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!

 

[kb1ibt]

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.

There are actually 2 different charging methods on the “correct“ days, when the battery is below the reserve it charges the batteries at up to 1.5kW per battery before sending any to the house, so example with 2 batteries it charges 3kW from the panels then start providing to the house, until you are producing more than the house needs then send the excess to the batteries. (See screenshot below, where I didn’t hit reserve until after 11:30am) Then once you are above the reserve it inverts, sending to the house first and then all excess to the batteries until the batteries are full, then to the grid. If you are at or below the reserve and not producing enough for the house, it pulls the excess the house needs from the grid, but once above the reserve it pull first from the solar then the battery.
The “grid event” days is when it performs the alternative of charging the battery first before being used for the house/grid.

What I don’t know, since I have more battery kW than panels, is what would happen for those with more solar than battery power, say if you have 13kW of solar but only 2 PW (thus 10kW battery).

 

[jsurpless]

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.

Personally, I want it to charge my battery as fast as possible via solar to ensure that it's at 100% for any potential event. Therefore, I prefer it when it dumps all solar production into the battery until full, utilizing the grid for all house use.

Your "purchases" from EverSource don't matter when they happen because we don't have Time-Of-Use in MA (at least, I don't).

 

[solarAddict]

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.

My only guess it happened because today's event has been canceled but already after the "event notification" was posted in am?

 

[jhn_]

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.

Did you have an event today? We did not have an event today. The first time in a week or two I believe. And being set to “self-powered” in the app we got today, and always get on non-event days, the behavior you describe which is the solar runs the house first and changes the battery second.

 

[Will792]

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.

My preference is the same as yours but admittedly there is zero financial incentive to follow this model. It is just to lower rather abstract number of power purchase from the grid. My PV system is more than 10KW so I pay $0.006 system benefit charge for each purchased KWh but even with that additional charge is negligible.

I doubt that Tesla can model PW charging for each system to guarantee that batteries are fully charged, by the time scheduled event starts. The alternative is to direct grid power to house consumption and using all PV power to charge batteries. Since there is no event today you did not see mode change activated the day prior to an event.

 

[appleguru]

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.

That’s how it normally works, and is also an indication that we *won’t* be having a connected solutions event today.

When 100% of solar goes to recharge the batteries, tesla has control and an event is imminent.

Re “purchases” from eversource, do you not have net metering? Assuming you do, it’s more or less a wash (minus the ~10% loss for round trip to the batteries).

Eg, if you use 30kWh of solar to charge your batteries, and also pull 30kWh from the grid to run your house during that time, then later that evening, export that 30kWh from your batteries back to the grid during a ConnectedSolutions event… your net grid draw (and bill) is 0.

 

[Will792]

That’s how it normally works, and is also an indication that we *won’t* be having a connected solutions event today.

When 100% of solar goes to recharge the batteries, tesla has control and an event is imminent.

Re “purchases” from eversource, do you not have net metering? Assuming you do, it’s more or less a wash (minus the ~10% loss for round trip to the batteries).

Eg, if you use 30kWh of solar to charge your batteries, and also pull 30kWh from the grid to run your house during that time, then later that evening, export that 30kWh from your batteries back to the grid during a ConnectedSolutions event… your net grid draw (and bill) is 0.

Not exactly correct but close. With net metering and PV system higher that 10KW there is system benefit charge for “purchased” power so consumed 10KWh followed with 10KWh feed into the grid has $0.06 charge to the customer. Considering that current electricity price for residential EverSource customer is around $0.25 per KWh it is almost rounding error.

 

[appleguru]

Not exactly correct but close. With net metering and PV system higher that 10KW there is system benefit charge for “purchased” power so consumed 10KWh followed with 10KWh feed into the grid has $0.06 charge to the customer. Considering that current electricity price for residential EverSource customer is around $0.25 per KWh it is almost rounding error.

My system is >10kW, but I don’t see this on my bill. What does it look like?

The only thing I see is a “distributed solar charge”, which charges me $0.00270 for every kWh I produce (or for every net kWh I pull from the grid).

All of the other charges are only charged on my *net* grid consumption. While my meter tracks how many total kWh the grid delivered, that information is not present on my bill or used for any charges.

 

[adspguy]

My system is >10kW, but I don’t see this on my bill. What does it look like?

The only thing I see is a “distributed solar charge”, which charges me $0.00270 for every kWh I produce (or for every net kWh I pull from the grid).

All of the other charges are only charged on my *net* grid consumption. While my meter tracks how many total kWh the grid delivered, that information is not present on my bill or used for any charges.

Is your AC greater than 10kW, they use the AC value not the DC value

 

[Zinc_Saucier]

Is your AC greater than 10kW, they use the AC value not the DC value

Which was just upped to 25kW as part of the “Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind” bill signed this week.

 

[appleguru]

Is your AC greater than 10kW, they use the AC value not the DC value

Yes. I’m 15.2kW AC (16.32kW DC)

 

[Will792]

That’s how it normally works, and is also an indication that we *won’t* be having a connected solutions event today.

When 100% of solar goes to recharge the batteries, tesla has control and an event is imminent.

Re “purchases” from eversource, do you not have net metering? Assuming you do, it’s more or less a wash (minus the ~10% loss for round trip to the batteries).

Eg, if you use 30kWh of solar to charge your batteries, and also pull 30kWh from the grid to run your house during that time, then later that evening, export that 30kWh from your batteries back to the grid during a ConnectedSolutions event… your net grid draw (and bill) is 0.

Not exactly correct but close. With net metering and PV system higher that 10KW there is system benefit charge for “purchased” power so consumed 10KWh followed with 10KWh feed into the grid has $0.06 charge to the customer. Considering that current electricity price for residential EverSource customer is around $0.25 per KWh it is almost rounding error

My system is >10kW, but I don’t see this on my bill. What does it look like?

The only thing I see is a “distributed solar charge”, which charges me $0.00270 for every kWh I produce (or for every net kWh I pull from the grid).

All of the other charges are only charged on my *net* grid consumption. While my meter tracks how many total kWh the grid delivered, that information is not present on my bill or used for any charges.

 

[appleguru]

Not exactly correct but close. With net metering and PV system higher that 10KW there is system benefit charge for “purchased” power so consumed 10KWh followed with 10KWh feed into the grid has $0.06 charge to the customer. Considering that current electricity price for residential EverSource customer is around $0.25 per KWh it is almost rounding error

View attachment 840883

Huh, weird. My bill looks nothing like that at all. Maybe CT vs MA?

Here’s a recent one (we produced slightly more than we used here):

Bills where we consume more than we produce (most months…) have a lot more charges on them.

 

[Lmkwin]

That’s how it normally works, and is also an indication that we *won’t* be having a connected solutions event today.

When 100% of solar goes to recharge the batteries, tesla has control and an event is imminent.

Re “purchases” from eversource, do you not have net metering? Assuming you do, it’s more or less a wash (minus the ~10% loss for round trip to the batteries).

Eg, if you use 30kWh of solar to charge your batteries, and also pull 30kWh from the grid to run your house during that time, then later that evening, export that 30kWh from your batteries back to the grid during a ConnectedSolutions event… your net grid draw (and bill) is 0.

I do have net metering. I just don't like pulling power from the grid when I'm producing enough power from Solar to meet the house demand. I suppose that Tesla has an incentive to make sure that I'm fully charged for an event. It's my first year in this program so we'll see if the benefit is worth having my batteries drained down to 20% as night time approaches on event days. The batteries are supposed to be available to power my home. That's the reason that I added the battery storage. 20% level isn't going to work for me, especially if the next day is a bad solar day. We've had about 3dozen events so far this season. I doubt we get to 60 this year. We'll see how much we get for participating in Connected Solutions. I don't like the lack of control I have over what I got the batteries for.

 

[kb1ibt]

It is the average over the course of all of the events so no matter if there are 10 events or all 60 you will still get the same kW * $, so with my 2 PW I should average around 7-8kW (of the 10kW max) * $180 = $1260 - $1440.

 

[appleguru]

I do have net metering. I just don't like pulling power from the grid when I'm producing enough power from Solar to meet the house demand. I suppose that Tesla has an incentive to make sure that I'm fully charged for an event. It's my first year in this program so we'll see if the benefit is worth having my batteries drained down to 20% as night time approaches on event days. The batteries are supposed to be available to power my home. That's the reason that I added the battery storage. 20% level isn't going to work for me, especially if the next day is a bad solar day. We've had about 3dozen events so far this season. I doubt we get to 60 this year. We'll see how much we get for participating in Connected Solutions. I don't like the lack of control I have over what I got the batteries for.

ConnectedSolutions may not be for you then. For us, it’s a no brainer; without the incentive buying batteries made 0 fiscal sense.

A few points to think about:
-when enrolled in ConnectedSolutions, roughly 10 months of the year you have full control over your batteries and usage
-for the 2-3 months that include ConnectedSolutions events, pulling from the grid to power your house ahead of ConnectedSolutions events is actually better for the environment than not participating and offsetting your personal usage directly. Why? Because if you (and others) don’t participate, then the utility has to offset this peak demand with dirty, expensive power from peaker plants. If you do participate, that power you are pulling from the grid during non-peak times is much cleaner, coming from a higher percentage of nuclear, solar, hydro or wind power sources
-power outages for us are very rare, and in the event of a predicted storm or other event that is likely to cause an outage, they won’t call an event
-most outages that do happen here in the north east are very short duration (1 hr or less). So if the power does go out when you’re down to 20%, that may be more than enough to hold you over until the grid is back up. This actually happened to us a few weeks ago when there was a local equipment failure. We had 2-3 short outages that day. Our batteries started at 20% and never dropped below 14%. We never were without power, and by the evening the batteries were back to 100% from solar.

 

[adspguy]

I do have net metering. I just don't like pulling power from the grid when I'm producing enough power from Solar to meet the house demand. I suppose that Tesla has an incentive to make sure that I'm fully charged for an event. It's my first year in this program so we'll see if the benefit is worth having my batteries drained down to 20% as night time approaches on event days. The batteries are supposed to be available to power my home. That's the reason that I added the battery storage. 20% level isn't going to work for me, especially if the next day is a bad solar day. We've had about 3dozen events so far this season. I doubt we get to 60 this year. We'll see how much we get for participating in Connected Solutions. I don't like the lack of control I have over what I got the batteries for.

I think of this a bit differently. The purpose from an environmental perspective is to let the power company not have to purchase peak power during the times that they drain our battery. By letting them drain your battery during peak hot weather usage, and focusing on charging batteries off peak the power can end up coming from "better" and less expensive sources during not peak times. In the end kWh are kWh (except for the battery charge/discharge loss) so having the power company effectively charge and discharge your battery the amount of your solar generation is really an environmental win. They do only charge your battery based on the solar generated so it is environmentally sound.

I no longer feel that "self-power" is important as much as generating a high percentage of my total usage. Using our batteries to have the power company need to purchase/generate less peak power is a much or ecologically sound goal. Of course the big kickback is a good feature too. If you were using your batteries to "self-power" you'd likely be discharging them at a time where the power grid has excess capacity and not really doing as good a job ecologically, and would be the same from a total net metering point of view.

In my case, with 100% net metering, and not time of use rate differences, I say let them get the batteries fully charged and discharge them at peak use time. This maximizes the environmental impact and gets me a big kick-back. At the end of the month it is mostly the same for me except for the round trip to the battery loss. How many events there are doesn't affect your payment, only the average kW participation (not kWh totals) so fewer events doesn't lessen your payment.

 

[Lmkwin]

It is the average over the course of all of the events so no matter if there are 10 events or all 60 you will still get the same kW * $, so with my 2 PW I should average around 7-8kW (of the 10kW max) * $180 = $1260 - $1440.

Thank you for the clarification. I have 2 PW2's. Looks like I'm averaging 18.8 kwh from Battery, per the Tesla app data, so far for event days.

Does the payment per kw ave change every year? I can't seem to find my Connected Solutions documents. I must have done it electronically.

 

[Will792]

Thank you for the clarification. I have 2 PW2's. Looks like I'm averaging 18.8 kwh from Battery, per the Tesla app data, so far for event days.

Does the payment per kw ave change every year? I can't seem to find my Connected Solutions documents. I must have done it electronically.

Pricing in the program is rather unusual. It does not use amount of electricity (kWh) but average rate of feed (kw) across all events. I am glad that all events this year are 2 hours, not 3. My recollection is that pricing per kw was the same last year.

 

[kb1ibt]

Pricing in the program is rather unusual. It does not use amount of electricity (kWh) but average rate of feed (kw) across all events. I am glad that all events this year are 2 hours, not 3. My recollection is that pricing per kw was the same last year.

The pricing is a 5 year lock from when you signed up. Also the events are not all 2 hour events from what has been determined, they have just set it up to drain all the batteries in about 2-hours. The events that start at 4pm are usually 3-hour events because the batteries hit 20% at around 6:05, where the events that start at 5pm stop at exactly 7pm before the batteries hit 20%