Anyone in the UK got 'EV Charging' option in Powerwall settings?

[LampyDave]

Hi there. Apologies if this has been asked before. In the US (and perhaps other parts of the world) it is possible to limit the amount that a charging car will drain Powerwalls by adjusting the 'EV charging' options within the Powerwall settings menu. I don't have that option, and am interested whether anyone in the UK has it? It is discussed in these threads in the energy forum:

How to prevent charging cars from battery

how to disable vehicle charging during grid outage?

I have our Zappi car charger on the 'Backed up' side of the Gateway so it could charge from solar during a power cut, but would love the option to limit the battery drain if (for instance) there were a power cut over night while the car is charging. The system appears to work by tweaking the supply frequency so is apparently independant of which charger you have.
Thanks

 

[ACarneiro]

Yes, it allows you to define how much energy you’re willing to discharge from the Powerwalls to the car in case of a grid outage (as you stated).
I am in the UK and I have that option.

I wonder if it is something that can be configured at the time of commissioning?

 

[BeerOhYeah]

Just checked and that option is not shown on mine - do you have a tesla wall charger in your set up?

 

[ACarneiro]

Yes, but it’s one of the “dumb” Gen2 so doesn’t really “talk” to the system at all…

 

[LampyDave]

Thanks very much - now that I know it's possible in the UK I will investigate further...

 

[WannabeOwner]

that option is not shown on mine

I have it on mine. PowerWalls here.

Not sure it does anything though ... clearly it could check if a Tesla on same account was charging (and maybe WHERE it was charging). If family member is here and charging for example, or a mate with a Tesla (so the location is HERE but not on My Tesla)

I had both that last week - someone who doesn't live here but who is in My Tesla charging here, and also a visitor in a Tesla (Tesla and Zapi chargers)

My CONFIG is 75% grid and 25% powerwall ... definitely pulling more than 25%

1x Cars charging between the red lines. I can't see that PowerWall attempted to co-exist 25:75 with Grid ...

 

[WannabeOwner]

Might be better? to use API to detect power outage (from PowerWall API) and then stop car charging (from Car API)

 

[LampyDave]

I have it on mine. PowerWalls here.

Not sure it does anything though ... clearly it could check if a Tesla on same account was charging (and maybe WHERE it was charging). If family member is here and charging for example, or a mate with a Tesla (so the location is HERE but not on My Tesla)

I had both that last week - someone who doesn't live here but who is in My Tesla charging here, and also a visitor in a Tesla (Tesla and Zapi chargers)

My CONFIG is 75% grid and 25% powerwall ... definitely pulling more than 25%

1x Cars charging between the red lines. I can't see that PowerWall attempted to co-exist 25:75 with Grid ...

My understanding is that this setting is only active during a power cut / outage - to prevent the car emptying the Powerwalls.

From reading around the subject it appears that it does it by tweaking the supply frequency down (which is why it has to be independent of the grid) to dissuade the car from charging. In the same way it tweaks the frequency up during an outage if the Powerwalls are full to stop a solar inverter producing.
There's more info in the threads that were linked in the original post which will explain it better than I have.

 

[LampyDave]

Might be better? to use API to detect power outage (from PowerWall API) and then stop car charging (from Car API)

Perhaps - but then it's vulnerable to changes in the APIs (as are so many things) and only available to those technical enough to achieve it (which doesn't include me!).

 

[LampyDave]

Thanks very much - now that I know it's possible in the UK I will investigate further...

I've just been on the webchat and the adviser seemed confident that it would be possible to add the option. Said it would probably take a couple of days and he's going to get back in touch. Will post here if anything happens...

 

[LampyDave]

I've just been on the webchat and the adviser seemed confident that it would be possible to add the option. Said it would probably take a couple of days and he's going to get back in touch. Will post here if anything happens...

Delighted to say that the 'EV Charging' option appeared in my settings this morning. Has taken more than a couple of days, but got there in the end so it shows that it is possible to add. It might take a few tries to get through to someone who understands the question and is willing to follow it up. In the (highly unlikely) event that the person who did it reads this - thanks very much

 

[scdoubleu]

I have the option. It leads to the following:

Clicking on that leads to this:

Clicking on one of those leads to this:

So no options to control Powerwall discharge into our EVs.

 

[KennethS]

I have the option. It leads to the following:
View attachment 904323
Clicking on that leads to this:
View attachment 904324
Clicking on one of those leads to this:
View attachment 904325

So no options to control Powerwall discharge into our EVs.

Mine is different and under Settings > EV Charging I have the ability to set a limit on how much of the battery is saved for the home use during a power outage.

 

[LampyDave]

I have the option. It leads to the following:

...

So no options to control Powerwall discharge into our EVs.

Ah interesting. My (new) 'EV Charging' option leads directly to

I wouldn't expect to have the Wall Connector options ('cos we're Zappi charger) but maybe Tesla could add the 'Vehicle Charging when Off-Grid' option to yours.

 

[opieor]

Tesla say that they won't enable this feature on my app as it is a US specific feature. I mentioned that I was aware of other Powerwall users in the UK having access to it, but they stated they couldn't comment on what was or wasn't enabled on other users apps.

 

[LampyDave]

How disappointing. It won't help your current situation but I recently tested the functionality by going into 'Off Grid' mode,and with a meter recording the frequency. Sure enough the frequency was reduced as the Powerwalls got down to the threshold and the car charging reduced its rate. Once it got down to about 49.6 Hz the car stopped charging, so (as you know) the feature is not just for the US!

I would suggest - given my variable experience with Customer Service - that you try again at another time and hope for a different advisor with more info / better info.

 

[Tonybvi]

Tesla say that they won't enable this feature on my app as it is a US specific feature. I mentioned that I was aware of other Powerwall users in the UK having access to it, but they stated they couldn't comment on what was or wasn't enabled on other users apps.

I emailed Tesla support a couple of weeks back as I did not have the EV charging option in my Powerwall settings. I got a reply stating they were looking into it. Today I couldn’t connect to my Powerwall through the app for 10 minutes or so (Powerwall offline, please reconnect message) and when it did come back online (no action on my part) lo and behold I now have the EV charging option enabled!

 

[Big Dunc]

So I don’t have this, but I am not sure I want it. The Powerwall cannot see my Zappi charger, it just sees a large house load when the car is charging. I wouldn’t want the whole house frequency being reduced just for this. But it is unusual we charge the car over night anyway.

 

[ACarneiro]

So I don’t have this, but I am not sure I want it. The Powerwall cannot see my Zappi charger, it just sees a large house load when the car is charging. I wouldn’t want the whole house frequency being reduced just for this. But it is unusual we charge the car over night anyway.

What is there in your house that would be affected by a frequency reduction of, say, even 1Hz? That'd be pretty transparent to any appliance not actively monitoring it.

 

[Big Dunc]

Possibly nothing at the moment, although are clocks in some devices reliant on frequency?
Anyway, the comment was more thinking about the future. The way technology is moving, who knows what we will have in five years time. I suppose I could always opt to turn it off if I didn't like it.