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!

 

[qnzkrew]

Can’t believe they really called an event today with all day rain and temps in the low 80s. Powerwalls barely above 30 percent full.

 

[kb1ibt]

Can’t believe they really called an event today with all day rain and temps in the low 80s. Powerwalls barely above 30 percent full.

Absolutely, make no sense, my batteries were a little higher at 46.5% when the pull started.

 

[appleguru]

Agreed, this one caught me completely by surprise :-/ a 3hr event too; this one will ding the average pretty solidly.

 

[kb1ibt]

Based on what I am seeing today will likely be another event. Again what’s with the rainy/cloudy day pulls?

 

[qnzkrew]

Based on what I am seeing today will likely be another event. Again what’s with the rainy/cloudy day pulls?

Last year they were a lot more selective on which days were pulled This year seems like they are going for the max amounts of pull allowed

 

[djlandkpl]

Been in grid services all day slowly charging. Storm watch activated a few minutes ago under a flood warning which expires at 6:45.

 

[qnzkrew]

Been in grid services all day slowly charging. Storm watch activated a few minutes ago under a flood warning which expires at 6:45.

I got an Alexa warning of flash flood and my weather app says flash flood but tesla app never went to storm watch in north Rhode Island and with only 70 percent full and seventy degree weather we are pulling from batteries.

 

[kb1ibt]

Yep, today is another event, just triggered here in Leominster area.

 

[djlandkpl]

Been in grid services all day slowly charging. Storm watch activated a few minutes ago under a flood warning which expires at 6:45.

So now the discharge event started and still in storm watch. The battery is now discharging what it pulled in for storm watch. Someone messed up the programming.

 

[jsurpless]

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%

Oddly, my batteries only discharge to ~30% when an event runs from 5PM to 7PM. They still discharge at 10kW for a total of ~19.8kWh. The odd part is that this would imply a total capacity of >28kWh

 

[kb1ibt]

Oddly, my batteries only discharge to ~30% when an event runs from 5PM to 7PM. They still discharge at 10kW for a total of ~19.8kWh. The odd part is that this would imply a total capacity of >28kWh

It all depends on where you look at the data, there is actually a “hidden” ~5% on some of the sources of information, example looking directly at the API on the Gateway and even the gateway UI itself shows this extra percent, but the Tesla App does not (or at least it didn’t). This extra 5% is specifically in reserve to not damage the batteries but running them too low. There is a specific API value on the gateway that tells you the exact capacity, and you can see how it changes over time. Also if you have the newer PW+ it is entirely possible that it may be slightly over 28kWh, the peak since I started tracking was around 27.8kWh. The main reason I am tracking it is to be able to keep them honest near the end of the PWs warranty. (Not shown on this graph, but also tracked, is the individual batteries full charge capacity)

 

[jsurpless]

It all depends on where you look at the data, there is actually a “hidden” ~5% on some of the sources of information, example looking directly at the API on the Gateway and even the gateway UI itself shows this extra percent, but the Tesla App does not (or at least it didn’t). This extra 5% is specifically in reserve to not damage the batteries but running them too low. There is a specific API value on the gateway that tells you the exact capacity, and you can see how it changes over time. Also if you have the newer PW+ it is entirely possible that it may be slightly over 28kWh, the peak since I started tracking was around 27.8kWh. The main reason I am tracking it is to be able to keep them honest near the end of the PWs warranty. (Not shown on this graph, but also tracked, is the individual batteries full charge capacity)
View attachment 844295

My system is newer, installed May 2022 but they're just PW, not PW+

 

[jlv1]

I suppose that Tesla has an incentive to make sure that I'm fully charged for an event.

Except that, in my experience, it doesn't work well enough.

Is there anyway to stop a Grid Services event?

TL/DR: Is there anyway to stop a Grid Services event in progress? We lost power an hour ago for 1 minute. It was our 4th outage in the last 4 days. We're in the path of a massive thunderstorm cell (it's currently down pouring). We're likely to lose power again. And moments ago my PowerWalls...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[qnzkrew]

This makes no sense. Yesterday we had storms and 70 degree weather and barely any sun yet they called for an event. Today full sun and 90 degree weather and no event.

 

[jsurpless]

So strange... a short time ago, I got an alert for Storm Watch... then my PWs started charging and then while still in SW, they began discharging for a CS event... and now the SW event is gone, yet there's still lots of rain and thunder... gotta love it

 

[kb1ibt]

Luckily my house was already full when the storm watch triggered so none was pulled from the grid, but yep a CS pull while it is thundering.

 

[jsurpless]

And the event ended at ~41% full, down from 100%... so weird...

 

[qnzkrew]

And the event ended at ~41% full, down from 100%... so weird...

Same here. I think this has been the first two hour event that started at 4 and ended at 4. For me, every single time they started at 4 it would keep pulling till 6:06 j Tik batteries were drained but wouldn’t start charging until 7 which means the event was still active.

 

[kb1ibt]

Mine ended at 6PM, and like qnzkrew, it started charging the batteries when the event ended.

 

[djlandkpl]

So strange... a short time ago, I got an alert for Storm Watch... then my PWs started charging and then while still in SW, they began discharging for a CS event... and now the SW event is gone, yet there's still lots of rain and thunder... gotta love it

I had the same issue on Tuesday. Did a chat with support and they could see the battery discharging whilen in SW.

Today, event started at 4, SW kicked in at 4:34. Discharge stopped and grid charging started. Once SW ended discharging continued until 6 at 55%.