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]

I've been having almost daily full rate discharge events (5kW/powerwall) for usually 2 hours but there was at least one 1hr event which happened on a day that wasn't really sunny enough to fully charge the powerwalls. YMMV

 

[appleguru]

Same here. Like they started the day thinking there would be an event but by the afternoon there was no extra demand for electricity.

Today was back to the usual 5-7 two hour event.

If so, looks like they made the wrong call
Curious to see if they count that day at all (and if so for what duration) or just toss it out.

 

[jsurpless]

So I *finally* heard back from [email protected] and it turns out (as expected) that I've been missing events *every* single weekday since July 11th.

They have reached out to Tesla to find out what in the world is going on.

I don't actually expect that this will happen but I am intending to be extremely vocal with Tesla as to how their apparent screw-up shouldn't affect my incentive.

 

[qnzkrew]

I’m surprised we had an event today with temps in the 70s

 

[solarAddict]

Can someone educate me on calculating "Powerwall Discharge" numbers and what we are getting actually paid for?

Are we getting paid based on what PW "discharge to grid" or just "discharge" during the event? For instance one day during event some of energy discharged by PW went to support house and another day everything went to grid. Does it make difference?

Let say Powerwall Discharge ( in app) 20 kWh and distribution is Home 35% and Grid 65%.

 

[kb1ibt]

Discharge from the battery, not specifically to the grid, looking at the API values makes it a lot clearer. Example from the event happening right now, you can see that the red value is pegged right at 10kW even though (due to shade and clouds) I was sending less than 10kW back to the grid for most of the event. That also explains why we were screaming for the first few events, because for those events the red line on my graph matched the battery discharge to the house and the batteries weren’t sending to the grid.

 

[kb1ibt]

Also, remember it is the kW average over all of the events, not the kWh sent. The one thing I wish I could see in the APIs is the actual event, say the difference between a 2hr and a 3hr event. We can guess, if it started at 4pm, then it is likely a 3h event and those that start at 5pm are likely a 2hr event.

 

[kb1ibt]

The July 1st event where Tesla had messed up and the power was not sending back to the grid:

 

[jsurpless]

Finally got my PowerWalls working with ConnectedSolutions... took me calling into PW Support, fixed after about 2 hrs... all after they ignored my emails for 10+ days.

Now begins my fight to have them not count those missed 19/22 events against me

 

[jsurpless]

I think that others are seeing this but just to confirm... it seems that Tesla/NG/EverSource are often pulling at the full 5 kW per PW, regardless of whether the event is 2 or 3 hrs? Is that correct?

I just had an event that discharged from 4PM to approximately 6:15PM at 10 kW (2x PW here) until it reached 20%. It is not charging the batteries now that the discharge is over, with all of my solar going to either my house or the grid.

Thoughts?

 

[djlandkpl]

I think that others are seeing this but just to confirm... it seems that Tesla/NG/EverSource are often pulling at the full 5 kW per PW, regardless of whether the event is 2 or 3 hrs? Is that correct?

I just had an event that discharged from 4PM to approximately 6:15PM at 10 kW (2x PW here) until it reached 20%. It is not charging the batteries now that the discharge is over, with all of my solar going to either my house or the grid.

Thoughts?

I'm seeing the same thing (Nat Grid). 5kW regardless of event duration.
Going back this past week:
8/1 Monday PW discharged by 6PM. Solar immediately started charging PW
8/2 PW discharged by 5:45PM. Solar started charging at 6PM
8/3 PW discharged by 7:00PM. Solar immediately started charging PW
8/4 PW discharged by 6PM. Solar started charging at 7PM
8/5 PW discharged by 6PM. Solar started charging at 7PM
8/6 PW discharged by 6PM. Solar started charging at 7PM
8/7 PW discharged by 6PM. No enough sun to charge.

 

[jsurpless]

I'm seeing the same thing (Nat Grid). 5kW regardless of event duration.
Going back this past week:
8/1 Monday PW discharged by 6PM. Solar immediately started charging PW
8/2 PW discharged by 5:45PM. Solar started charging at 6PM
8/3 PW discharged by 7:00PM. Solar immediately started charging PW
8/4 PW discharged by 6PM. Solar started charging at 7PM
8/5 PW discharged by 6PM. Solar started charging at 7PM
8/6 PW discharged by 6PM. Solar started charging at 7PM
8/7 PW discharged by 6PM. No enough sun to charge.

Hmmm, interesting that things seemed to change mid-week for you...

 

[djlandkpl]

Hmmm, interesting that things seemed to change mid-week for you...

I looked at the week prior. Same behavior. I have to assume the days where there's a gap between discharge and charge is due to it being a 3 hour event.

 

[jsurpless]

I looked at the week prior. Same behavior. I have to assume the days where there's a gap between discharge and charge is due to it being a 3 hour event.

Yeah, that's what I would say as well... interestingly, my mom had some genuine 2-hr events cause they started at 5PM, vs 4PM

 

[Doug Savidge]

I purchased Tesla solar panels for my house and signed the 10 year contract with the Massachusetts SMART program where I receive a check every month for my solar production.

If I sell my house, obviously the new owner will get the benefit of the free solar generation, but is there any obligation to the home seller to transfer the SMART payments to the home buyer? I paid in full the cost of the solar system, so I would think I could continue to receive the SMART payments.

Alternatively, I could build into the sale the estimated remaining SMART payments that will be received.

Did it take forever to get the bi-directional Eversource meter installed after all else was said and done (like I'm experiencing)?

 

[appleguru]

Did it take forever to get the bi-directional Eversource meter installed after all else was said and done (like I'm experiencing)?

For me, EverSource installed mine within a week or two of receiving all of the required paperwork from Tesla. (Tesla took their time getting them that paperwork though…)

For me at least, the meters were installed before PTO was granted.

 

[kb1ibt]

For me, EverSource installed mine within a week or two of receiving all of the required paperwork from Tesla. (Tesla took their time getting them that paperwork though…)

For me at least, the meters were installed before PTO was granted.

Same for me on NationalGrid, took forever (2.5 months) for Tesla to get that paperwork correct, NationalGrid took less than 2 weeks.

 

[adspguy]

Did it take forever to get the bi-directional Eversource meter installed after all else was said and done (like I'm experiencing)?

You can read about my Eversource timeline here. There was some delay in getting the meter installed due to tesla not getting all the right paperwork to my town. Once Tesla notified Eversource that the town final inspection was complete, they got the net meters installed in a few days. PTO took forever after that. Look at the thread I linked to see the timeline.

 

[Lmkwin]

Did it take forever to get the bi-directional Eversource meter installed after all else was said and done (like I'm experiencing)?

Took a couple months for us.

 

[Lmkwin]

Had a "new" observation today. Normally after a grid event, on the app, the battery is 20%. The next day, the solar production would go entirely to recharge the battery and the house is power from the grid until the battery is back to 100%. On most days the full recharge occurs by around noon. This means I pulling grid power even though I've got solar production enough to handle the house and send the excess to recharge the battery.

Today it did what I thought it SHOULD do. Solar powered house with excess to recharge the battery. 0 from the grid during that time. This lowers my "purchases" from Eversource, which is exactly what I would have expect it to do all along. Hopefully it's not just a one day thing and it continues like this. I'm up to 30 or so grid events since July started. This is the 1st one that I've seen recharge the batteries in this manner. The correct manner, in my opinion.