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!

 

[manole]

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…

Shockingly I just got a response back from Tesla support that Tesla is aware of the issue and expects a fix to be deployed on their end by EOB tomorrow. I’ll share more details as I get them.

 

[adspguy]

I had an event today as well with it only discharging what my house was using. I hope they fix this, would hate the incentive to be ruined. I just noticed that my gateway has new firmware 22.18.3, perhaps that is the cause of this latest problem.

 

[jsurpless]

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.
View attachment 825107

What are you using to produce this chart?

 

[solarAddict]

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

View attachment 825152

I'm curious if the fact that 57% of this discharge went to support your own house would affect how NG calculates payoff.

 

[solarAddict]

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...

Well, guess what. We had an event 5-7pm. How come they show notification, then remove it, then still run the event???

 

[appleguru]

I'm curious if the fact that 57% of this discharge went to support your own house would affect how NG calculates payoff.

Eversource in my case. But the answer is that it doesn’t.

Which makes sense, because if my batteries weren’t powering the house, the house would be pulling from the grid. So the demand is offset, whether I use the power or my neighbors do.

This is also why you can participate even if you can’t export (eg, you have PWs with no solar):

Powerwall systems not paired with solar generation will not be allowed to export power to the grid, but will still be able to discharge to serve home load. This limitation will greatly reduce the earning potential, but if the home load during events averages 1kW, Powerwall can still earn as much as $200 a year in MA and CT, and $290 a year in RI.

 

[jhn_]

Yup, event from 5-7pm but just like Friday it was the house running purely off battery while all solar went to the grid. I hope Tesla gets this resolved quickly. It’s looks like after the issue on Friday they started A-B testing and some got the fox and the rest of us will get it soon.

 

[solarAddict]

Yup, event from 5-7pm but just like Friday it was the house running purely off battery while all solar went to the grid. I hope Tesla gets this resolved quickly. It’s looks like after the issue on Friday they started A-B testing and some got the fox and the rest of us will get it soon.

That strange. We had overcast at the end of the day so solar was barely producing before 6 pm and not producing later. PW was supporting house (~ 1kW) and pushing rest to the grid (~9 kW) when I checked before 7 pm. My app version is 22.18.3 build 21c0ad81.

 

[kb1ibt]

What are you using to produce this chart?

Grafana + InfluxDB + Python (specifically GitHub - jrester/tesla_powerwall: Python API for Tesla Powerwall )
I query the TEG every second.

 

[Az_Rael]

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.

Unfortunately no. I did email the connected solutions email address last week. Pinged Tesla today and they said I will have to talk to the connected solutions team, so will just have to wait I guess. Tesla said I was in the program so the connected solutions folks have to “verify there isn’t an agreement on my account”. Which is all stupid since my address is in CA and my utility is SCE, it should be obvious I am not eligible for the program. Bureaucracies, sigh.

Today it looks like our Powerwall dumped 9.8 kW back into the grid over 2 hours. Which just irks me since that was MY solar power and I have to pay usage fees for every kWh I get from the grid which can’t be offset using my net generation. So I will be paying more while stuck in this program. Not by a lot, but still.

/end rant

 

[jhn_]

That strange. We had overcast at the end of the day so solar was barely producing before 6 pm and not producing later. PW was supporting house (~ 1kW) and pushing rest to the grid (~9 kW) when I checked before 7 pm. My app version is 22.18.3 build 21c0ad81.

Another event today even though it is cool and not the profile for a high demand day. I think Tesla is working through some issues.

Hopefully I’ve gotten the fix from them and my push back to the grid this afternoon works as it should like last year, and not just my own house.

 

[jhn_]

Unfortunately no. I did email the connected solutions email address last week. Pinged Tesla today and they said I will have to talk to the connected solutions team, so will just have to wait I guess. Tesla said I was in the program so the connected solutions folks have to “verify there isn’t an agreement on my account”. Which is all stupid since my address is in CA and my utility is SCE, it should be obvious I am not eligible for the program. Bureaucracies, sigh.

Today it looks like our Powerwall dumped 9.8 kW back into the grid over 2 hours. Which just irks me since that was MY solar power and I have to pay usage fees for every kWh I get from the grid which can’t be offset using my net generation. So I will be paying more while stuck in this program. Not by a lot, but still.

/end rant

I feel for you, that really sucks. Someone out there with a Powerwall serial number one off from your that’s lives in the Connected Solutions area is wondering why their enrollment went no where. Tesla probably made a typo entering the PW into the program, and you’d say I’m crazy for suggesting Tesla doesn’t have some automated backend system that imports that data… but we’ve seen crazier things on this forum and manual data entry wouldn’t surprise me one bit from Tesla.

Extra kicker… that person might get a check at the end of the season for your power!

 

[appleguru]

Looks like another event today (despite demand lagging forecast on iso-ne). My PWs are pegged at 15kW, so looking like another 2hr one (5-7p). Guess they’re making up for lost time?

 

[manole]

Looks like another event today (despite demand lagging forecast on iso-ne). My PWs are pegged at 15kW, so looking like another 2hr one (5-7p). Guess they’re making up for lost time?

Yup - good news , looks like the big is fixed as mine are finally discharging at 10 kW (2X Powerwalls).

 

[jhn_]

Yup.The fix is in! Discharging at 15kw for 3 PWs since 5pm.

 

[jhn_]

Looks like another event today (despite demand lagging forecast on iso-ne). My PWs are pegged at 15kW, so looking like another 2hr one (5-7p). Guess they’re making up for lost time?

Because there really is no demand according to the ISO NE site, I think all the events since last Friday is them trying to fix whatever went wrong Friday.

 

[jsurpless]

Grafana + InfluxDB + Python (specifically GitHub - jrester/tesla_powerwall: Python API for Tesla Powerwall )
I query the TEG every second.

What sort of machine do you run this on?

 

[adspguy]

2 hour 15kW discharge for me today too. looks fixed. Fingers crossed.

 

[djlandkpl]

Had my second discharge yesterday which worked correctly. However, this morning instead of 100% solar going to the battery, it's splitting solar to power the house. It used to divert 100% of the solar to my self powered setting of 75%.

 

[TORQU3]

Yesterday my system was only matching house demand. I cranked up demand by charging my car, putting laundry in the dryers etc. I hope this is taken care of and the power walls just dump at full tilt otherwise the compensation will be very low and won't end of covering most of the power wall cost as I had modeled and expected.