Project Volta

PROJECT VOLTA

AI-Driven Battery Grid Balancing
for Smarter Homes

Intelligent energy management for Tesla Powerwalls using machine learning and reinforcement learning

September 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST

OVERVIEW + ROLE

MISSION & VISION

Project Volta is an AI-powered grid optimization tool developed during a Tesla-sponsored sustainability hackathon in 2025. It intelligently manages Tesla Powerwalls in residential microgrids using demand forecasting and reinforcement learning, reducing peak grid strain and improving battery efficiency.

SCOPE & STACK

DevOps &
Machine Learning Engineer

Infrastructure-as-Code
Terraform: IoT, database & serverless provisioning

Collaboration
GitHub for version control

Programming & Data
Python: Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, JupyterLab

AI / ML
scikit-learn for demand forecasting, TensorFlow (DQN)

Cloud & IoT
AWS IoT Core and Lambda (mocked Tesla API streams)

Simulation
Custom Python engine simulating Powerwall, solar, and demand data

Data & Visualization
InfluxDB for logging, Matplotlib for plots, Grafana-ready dashboards

⚠️ The Problem

"Today's grids can't handle the solar + EV surge."

⚡ Demand Spikes: EV charging and unpredictable solar cause stress on local grids.

🔄 Lack of Coordination: Individual Powerwalls aren’t synchronized, leading to inefficient energy use.

🌇 Peak Outages: Grid instability worsens during peak demand periods.

🎯 Goal: Enable Tesla batteries to act as a coordinated virtual power plant—collectively discharging during demand spikes.

THE SOLUTION

📈 Forecasting

Scikit-learn predicts next-hour grid demand

🤖 RL Agent

DQN model selects battery charge/discharge actions

🔌 IoT Simulation

Python engine simulating solar + battery behavior

📊 Visualization

Visualized impact with Matplotlib

Agent Learning Curve

The DQN controller rapidly improved performance over training episodes, as shown by the agent's reward curve.
This demonstrates effective reinforcement learning and adaptation to power grid dynamics.

Figure: DQN agent's total reward per episode during training (higher is better)

AI agent simulates daily energy management by predicting optimal battery behavior across 96 time steps.

IMPACT COMPARISON

The Tyler Home
Residential | Concept, Rendering, Execution | Completed Jan 2025

The Kim Summer Home
Residential | Concept, Rendering, Execution | Completed May 2025

KEY METRICS (with AI)

Reduction in
Peak Grid Draw

-30%

Precharge
Detection

+92%

Improvement in
Battery Utilization

+18%

Reduction in
Energy Waste

-25%

NEXT STEPS

Mobile
Interface for
Homeowners

Realtime
Dashboards

UTILITY
PARTNERSHIP

Edge
Deployment

TESLA API
INTEGRATION

Multi-Home
Coordination

Monetization
Models

Project Volta was built with scalability and real-world integration in mind. With a strong simulation backbone and AI architecture in place, the next phase focuses on turning the proof-of-concept into a production-ready energy orchestration platform.

📦 FILES & DELIVERABLES

Project Volta is an AI-powered grid optimization tool for smart homes and energy resilience.
Download key artifacts, access the source code, or connect with our team below.

GitHub Docs Demo Video Poster PDF ReadMe Data CSV