The South Australia state government plans to build a 250MW virtual power plant, linking household rooftop solar and Tesla battery storage.

The project aims to connect at least 50,000 households, beginning with low-income social housing properties, which will be each fitted with 5kW of rooftop solar and one 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 battery system.

The A$800m (US$636m) project will ultimately bring together 250MW of capacity and 650MWh of storage, allowing the combined resource to help provide “grid stability and extra capacity when supply is short”, according to the local government.