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This piece is clearly written by someone, who as no glue about the grid. (or wants to make a buzz out of nothing special) Battery power is always faster then g

This piece is clearly written by someone, who as no glue about the grid. (or wants to make a buzz out of nothing special) Battery power is always faster then generator power. That is the reason why every data center has battery backup for immediate reaction and generator power for the longtime backup. Normally, the battery size is designed that the minimum time is at least twice as long as to start the generator. Exactly that has happened with the grid. It is also not related to some contracting. Because the whole grid is connected. So the battery will always kick in, it does not matter where it is located. Actually synchronizing the grid is tough task. A friend and colleague from my University started in this business after he made his Master Thesis tens of years ago. By monitoring the frequency of the grid you know if there is too much energy produced (too less load, frequency to high) or vice versa. Everybody basically can do this from home. There are some maker projects and personal projects who do that.

nl 9y ago
Of course this is obvious! But - disappointingly - it has to be continually pointed out here in Australia. The coal lobby is strong.
vvanders 9y ago
Something that was interesting and buried down in the comments is that they're supposedly contracted for 35MW of fast-response power to maintain grid stability based on engineering of current generators/etc. If that's true then Tesla is already providing 1/5th of that capacity today.
- greglindahl 9y ago
  I think the reason that the battery put out the amount it did was that that was size of the local shortfall, 1,000 miles away from the problem. You can see that at other times, the battery has put out its full 100MW rating.
barblovesnigs 9y ago
Dude doesnt know what hes talking about.
grecy 9y ago
> (or wants to make a buzz out of nothing special) It's important to note it is something special. The battery works, and it works better than the existing solutions. This is very important and big news in Australia, because the coal lobby is so strong and powerful they have been telling the public for a year now the Tesla battery will not work and is a waste of money. Obviously some people such as yourself understand how the thing works, though I would bet a massive percentage of "people on the street" have no idea, and only understand what the coal lobby is telling them. It's important to take every opportunity to educate the public about the real facts, and this event is a fact. The sooner the public learn the truth, the better.
- JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
  On a broader note, it is important that in the age of (mis)information, that genuine advancements/improvements on tech are advertised properly. This is difficult because taxpayers often take a dim view on their money being spent on marketing government programs. Unfortunately with large companies advertising directly against programs that often run contrary to what is in the public interest, it is arguably in the public interest to market public sector programs. This issue being what is the difference between this and tax payer funded propaganda...? It's a tough area of discussion by any stretch, but its become clear that advertising/informing the public is kinda needed to offset the campaigning against public programs from large industry.
  - eecc 9y ago
    “Unfortunately with large companies advertising directly against programs that often run contrary to what is in the public interest“ - uh? I think you meant the opposite of what you wrote. ;)
    - JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
      On the contrary I mean the exact opposite of what I don't mean in not that case. Yep, my mistake.
- BLKNSLVR 9y ago
mtgx 9y ago
So what you're saying is that Tesla's battery solution is better than what Australia was already using?
- synicalx 9y ago
  Tesla's battery is better at doing what it was designed for, compared to coal plant(s) that are better at doing what they're designed for. In conjunction with one another, both technologies work incredibly well.
  - just_for_you 9y ago
    In addendum to this, I'd like to mention that things that are designed for a specific purpose are good for that specific purpose. And in general, things that are made to work well together work better than things not made to work well together. This also applies to things that happen to work well together, despite not initially being designed to.
    - slaman 9y ago
      The first rule of Tautology club is the first rule of Tautology club. https://xkcd.com/703/ https://xkcd.com/703/
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
cube00 9y ago
Have you ever seen propaganda for a mineral before? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXyEfo27Z38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXyEfo27Z38
ehnto 9y ago
It's most likely news to most of the country that the battery would have this benefit to the whole grid. That was the target audience. It's likely popular on HN because hey cool this entire country has a backup battery by Tesla and it's doing cool stuff.
bsanderson 9y ago
I don't think it's making "a buzz out of nothing special"... you compare it to every data centre with battery backup which is a standard thing, but scaling that to apply the same principle at a full grid scale rather than a single data centre is not nothing special.

nl 9y ago

Of course this is obvious! But - disappointingly - it has to be continually pointed out here in Australia. The coal lobby is strong.

vvanders 9y ago

Something that was interesting and buried down in the comments is that they're supposedly contracted for 35MW of fast-response power to maintain grid stability based on engineering of current generators/etc. If that's true then Tesla is already providing 1/5th of that capacity today.

greglindahl 9y ago
I think the reason that the battery put out the amount it did was that that was size of the local shortfall, 1,000 miles away from the problem. You can see that at other times, the battery has put out its full 100MW rating.

barblovesnigs 9y ago

Dude doesnt know what hes talking about.

grecy 9y ago

> (or wants to make a buzz out of nothing special) It's important to note it is something special. The battery works, and it works better than the existing solutions. This is very important and big news in Australia, because the coal lobby is so strong and powerful they have been telling the public for a year now the Tesla battery will not work and is a waste of money. Obviously some people such as yourself understand how the thing works, though I would bet a massive percentage of "people on the street" have no idea, and only understand what the coal lobby is telling them. It's important to take every opportunity to educate the public about the real facts, and this event is a fact. The sooner the public learn the truth, the better.

JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
On a broader note, it is important that in the age of (mis)information, that genuine advancements/improvements on tech are advertised properly. This is difficult because taxpayers often take a dim view on their money being spent on marketing government programs. Unfortunately with large companies advertising directly against programs that often run contrary to what is in the public interest, it is arguably in the public interest to market public sector programs. This issue being what is the difference between this and tax payer funded propaganda...? It's a tough area of discussion by any stretch, but its become clear that advertising/informing the public is kinda needed to offset the campaigning against public programs from large industry.
- eecc 9y ago
  “Unfortunately with large companies advertising directly against programs that often run contrary to what is in the public interest“ - uh? I think you meant the opposite of what you wrote. ;)
  - JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
    On the contrary I mean the exact opposite of what I don't mean in not that case. Yep, my mistake.
BLKNSLVR 9y ago

mtgx 9y ago

So what you're saying is that Tesla's battery solution is better than what Australia was already using?

synicalx 9y ago
Tesla's battery is better at doing what it was designed for, compared to coal plant(s) that are better at doing what they're designed for. In conjunction with one another, both technologies work incredibly well.
- just_for_you 9y ago
  In addendum to this, I'd like to mention that things that are designed for a specific purpose are good for that specific purpose. And in general, things that are made to work well together work better than things not made to work well together. This also applies to things that happen to work well together, despite not initially being designed to.
  - slaman 9y ago
    The first rule of Tautology club is the first rule of Tautology club. https://xkcd.com/703/ https://xkcd.com/703/
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]

cube00 9y ago

Have you ever seen propaganda for a mineral before? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXyEfo27Z38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXyEfo27Z38

ehnto 9y ago

It's most likely news to most of the country that the battery would have this benefit to the whole grid. That was the target audience. It's likely popular on HN because hey cool this entire country has a backup battery by Tesla and it's doing cool stuff.

bsanderson 9y ago

I don't think it's making "a buzz out of nothing special"... you compare it to every data centre with battery backup which is a standard thing, but scaling that to apply the same principle at a full grid scale rather than a single data centre is not nothing special.