Energy Usage pulse - erroneous data?

[Holo]

I recently had a medium (24 panel) Tesla subscription PV system installed. The system received PTO last Tuesday, and I have been watching it closely, using the Tesla app/gateway, ever since. The installation itself went very smoothly and despite it being late November in Massachusetts and despite 4 rainy days out of the last 7, the system has been performing admirably. However, I have noticed an apparent glitch in the graphed data on the “ENERGY USAGE” page of the app. 3 times now the system reports a very sharp and brief energy pulse that peaks at 7.2 kW and just as quickly and sharply drops in a very symmetrical way down to about 1 kW then returns to what I believe is the correct reading. Now, this time of year, on a clear day the system can generate at most 4.5 kW at peak time (about 10 am to 11 am). There is no possible way (baring 3 intense solar flares that would probably wipe out life) that it could have ACTUALLY generated 7.2 kW. Similarly, solar generation would not have sharply gone down by such a symmetrical amount from the mean. So, I am wondering what’s causing this? I suppose it could be the inverter having a bad moment; that would be the worst case scenario and would not bode well for the life of this brand new SolarEdge Wave inverter. It might also be whatever devices have been installed in the inverter or in my electrical panel that report out the energy usage (my current best guess on the source of the problem). Or, finally, it might be a problem with the app software.

Has anyone else experience this issue? If so, any thoughts on a cause and what, if anything, you did to correct the issue?

 

[Holo]

Here is a screen grab. It shows two instances one at about 9 am and the other at around noon.

 

[K3Man]

I am seeing this exact same production pattern on my Tesla app. I have a 21 panel system with a SolarEdge inverter, no Powerwall. I see spikes and dips very similar to the image you posted. No significant clouds in the SoCal area during some of these time periods.

 

[Holo]

I'm getting a better feeling for what might be happening. I think there must be some kind of "cross-talk" between the sensors that report solar panel production and the house's electrical (ie., current draw) usage. Each of those apparent production spikes (and many others since I posted that image) correspond *exactly* with a spike in home energy usage (such as the electric drying going on, or the electric oven, etc.). It's as though the jump in home current draw is erroneously added to the solar panel's apparent electricity production graph and then rapidly subtracted again. It makes for a weird, and potentially inaccurate, graph but I suspect is otherwise harmless.

 

[Regnad]

Many folks, including me, have had issues with CT (current transformer) placement. I would check them out first.

Wrong location, reversed, etc. Good luck.

 

[K3Man]

Our setup has no current monitoring on the utility input side though. Only solar production measurement from the inverter.

 

[PawelM]

Very useful. Have same problems.

 

[Holo]

I sent an e-mail to Tesla Solar's customer care address with a copy of the screen grab I had posted above. So far, this was their response:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Upon review of your account, I do not see any errors being communicated at this time. The Gateway and inverter are both online and reporting in normally, which is great! To confirm, I have notified our local Operations Team of this and have also provided them the screenshot you provided for further review. Once the Operations Team reviews the data and provides additional information, I will be sure to follow up with you with next steps. If you have any questions in the meantime, do not hesitate to contact us at the number below.

We'll see if I get anything more useful from the Operations Team. I'm not considering this to be a major issue, more of an annoyance because the app is clearly NOT reporting completely accurate data. It would be nice to get this fixed but not essential if fixing it becomes too much of a big deal.