In under a year, Base Power has transitioned from being a discreet startup to establishing one of the largest battery fleets in Texas.
The company has secured $200 million in funding to facilitate rapid growth, which includes plans to add numerous megawatt-hours of battery storage and to develop a domestic battery factory.
The Series B funding round was led by Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Valor Equity Partners. Additional participants included Altimeter, Terrain, Thrive Ventures, and Trust Ventures.
Backup batteries, while not new—with Tesla having marketed its Powerwall for nearly a decade—are being taken to new heights by Base Power. The company’s batteries are notably large, offering 25 or 50 kilowatt-hours, nearly doubling or quadrupling the capacity of a single Powerwall. Moreover, Base Power’s pricing is significantly lower, ranging from $595 to $995 depending on capacity, compared to approximately $15,000 for a Powerwall before incentives.
The trade-off for customers is a requirement to purchase electricity from Base Power for three years at a rate of 9 cents per kilowatt-hour plus any delivery fees charged by the local utility. Customers also incur an annual fee between $225 and $345, which adds roughly 2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the average Texas household.
The primary revenue for Base Power likely comes from grid-balancing operations. Due to the structure of Texas’ power market, the company can receive substantial payments for leveraging installed batteries to supply electricity back to the grid.
Through the installation of residential batteries, Base Power has seemingly discovered an efficient method to establish a megawatt-class battery fleet, also known as a “virtual power plant.” Texas has numerous large-scale grid battery facilities under development, which usually require years for planning, authorization, and construction.
However, residential batteries can be approved and installed in just a few weeks. In March, Base Power installed 10 megawatt-hours, as shared by co-founder and CEO Zach Dell with Canary Media. The company aims to reach the 100 megawatt-hour threshold by summer.
The newly acquired funds will be used to accelerate installations and expand to new states. Additionally, the funds will support the commencement of constructing a U.S.-based battery factory, which could reduce the risks associated with tariffs but also presents potential challenges. Establishing battery factories has been difficult for others, with some companies encountering hurdles in similar ventures.
