It was the RenewEconomy article ‘Tesla says battery inverters can do the job of spinning machines at a fraction of the cost’ on 5th September 2025 that initially drew our attention to this White Paper ‘The Role of Grid-Forming Inverters in Providing Inertia (in the NEM)’ from Tesla Energy:
… but more recent developments have prompted us to link directly to it here, as something that will be of interest to readers at WattClarity®, particularly as it speaks directly to their application in the NEM.
From my reading of the report, they say the models say they should work well – excluding “niggles” like close-in fault current behaviour. As those in the power industry know, there is a massive difference between models and actual proven near 100% reliable performance under myriad fault behaviours – many which weren’t covered in contingency planning. The non-credible events – with Callide being a good example.
Just how much importance is to be placed on preventing blackouts? Would you stake lives on the risk that they won’t fail to do their job? I wouldn’t.