Connected Solutions Real-World Experiences (MA - National Grid / EverSource)

[jsurpless]

Hey everyone

I was hoping that folks in Massachusetts could share their real-world experiences with Connected Solutions so far this year.

Asking because my mom lives in SE MA and has EverSource - her experience so far this year has been a bit disappointing. She's had overwhelming 3-hr events (18/20) with EverSource calling events almost every weekday for the last 3 weeks even when it was cool weather and/or cloudy out. This has resulted in only a 6.6 average kW discharge for the season which is a good deal lower than the relatively conservative estimates I'd made. Perhaps my estimates were too optimistic but also perhaps it has something to do with my estimates being based on National Grid events, as opposed to EverSource. Of course, they were also based on last summer so there's that possibility too.

So... could anyone share how their events are so far this year? I live in Bellingham and have National Grid - anyone out this way? I ask predominantly because I was counting on CS as a major offset to the cost of the PWs and this is weakening that offset.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[adspguy]

So tonight I had another occurrence from 5 to 7pm my powerwalls discharged at my usage rate. I have my system set at 100% reserve since I have 1:1 net metering and This would not normally happen.

 

[appleguru]

So tonight I had another occurrence from 5 to 7pm my powerwalls discharged at my usage rate. I have my system set at 100% reserve since I have 1:1 net metering and This would not normally happen.

Same, I also had another event tonight, from 5-7pm. Followed a very similar curve to the previous day’s event, but this time started at my house’s draw of 10.9kW, and tapered down to ~8.3kW…

Very odd, since today wasn’t particularly high demand from what I could tell? (Peaked around 18.5MW, though I guess demand outpaced forecasted demand, so they opted for an event to help offset).

Maybe they’re playing with things? Really hope it doesn’t kill our incentive payouts though but seems like it 100% will. The whole “based on your average kW output for the season” thing, IMO, is a bit silly. Would much prefer if they just paid us a fixed flat rate based on our system size/output capacity. Then they can use as much or as little as they want and incentives are aligned for everyone.

The other option is to pay per kWh they take, but IMO, this would be less desirable unless it had some guaranteed minimum payout per season.

 

[manole]

Same, I also had another event tonight, from 5-7pm. Followed a very similar curve to the previous day’s event, but this time started at my house’s draw of 10.9kW, and tapered down to ~8.3kW…

Very odd, since today wasn’t particularly high demand from what I could tell? (Peaked around 18.5MW, though I guess demand outpaced forecasted demand, so they opted for an event to help offset).

Maybe they’re playing with things? Really hope it doesn’t kill our incentive payouts though but seems like it 100% will. The whole “based on your average kW output for the season” thing, IMO, is a bit silly. Would much prefer if they just paid us a fixed flat rate based on our system size/output capacity. Then they can use as much or as little as they want and incentives are aligned for everyone.

The other option is to pay per kWh they take, but IMO, this would be less desirable unless it had some guaranteed minimum payout per season.

Same exact observation here - Eversource CT customer with 2 PowerWalls and this is my second Summer in the Connected Solutions program. Last year I don’t ever remember them having an event on the weekend but yesterday (Saturday) there was an event. Also, the event was only discharging exactly what my home needed. To artificially push up my demand, I started charging my car when I noticed what was going on (approximately 30 min into the event at 5:30pm) so my 2 PowerWalls ended up discharging down to around 50% by the time the even was over at 7pm. I’m very curious what support comes back with and hoping this is just an anomaly on Tesla or Eversource’s side. If anyone hears back, please let us all know.

 

[manole]

Same exact observation here - Eversource CT customer with 2 PowerWalls and this is my second Summer in the Connected Solutions program. Last year I don’t ever remember them having an event on the weekend but yesterday (Saturday) there was an event. Also, the event was only discharging exactly what my home needed. To artificially push up my demand, I started charging my car when I noticed what was going on (approximately 30 min into the event at 5:30pm) so my 2 PowerWalls ended up discharging down to around 50% by the time the even was over at 7pm. I’m very curious what support comes back with and hoping this is just an anomaly on Tesla or Eversource’s side. If anyone hears back, please let us all know.

Another thing that’s interesting but might just be a coincidence is my check for last Summer (received by Eversource NOT Tesla in December) was for $1,399.37 for 2 Powerwalls. On Tesla’s site here they quote up to $700 of revenue generated in one year (per Powerwall). So I was convinced they didn’t even use metrics to calculate my rebate and just gave me the max amount. But after reading this thread sounds like folks did get rebates for varying amounts which shoots down my theory.

 

[Az_Rael]

So how do you tell the discharge is happening back to the grid? Is it the number I have circled? Swiping back dates, that is normally zero.

 

[manole]

So how do you tell the discharge is happening back to the grid? Is it the number I have circled? Swiping back dates, that is normally zero.

View attachment 824566

You take the ‘Energy Discharged’ stat (19 kWh in your example) and divide by the event duration (in Friday’s example 3 hours long from 4-7pm). So in your example, you averaged 6.33 kW for Friday’s event. There are 30-60 events per year and if you average 5 kW (rounding for simplicity) by the end of the Summer, Eversource pays $225 per kW so $1,125 (5 X 225). However, I have no idea what Tesla’s cut is of that $225. Some have said 20 or 30% but I’m not sure.

Also, as others have mentioned, it’s not how much power you discharged to the Grid, it’s simply how much power you discharged period. In other words, your own home can use some of that power discharged instead of sending it back to the grid and it doesn’t matter for purposes of this incentive.

Finally, when you do discharge some/all of that power back to the grid, net metering is still in effect. This was a discussion earlier in the thread and some folks were trying to calculate the full benefit of this incentive. They were factoring in the cost of the electricity itself that‘s being discharged back into the grid as if they’re going to loose that value. But that’s the wrong way to look at it since you’re effectively rolling your meter backwards when the powerwall is discharging to the grid exactly the same as when your solar panels are rolling your meter backwards.

 

[djlandkpl]

The old version of the Tesla app used to show the power discharged and used by Grid Services. It went away at the end of last summer's program. I was hoping they would bring it back.

 

[solarAddict]

Here is mine printout of Friday’s event. I noticed it was somehow different from last year but was not able to put my finger on it.

Interesting that on Sat i had no event, we had a big gathering and wife was cooking all day + ACs running so batteries had low charge. I realized it too late ( about 3 pm?) and switched off self-power in order to accumulate some before the event. So it was about 40% around 4 pm but it was never called.

 

[Az_Rael]

You take the ‘Energy Discharged’ stat (19 kWh in your example) and divide by the event duration (in Friday’s example 3 hours long from 4-7pm).

I am in a bit of an unusual situation as I apparently got added to the program accidentally (I am on So Cal Edison in CA), so I don't get notice of events and I am trying to figure out if they are actually discharging my powerwall to the grid or not. Since I am not in any program, I won't get paid.

Based on the fact that I have a % in the "grid" section, I assume the answer is yes, they are discharging my powerwall to the grid and I need to get this fixed ASAP.

I sent an email last week when I got the surprise ConnectedSolutions email, but if they are discharging my powerwall, I will have to get them on the phone next week to get this fixed.

I may also pull the internet connection from my powerwalls while I get this sorted. Presumably that would stop discharges as well.

 

[jhn_]

I am in a bit of an unusual situation as I apparently got added to the program accidentally (I am on So Cal Edison in CA), so I don't get notice of events and I am trying to figure out if they are actually discharging my powerwall to the grid or not. Since I am not in any program, I won't get paid.

Based on the fact that I have a % in the "grid" section, I assume the answer is yes, they are discharging my powerwall to the grid and I need to get this fixed ASAP.

I sent an email last week when I got the surprise ConnectedSolutions email, but if they are discharging my powerwall, I will have to get them on the phone next week to get this fixed.

I may also pull the internet connection from my powerwalls while I get this sorted. Presumably that would stop discharges as well.

Should be easy to tell by looking in the app. Do you have a menu item below settings called “Tesla Virtual Power Plant”? If no, you are not really enrolled and they sent you the email by mistake.

Did you have a large banner at the top of you menu in the app saying “Grid Services” on Friday or this morning? Those are shown during event days. If no, then you are not really enrolled.

And so you see a large export anytime in the 2-7pm EDT window that lasted 1-3 hours in the app in the neighborhood of about 5kw per Powerwall (sometimes capped around 10kw if you have more than two PWs)? If not, then you did not send power to the grid enrolled as part of this event.

 

[jhn_]

Event day today on National Grid. Strange since it is cloudy with rain later in the day and not extremely hot. But since 5am grid services has been activated and the Powerwalls are taking all solar to charge up.

 

[Az_Rael]

Should be easy to tell by looking in the app. Do you have a menu item below settings called “Tesla Virtual Power Plant”? If no, you are not really enrolled and they sent you the email by mistake.

Did you have a large banner at the top of you menu in the app saying “Grid Services” on Friday or this morning? Those are shown during event days. If no, then you are not really enrolled.

And so you see a large export anytime in the 2-7pm EDT window that lasted 1-3 hours in the app in the neighborhood of about 5kw per Powerwall (sometimes capped around 10kw if you have more than two PWs)? If not, then you did not send power to the grid enrolled as part of this event.

I do not have the grid services banner or the Virtual power option in my app. However, on Friday between 1-4 and Saturday between 2-4 PDT my Powerwalls did a pretty large discharge but not on other days. We are currently out of town, so no reason for big draws at the house during those times.

Today it looks like the Powerwalls are charging with 100% of my solar and the grid is powering my house. No Grid Services banner, is that the behavior in the run up to an event?

 

[jhn_]

I do not have the grid services banner or the Virtual power option in my app. However, on Friday between 1-4 and Saturday between 2-4 PDT my Powerwalls did a pretty large discharge but not on other days. We are currently out of town, so no reason for big draws at the house during those times.

Today it looks like the Powerwalls are charging with 100% of my solar and the grid is powering my house. No Grid Services banner, is that the behavior in the run up to an event?

View attachment 824945

Yeah that’s screwed up. The behavior you describe with respect to battery output and then pre-event filling of the batteries with solar and having the house run from grid is the fingerprint of Connected Solutions VPP participation.

What email did you reach out to? Was it [email protected]? That is the address Tesla provided to us to use for unenrollment (looking at my signup docs to try to find you contact info).

Did the welcome email mention any utility company or state? There are a bunch of utilities in each New England state participating and each one has different administrative phone numbers for the program so if you knew which you could contact that way as well.

 

[solarAddict]

Event day today on National Grid. Strange since it is cloudy with rain later in the day and not extremely hot. But since 5am grid services has been activated and the Powerwalls are taking all solar to charge up.

looks like NG folks looked at the window and changed their minds.

I had a event warning in my app at 8 am. It's not there anymore. I managed to charge my battery 100 % by bumping reserve app and using grid...

 

[appleguru]

Event happening now on eversource east.. this one is looking much better than the first two so far; PWs are locked at a solid 15kW of output. I suspect it will be a 2hr event unless something changes.

 

[kb1ibt]

As I mentioned in another thread I monitor the gateway API and you can see at 5am where the system switched from discharging from the battery to powering the house from the grid, once the sun came up (behind the clouds) all power went to charging the batteries then around 4:15pm I reached 100% battery, then at 5pm it switched to powering the house via the battery (and labeling it as Grid Services) and sending all of the solar power to the grid.

 

[manole]

Same behavior for me today too where it’s only pulling as much power from the Powerwalls as my home is using. This is totally going to kill the incentive this year for us. Anyone get a response yet from Eversource support on why the change this year?

 

[appleguru]

Event happening now on eversource east.. this one is looking much better than the first two so far; PWs are locked at a solid 15kW of output. I suspect it will be a 2hr event unless something changes.

As expected, 2hr event. 100->22%, 15kW sustained. That’s more like it!

 

[qnzkrew]

I'm in Bellingham with National Grid and had a 3-hr event yesterday, starting at 4PM. My mom who has EverSource in Acushnet had some odd behavior where it was discharging for a short time (no Grid Service on main screen for her - only to 88%).

My average discharge rate was 7.3 kW, for a total of 21.8 kWh over the 3 hrs.

Also, I don't think that it matters where the PowerWall kWh goes (house vs grid). I believe that it's really all about the discharge rate on the PW.

Same behavior for me today too where it’s only pulling as much power from the Powerwalls as my home is using. This is totally going to kill the incentive this year for us. Anyone get a response yet from Eversource support on why the change this year?

This is counter productive as it would incentivize putting a huge load during a grid event instead of sending power to grid. I’m wondering if they are doing this to lower the average kw on the days they don’t need extra power. So they would have 15 events of house use at very low KW and in august when they need extra power they would draw from battery and it will lower their payout without doing anything extra. But you would think they would have to have someone approve changes before doing it. The only reason I signed up was for the amount they originally promised which I received last year. If the amount is substantially less I would just cancel it.

 

[manole]

This is counter productive as it would incentivize putting a huge load during a grid event instead of sending power to grid. I’m wondering if they are doing this to lower the average kw on the days they don’t need extra power. So they would have 15 events of house use at very low KW and in august when they need extra power they would draw from battery and it will lower their payout without doing anything extra. But you would think they would have to have someone approve changes before doing it. The only reason I signed up was for the amount they originally promised which I received last year. If the amount is substantially less I would just cancel it.

It’s also possible this is an issue on Tesla’s end so I opened a ticket with them but who know how quickly Tesla or Eversource will get back to me…