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Connected Solutions National Grid
- Thread starter jakestgermain
- Start date
We also got power outage for 5 days. If the storm is known ahead of time like the one we got from TS Isais, Storm Watch is enabled, and no discharge occurs. On Aug 4, we lost power around 2PM, so the event had not started yet. But before that, there were two Storm Watches during the event, and there was no discharge (although there is a bug in Powerwall right now, sometimes it starts discharging, and by disabling Storm Watch in app, and then reenabling it, it will stop - hopefully this will be fixed soon).
So my concern is for the thunderstorms that we often get but are not part of a warning or alert, and in some cases power is lost. I would like to have enough power in batteries to keep the lights on until next day when solar system can start charging the batteries. I have automation that triggers several actions during power outage, such as shutting down cooling, reducing temperatures for heating, disabling fan circulation, humidifier. This is mainly to get my house usage down to 300-400 W range, especially if outage occurs while I am away or sleeping.
Eversource NH has Tesla listed. https://www.eversource.com/content/...mand-response/battery-storage-demand-response
Sounds concerning that Eversource is pulling so much and so often. It would be nice for the idea or theory of connected solutions to be customizable for every customer. Either way it is a voluntary program so opting out seems like a reasonable option until they get their ducks in a row. I will stick with the program and see how much is pulled from my powerwalls and reassess. My sole reason for getting the powerwalls is for whole house back up along with powering the house as soon as the sun sets. Connected solutions for me seems like an added benefit if it works properly.
I am on the phone with Tesla because even though there is a Severe Storm in our area, and people are loosing power already, my Powerwalls are draining at 6.8 kW and is at 73%. I have no way to stop it. And Tesla customer service doesn't seem to have an idea what to do. I am most likely going to unenroll from this program.
Can you turn off your service disconnect? Your powerwalls might still drain to power your house, depending on how much solar production you have at the moment, but that should drain them less than if they’re trying to power the grid. Once the event is over you can turn the service disconnect back on.
I might do that if I get no where. I already hang up with the first Tesla customer service who had no clue what Grid Services is about. Wasted about 30 minutes. His recommendation was to switch to Self Powered mode for 10minutes and then to Backup mode.
I have A/C that it is not connected to backup panels, so if I disconnect the grid for 2 hours, A/C won't run.
In that case do you have a breaker for the gateway in your non backed up loads panel? Just turn that off. It should allow your AC and other non backed up loads to stay connected to the grid and run and disconnect your powerwalls and the backed up loads from the grid so they no longer power the grid.
One of the unfortunate discoveries is that if I shut down the gateway during an outage, the power is not restored after I bring the system back up. So if I shut down the gateway and power goes out, I am not sure if it will start powering the house.
Has storm watch been activated? I know there is a tornado warning in Litchfield County. Id be shocked to hear that storm watch isn't activated already.
There is a severe thunderstorm warning in my area, and it just reached us. But the Powerwall is not in Storm Watch mode. I am talking to a second person at Tesla and she is escalating it to Tier 2 and trying to get someone to stop this event. I am definitely not going to go through this again.
And we also have Tornado warning.
That's what I ended up doing, I flipped the main breaker when my battery reached 50%. I guess A/C is now a secondary concern
I just had another thought. What about turning the main breaker back on and then turning the powerwalls off with their switch. That way your whole house should be able to run off the grid/or any solar you are producing and the powerwalls won’t drain at all. Of course if you do wind up losing power, then that could be less than ideal, but at least you’d be able to run your AC.
Yeah, this goes back to the scenario I discovered in last outage. If a power outage occurs, and the batteries are off, the gateway would loose power I think and I wouldn't be able to start it up.
I only need to wait until 7pm, so another 35min, and then the event is over and will be able to switch main breaker back on.
Yeah, it would definitely get much more complicated if the power failed while the batteries were off. There is a way to ‘jump start’ the gateway with a 12V battery if it is off when the power goes out, but it doesn’t look like a super quick and easy process and seems best avoided if possible.
The experience of @m3-pw2 is why I would never consider any sort of "demand" program where "the utility" gets to decide how much they took from my battery and when.
I really hope it works out for @m3-pw2 , but people who are clamoring for "demand response" systems where they get credit for letting the utility drain your battery, should look at his experience. They would have to be basically provided by the utility for free for me to consider it.
The only way this really would work if its a CUSTOMER SIDE setting that they enable or disable... at will, with virtually no lag time.
I guess I am risk averse on stuff like this though... I dont do "automatic bill payments" either. I want to personally "click the button" to pay a bill online. I have no issue with online payments, the issue I have is someone automatically wanting to get paid without my intervention. Too easy for a company to "make a mistake" and bill you, and get paid for it, and its always a LOT harder to correct such a mistake if they already have the money, than if they dont.
Im sure there are others feel differently, and I am trying to pile on, I really am not. I just really dislike this entire idea of "connected services" in the manner that they want to do them "we can pull from your battery, thank you". I cant imagine how awful it would feel to have solar, and powerwalls, and know there was a situation where you might NEED them... and have your battery being drained to "help" others when YOU want / will need it.
man... what a situation...
