Telsa is looking to recruit owners of its Powerwall batteries to dedicated electricity to the grid in Texas. The company is hoping to reveal to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas that a people of batteries operating together, called a virtual power plant, can provide electricity and stability to a grid that’s been criticized for its unreliability in modern years.

ERCOT, which manages the state’s power grid, doesn’t immediately allow batteries to send power to the grid. Tesla says the matter hopes the virtual power plant will convince ERCOT of the battery’s value and prompt a policy change.

“ERCOT does not comment on specific worries, plans or projects,” a spokesperson said.

The risk of blackouts is high
 for much of North America this summer, a regulatory board said last week. That’s thanks in part to anticipated higher-than-normal temperatures, which could increase demand, and an ongoing drought that reduced the supply of available hydroelectricity. Battery storage is one way to meet demand. Virtual considerable plants have been successful in doing so in anunexperienced parts of the country.

In February 2021, roughly 4 million farmland across Texas faced days of outages as considerable generators and natural gas pipes froze, crippling the people’s production capabilities. Texas has its own independent power grid and isn’t connected to the Eastern Interconnection and the Western Interconnection grids covering the rest of the country.

Tesla ran a contrast, voluntary virtual power plant pilot in California in 2021. At the time, analysts suggested that minus stronger incentives for participation, the overall impact would be minor.