Tonik Energy leading the way with Tesla Powerwall

Independent energy supplier Tonik Energy have kickstarted the take up of the highly anticipated Tesla Powerwall in the UK. They are installing 250 of the units for their customers. This follows a successful pilot programme conducted by Tonik over the past year.

The project, they say, is an integral part of the Tonik Ecosystem, an initiative at the energy supplier to create a ‘home of the future’, through generation, storage and other complementary technology.

Tonik’s Chief Product Officer, Steve Springett, commented on the project:

The company are installing the TeslaPowerwall 2, which has a capacity of 13.5kWh. It’s slim design means it’ssuitable for most homes and doesn’t detract from the appeal of the property. Infact, they say it can be installed either outside or inside, to suit the householdersneeds.

The cost of the Tesla Powerwallinstallation is published on their website as:

• Cost of the Powerwall - £7,900
• Installation cost: £1,500
• Total cost: £9,400

Although there’s no subsidy in place forthe installation itself, Tonik customers are being rewarded with £15 billcredit every month, guaranteed for three years as long as they stay a customerof Tonik. Other PV owners can purchase and install a Powerwall through Tonikbut won’t receive the bill credit rewards.

Tonik work with an in house team ofinstallers, The Phoenix Works, a company that they bought out last year. Theypromise a ‘stress free and hassle free installation’, thanks to the expertiseof this team as certified Tesla Powerwall installers.

Tonik have released a case study of how one of their trial homes benefitted from the Tesla Powerwall.This demonstrated clearly the issue many homeowners with photovoltaicinstallations are facing.

The test client was generating around 25 –30kWh of energy during the day, but the home was only consuming around 12.5kWhduring production periods. As such, they failed to benefit from a largeproportion of the generated energy, and were left buying electricity from thegrid in the evening.

Adding a 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall to theirhome changed things significantly. As a result, stored energy could be usedduring the evenings and early morning when the PV panels were not generatingenergy.

The result was quite amazing; thehouseholder bought next to no energy from the grid, importing just 18kWh over afive month period, compared to 1,619kWh before the Powerwall was installed.

Tesla are well known as market leaders in battery storage technology. Indeed, their premium range of electric vehicles would not be possible without such technology being available. When Tesla decided to develop their tech into something that could be used in the home, the world was excited and rightly so.

Despite being a promising product, the take up of the Powerwall has been relatively slow, although it is ramping up. In 2018, the company sold just over 1GWh of energy storage technology, which was triple the 258MWh that was sold during 2017. However, the majority of this came from commercial projects, with the take up at domestic level still very low.

With any luck, the Tonik project may achieve its goals of increasing the uptake of installations in the UK, raising awareness of the benefit of energy storage to more households nationwide.