Tesla’s new home energy offering comes with an affordability pitch

Tesla is rolling out a new home battery deal in Texas that pairs its Powerwall with its own electricity plan. Under the offer, you get two Powerwall battery units, totaling 27 kilowatt-hours of backup power, for $35 a month. That price comes from a $122 monthly lease minus an $87 credit for joining Tesla's virtual power plant (VPP) — a program where your battery can send power back to the grid during high-demand periods in exchange for bill credits. Tesla says the deal cuts the normal cost of a Powerwall lease by 74 percent over its 12-year term.

The offer only applies to homes in Texas' competitive electricity market, where customers can choose their own retail power provider. Tesla already runs a similar bundled program in Massachusetts, though there the battery lease comes with a discount and automatic VPP enrollment while you keep your existing utility, such as National Grid or Eversource, rather than switching to Tesla for electricity.

The move mirrors what a competitor, Base Power, has been doing: installing batteries, owning them, and using the combined fleet to buy and sell power on the grid. Tesla has installed more than a million Powerwalls worldwide, but as of last spring only about a quarter were enrolled in VPPs. This new pricing structure is meant to make backup power and VPP participation more affordable and appealing to more homeowners, particularly in states with growing electricity demand like Texas.