powerwall owners are able to sell energy to the grid at rates as high as $5 per kilowatt hour. Many other regions have generous feed-in tariffs too (although not likely as high as Texas is currently seeing) or smart battery incentive programs. These incentives are in addition to the blackout protection and the savings that you'll get from avoiding grid usage during peak rates by utilizing the battery.

Powerwalls can be installed either stand-alone or coupled with solar (Tesla solar or other).

If you want to buy your own Powerwalls, you can use my referral link for any referral bonuses that Tesla may be offering. Disclosure: I'm long TSLA.