In December 2015, Green Mountain Power (GMP) became the first utility to lease and sell Tesla Powerwall batteries directly to customers. The battery systems can be paired with small-scale solar to store locally generated energy, or it can be used without solar as a battery to store power from the grid.

• In this pilot program, GMP offers customers three pricing options:
  • Lease a battery system for about $37.50 per month and permit GMP shared access to the system
  • Purchase a battery system for $6,501 and receive a monthly bill credit of $31.76 to permit GMP shared access to the system
  • Purchase a battery system for $6,501. No shared access with GMP and no monthly bill credit
• GMP shared access allows the utility to control the charging and discharging cycles of the batteries during normal operating conditions (i.e., non-outage)
• In this setting, GMP expects to discharge batteries during times of (1) high market prices to reduce energy costs and (2) peak load to reduce capacity and transmission costs
• Customers may rely on the battery during a storm or an emergency to power essential parts of the home like lights, a refrigerator, and heat pumps