Home battery systems are becoming dramatically cheaper and more widespread in the US as competition intensifies between Tesla and fast-growing rivals such as Base Power, which has raised $2 billion in under a year. Tesla has responded by slashing its Powerwall leasing costs by more than two-thirds, a shift made possible by falling battery prices combined with the rise of "virtual power plants" (VPPs), which pool thousands of home batteries so they can act like a single large power station for the grid.

Home batteries typically cost over $10,000 installed, but in Texas customers can now lease 27 kilowatt-hours of Tesla Powerwalls for $35 a month, or 39.2 kilowatt-hours of Base Power batteries for $19. VPP operators buy electricity cheaply to charge batteries, then sell it back to the grid at a profit during peak demand, sharing savings with consumers through low bills or cheap backup power. The VPP market is currently worth $7.4 billion but is forecast to exceed $30 billion by 2033, driven by rising electricity demand from AI data centres and broader electrification, with VPPs able to be deployed in months rather than the years needed for traditional "peaker" power plants.