Abnormal solar production spike beyond system capabilities (SolarEdge inverter)

[zonela]

My system was installed in March and received PTO last week. It is a 4.08kW system (12 Q.Peak Panel) with SolarEdge SE3800H inverter.
I noticed some irregular activities since yesterday, as my inverter stopped communicating with Tesla Gateway which resulted SolarEdge app monitoring ability going offline. I did reset the gateway but to no avail. However, what is weird that the Tesla app is still receiving solar production data but with abnormal spikes going way beyond the system capability. Attached two screenshots. Granted this couple days had scattered clouds in the Bay Area but the solar production graph from last week during cloudy days did not resulted in these spikes.

Have anyone seen similar issues before on SolarEdge inverter? I hope it is just a bug and not an indication that the new inverter is going bad.. I will try to reset the inverter tonight.
I did read someone mentioned cloud-edge effect, where the edge of a cloud acts like a lens, creating a temporary, dramatic spike. Not sure if this is true or not.

Attaching below is the "normal" PV production graph during a cloudy day last week, just drops in production but no spike.

 

[sorka]

Looks like classic cloud reflection. That said, your peaks are beyond the 3800's capacity. Is it possible they put the wrong inverter in?

 

[jjrandorin]

The cloud edge effect is a thing, and would be my gut feeling on what is going on here, but it would just be a gut feeling. It also could be something like the poling time running together, and all presenting in one spike (for example).

 

[charlesj]

Your total daily production looks normal to me as I have a similar sized system, at least on the inverter side.
The peak wattage is abnormal to me. May need to contact the installer, perhaps Tesla, or inverter company?

 

[sorka]

Do you have portal access so you can look directly at the SE production data?

 

[pdx_m3s]

I think it’s just a glitch in the data. I have seen it before. In that first picture, the spikes are either preceded or followed by a steep drop in production, which doesn’t look right. If you average the peaks and valleys, then everything looks normal.

 

[zonela]

Looks like classic cloud reflection. That said, your peaks are beyond the 3800's capacity. Is it possible they put the wrong inverter in?

It's 100% the 3800 model for sure.

Your total daily production looks normal to me as I have a similar sized system, at least on the inverter side.
The peak wattage is abnormal to me. May need to contact the installer, perhaps Tesla, or inverter company?

Yes I'm getting around 22-23kWh per day. Contacted SE and they said my inverter stopped reporting to the Tesla Gateway, they can only see the inverter is still producing normally and told me to reach out to Tesla to fix the communication issue. I opened a case with Tesla already.

Do you have portal access so you can look directly at the SE production data?

I did physically checked the inverter status via ZigBee connection to the SolarEdge App and all things looks good. (Only the communication tab is offline)

I think it’s just a glitch in the data. I have seen it before. In that first picture, the spikes are either preceded or followed by a steep drop in production, which doesn’t look right. If you average the peaks and valleys, then everything looks normal.

That's great and I do hope it's just a glitch, but this weird anomaly started the same day the inverter stopped communicating with the gateway. My average solar production falls within the normal range so guess I'm good for now. What I'll do is keep an eye over the weekend and wait for Tesla to get back to me next week at least to fix the communication issue.

 

[wjgjr]

I think it’s just a glitch in the data. I have seen it before. In that first picture, the spikes are either preceded or followed by a steep drop in production, which doesn’t look right. If you average the peaks and valleys, then everything looks normal.

I believe this is the correct answer here, at least for some of the spikes, especially since some extend well above the inverter capacity.

For OP, is there any consistency across days on the spikes and valleys (like the spike is exactly at 4:00?) Tesla bins the data into 5-minute increments for reporting (if you don't have the Android download bug, you can see this by clicking on the "Download My Data" button.) There were isolated reports of the app incorrectly moving some data to the wrong bin (perhaps the ":00" bin for the same hour.)

The good news is it probably means the important systems are operating properly, and you will just need to contact Tesla to figure out how to resolve this reporting/display issue.

 

[zonela]

Tesla just responded with an unhelpful one liner message trying to kick the ball around:
"Being that you have been granted access to the SolarEdge monitoring portal you don't monitor through Tesla. You don't need a new gateway because you have been approved for SolarEdge portal access which we don't support."

To my understanding the SolarEdge app monitoring request is in addition to the Tesla app monitoring, user shall be able to monitor on both app in parallel which it worked fine for more than a week. There is definitely something wrong with the inverter communication link with the gateway, as SolarEdge tech support mentioned they can't see anything on their end due to communication error between the inverter and Tesla gateway.

Today even the Tesla app stopped showing solar production data.. I'm starting to feel of a faulty inverter. (I reset the inverter last night)

@wjgjr I check the data from "Download My Data" and seems like they were reported in a 15-minute interval, and the spike and drop matches the graph. No consistency on the spike times for the past couple days.

 

[GJones]

I have SunnyBoy inverters with SunPower panels...I get SunPower data direct from them as well as Powerwall data from Tesla. The SunPower data is very similar to what you see - they don't do a very good job of marking data as it is transmitted and the data looks "spikey" all of the time. In their monthly reports, they go back and smooth the data but the real time stuff is bloody awful.