Tesla Motors’ home-power kit is being launched by Enel Green Power SpA in South Africa to help retail customers safeguard against rising electricity prices and the country’s grid outages.
With South African power tariffs set to rise 9.4% this year, Tesla’s battery systems could become more attractive to customers seeking to reliably store self-generated renewable energy at home, said Enel Green Power CEO Francesco Venturini in a Bloomberg interview.
“Now that the prices are going up, people are going to look at entirely different solutions,” Venturini said. “There is a section of the population that can afford to buy backup power for the house,” specifically in Cape Town, where the pilot project has begun, he said.
Tesla Motor’s home-power kit began selling this month and South Africa is being used as a testing ground.