arbitrage with power wall

[SMAlset]

New to this and don’t have our system in yet but I thought basically PG&E limits the amount of money you can get back at your True-up so you basically can’t make any “real” profit sending power back to the grid. I know in our area a consortium of cities here in the bay area joined with a company to offer solar friendly power generation to their residents, with PG&E dropping to solely a distribution source (and billing). Residents had to opt-IN to PG&E if they wanted to continue with them as generator and distributor. So for us in this area we would be competing with our city’s generator partner.

BTW I thought I read somewhere on the PG&E site that you had the ability to designate a True-up date different from one you get initially at PTO but you are only allowed to change it once.

 

[RKCRLR]

This will be the first year I may produce more than I use so I'm interested in this also. I'm on PG&E and will probably wind up on the EV2A rate plan.
My understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that PG&E will credit me monthly in dollars (not kWh) for the months I produce more than I use. So I get more "money" for energy during peak hours than off-peak. At the end of the year true-up, if I have a credit left, they will somehow convert it to a wholesale price (about $0.03/kWh). They will credit (pay) me at this wholesale price.

How is this credit calculated? I.e., if all of my credit is from peak hours will they pay me at a higher rate than if it was off-peak?

How do the minimum distribution charges come into play? I.e., if I had a credit for $120 at the end of the year and my minimum distribution charges were $120 for the year but I had $120 in NBCs (non-bypassable charges) do I owe nothing or $120?

Thanks

 

[cwied]

The thing to know about the excess production payout is that it is kWh based, not dollar based. You are compensated at wholesale rates for any excess kWh you provided to the grid. You can easily have a billing credit but no excess kWh in which case your credit is wiped out and you get no money back. In theory the opposite is true too (especially with a rate like EV2-A), but I don't know what happens in that case. Perhaps you'll owe the true-up amount but get compensated a small amount for the excess kWh.

 

[Aces123]

So in Texas we have Griddy as an electricity wholesaler so buy/sell on spot pricing. Texas ERCOT regulates power and they provide a data feed on pricing. I was wondering if any startup has designed an addon system to manage this when you have battery and excess electricity output? Would think there would be a better management program that's actively following pricing rules. Is Time based or user intervention on alerts the only option?? I have overbuilt solar to accommodate new Tesla's before Tax Credit drops next year, and have 4 PowerWall2s. So wondering if I have an opportunity until my usage catches up to production.

 

[Art_Hunter]

In Canada we have NetMetering for excess solar generation credits that are good for a year. This is fine with me as it permits storage of the excess until winter when it is mainly overcast and snow on the arrays. However, it is not like this all the time. How do I configure the 3 powerwalls to charge during off-peak and mainly discharge after 7 a.m. thru 11 p.m. (but use available solar to run the house, charge the powerwalls and use the excess for NetMetering). It was straight forward to direct the Tesla Model 3 EV charging after 11 p.m. when the rates are 2.5 cents per kWh. I could not find a similar interface to manage the Powerwall charge and discharge times. Is it possible?

 

[jjrandorin]

In Canada we have NetMetering for excess solar generation credits that are good for a year. This is fine with me as it permits storage of the excess until winter when it is mainly overcast and snow on the arrays. However, it is not like this all the time. How do I configure the 3 powerwalls to charge during off-peak and mainly discharge after 7 a.m. thru 11 p.m. (but use available solar to run the house, charge the powerwalls and use the excess for NetMetering). It was straight forward to direct the Tesla Model 3 EV charging after 11 p.m. when the rates are 2.5 cents per kWh. I could not find a similar interface to manage the Powerwall charge and discharge times. Is it possible?

I would suggest starting with looking into configuring the utility in your app if you have that option in Canada after looking through the following thread on the subject:

Tesla App Utility plan configuration: Multiple Peaks, Buy/Sell Behavior, etc

There is no thread on powerwall longevity, and there is no way to manage "not charging to 100%" like the you can in the vehicles. You can set your reserve to reduce depth of discharge, but your choice is to either not discharge at all, or go from X % to 100 unless your solar wont fill up the...

teslamotorsclub.com

This thread is from 2019 and in "TeslaLand" nothing about app interface / setup etc is valid from so long ago.