Tesla wants to become a supplier of electricity in Texas

Tesla wants to sell electricity directly to customers in Texas, according to a report the company filed with the Public Utility Commission there this month.

The app follows the start of a large battery that Tesla built in Angleton, Texas (near Houston), where it aims to connect a 100-megawatt energy storage system to the grid. Texas Monthly first reported an application filed by Tesla’s wholly owned subsidiary called Tesla Energy Ventures.

Tesla has also built several energy storage systems across a wide range around the world, including one east of Los Angeles, another in progress in Monterey, California and two in Australia — one in Geelong, Victoria and the other in Adelaide, South Australia.

However, Tesla did not function as a power retailer where he installed these systems. Instead, large batteries built by Tesla typically help other companies in production, storage, and energy consumption.

The cold hit Texas in February this year, leaving millions without electricity and water for days.

Some officials initially blamed the intermittent nature of renewable energy, even though the state is working heavily on fossil fuels.

It later emerged that state legislators and regulators, including the Communal Services Commission and the Texas Railroad Commission (which is supposed to regulate the oil and gas industry), ignored or mitigated demands to fix and prevent greater vulnerability in the Texas power grid. Following previous downtimes, experts have called for efforts such as weather-resistant facilities and turbines used to produce energy with adequate insulation and heaters.

The network in Texas is isolated from the rest of the U.S., so energy transfers from other states were not available to relieve those stuck in the cold. Instead, the network in Texas is managed by the Texas Electricity Reliability Council, or ERCOT, a nonprofit group that basically plans the flow of electricity to more than 25 million households in Texas.

During the eclipse crisis in Texas, Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked ERCOT on Twitter, writing that the group “did not earn R.”

Musk’s name is not listed directly in the Tesla Energy Ventures app. At the head of that branch, in the role of president, is Ana Stewart, Tesla’s director for regulatory credit trading.

As CNBC reported earlier, Musk’s company for the production of electric cars and solar panels has succeeded thicken your margins with the sale of green loans over the years. For example, in the second quarter of 2020, regulatory credit sales were higher than the company’s free cash flow and amounted to more than four times Tesla’s $ 104 million net profit for the quarter.

Businesses in need – usually including car manufacturers, oil and gas suppliers and energy retailers – purchase environmental regulatory loans to comply with regulations that limit the amount of greenhouse gases they can emit each year.

According to her resume, which was part of the app, Stewart has helped Tesla earn over $ 3.8 billion in regulatory loans since 2017.

If approved as a retail electricity supplier in Texas, Tesla Energy Ventures will use employees from Tesla’s energy department – the same one that sells solar roofs – to increase sales and provide customer service in the state. Tesla’s application also notes that it will work with Engie Energy Marketing on planning.