Is this what Storm Watch looks like for everyone?

[perrym24]

We tweeted Elon. He said they will fix it in the next release.

Our power has been out 27 hours and ETA is 1130pm tomorrow!View attachment 386379

Cleared off 60 percent of the panels so we have power for now...

Hope your grid power is back on, and nicely done with moving this up the food chain. Did't know you were the guy with the greenish-blueish-yellowish sweet looking S! (saw you briefly down in littleton when I took delivery of my 3) Thanks for all you do for Tesla and that you were able to get Elon's attention on this!
Our support guy said it was a temporary fix but they were looking into it. Just had to shake my head in amazement that a blizzard wasn't included from the start.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Hope your grid power is back on, and nicely done with moving this up the food chain. Did't know you were the guy with the greenish-blueish-yellowish sweet looking S! (saw you briefly down in littleton when I took delivery of my 3) Thanks for all you do for Tesla and that you were able to get Elon's attention on this!
Our support guy said it was a temporary fix but they were looking into it. Just had to shake my head in amazement that a blizzard wasn't included from the start.

Yep, that's one of our cars. The color might be changing soon, btw. Hope you are enjoying your 3!

Yes, it's amazing they didn't activate it for blizzards. Who would've thought that high winds and snow could be worse than just high winds? Hopefully we do see improved Storm Watch functionality in the future but I don't know if we'll get any update before our heavy April snows.

The power came back on yesterday morning after nearly 46 hours. The Powerwalls worked great the first day but we had some problems the second day. Tesla came out yesterday and they believe they've found the problem between the inverters and the Powerwalls. They will change some settings on the inverters on Monday after remotely doing a firmware update on the inverters tomorrow. There are a few more details about our issue here: PowerWall Cold Start without Grid Power

Sounds like they've found a bug, but at least it can all be resolved with software updates!

 

[trmmcd]

I just received my first storm watch event based on a severe weather alert tied to high winds and risk of fire. Previously other severe weather alerts did not trigger storm watch. This was the first severe weather alert since I was upgraded to 1.33 from 1.31. I am thinking the version upgrade enabled this capability. We’ll see how subsequent severe weather alerts are handled.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

So the blizzard warning just came out for most of northeastern Colorado...but Jefferson County just west of Denver just has a Winter storm warning. Elon said they adjusted the Storm Watch sensitivity but I'm guessing they still haven't included Winter Storm Warnings.

Fortunately it's nearly 80 out and sunny today so I'm charging the Powerwalls to 100%. I'm setting the reserve higher manually as we have 5 to 10 inches of snow and high winds predicted for tomorrow.

I guess we should contact them to ask about Storm Watch sensitivity again...

 

[MorrisonHiker]

So the blizzard warning just came out for most of northeastern Colorado...but Jefferson County just west of Denver just has a Winter storm warning. Elon said they adjusted the Storm Watch sensitivity but I'm guessing they still haven't included Winter Storm Warnings.

Fortunately it's nearly 80 out and sunny today so I'm charging the Powerwalls to 100%. I'm setting the reserve higher manually as we have 5 to 10 inches of snow and high winds predicted for tomorrow.

I guess we should contact them to ask about Storm Watch sensitivity again...

Yay! Storm Watch!

Ironically, it was activated minutes after the batteries had already charged to 100%:

 

[abasile]

Ironically, it was activated minutes after the batteries had already charged to 100%

Glad it activated for you! This reminds me, it would be nice if the Storm Watch feature gave us some "advanced" options:

Activation options:
1. Always prepared. Activate for any significant weather event.
2. Severe only. Activate for only the most severe weather events.

Charging options:
1. Charge from solar only. This would basically just set the backup reserve at above "100%" once Storm Watch activation occurs.
2. Charge ASAP, using grid, but only for severe events.
3. Charge ASAP, using grid.

 

[boaterva]

Googled to find this thread, very interesting confirmation that 100% on the PWs is really 90, what I suspected. Also wish SW activated for any warnings as that means high probability event.

 

[WSE51]

I've sent Tesla a feature request to allow manual triggering of Storm Watch mode. Gaining access to the "overcharging" capacity would be valuable in three cases besides the ones triggered automatically by Tesla:

(a) before a scheduled power outage occurs - Tesla would have no way of knowing about a local maintenance outage
(b) during an extended power outage - you need to store as much solar energy you can!
(c) before a major storm that for some reason did not result in triggering Storm Watch

Tesla may fear that giving manual control will result in people degrading their batteries by charging up to the real 100% too often. But for 7 years, owners of Tesla cars have been able to charge to 100% and are warned not to do this regularly or it will shorten battery life. Why not give Powerwall owners the same ability and let them manage their own risk?

 

[SociallydistNt]

It is the proper setting and when in Storm watch mode, it looks exactly as mine does right now!

 

[chrisbailey13]

I was in Storm Watch mode yesterday as well....But the skies were clear and winds were calm....the storm never came.

 

[RKCRLR]

Does anyone know if a warning of a Public Safety Power Shutdown will trigger the Storm Watch mode? I've had shutdowns where there weren't high winds in my area but my power was shut down because of high winds where the power lines run through.

 

[jjrandorin]

Does anyone know if a warning of a Public Safety Power Shutdown will trigger the Storm Watch mode? I've had shutdowns where there weren't high winds in my area but my power was shut down because of high winds where the power lines run through.

The Public Safety Power Shut downs (PSPS) are supposed to trigger stormwatch mode. I have only had my system since Jan of this year, so it was not in place during fire season last year so I cant confirm but I am fairly certain that those PSPS are reported and basically activate stormwatch.

Just friday in fact, I got a letter in the mail from SCE basically telling me, in effect, "as fire season approaches, we know you are shelter in place, but we still may need to perform PSPS in your area due to .... blah blah blah". I showed it to my wife and we both chuckled... One of the main reasons we got the darn powerwalls was to not have to worry much about having power "when the grid is down" (planned or not).

it is a LIBERATING feeling, let me tell you....

 

[ohmman]

Does anyone know if a warning of a Public Safety Power Shutdown will trigger the Storm Watch mode? I've had shutdowns where there weren't high winds in my area but my power was shut down because of high winds where the power lines run through.

Yes, it does trigger Storm Watch mode - my 2PW setup got me through all of the PSPS last year and they were always fully charged ahead of the shutdowns.

 

[jboy210]

The Public Safety Power Shut downs (PSPS) are supposed to trigger stormwatch mode. I have only had my system since Jan of this year, so it was not in place during fire season last year so I cant confirm but I am fairly certain that those PSPS are reported and basically activate stormwatch.

Just friday in fact, I got a letter in the mail from SCE basically telling me, in effect, "as fire season approaches, we know you are shelter in place, but we still may need to perform PSPS in your area due to .... blah blah blah". I showed it to my wife and we both chuckled... One of the main reasons we got the darn powerwalls was to not have to worry much about having power "when the grid is down" (planned or not).

it is a LIBERATING feeling, let me tell you....

I have to admit after putting in Powerwalls and solar I am kind of hoping we have some PSPS the fall. We had 4 days worth last year.

 

[jboy210]

Yes, it does trigger Storm Watch mode - my 2PW setup got me through all of the PSPS last year and they were always fully charged ahead of the shutdowns.

So how does that work? When Powerwatch is active, does the system always try to ensure the battery is at 100%? That would seem to be unnecessarily using grid power for us since our system can fill the Powerwalls and power the house in 4-5 hours even now. Is the system smart enough to know this and not pull from the grid when conditions are such that you can be 100% self powered, which is what we see day after day.

 

[cwied]

So how does that work? When Powerwatch is active, does the system always try to ensure the battery is at 100%? That would seem to be unnecessarily using grid power for us since our system can fill the Powerwalls and power the house in 4-5 hours even now. Is the system smart enough to know this and not pull from the grid when conditions are such that you can be 100% self powered, which is what we see day after day.

Stormwatch will start pulling from the grid to charge up as soon as Tesla activates it and is not smart enough to recognize conditions where you can be self-powered indefinitely. Some people turn Stormwatch off precisely to avoid the situation you're describing.

You can always turn Stormwatch off until the sun goes down or the off-peak rate and then turn it on again to charge it up to maximum. Note that Stormwatch seems to charge to over 100% in addition to charging from grid.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

So how does that work? When Powerwatch is active, does the system always try to ensure the battery is at 100%? That would seem to be unnecessarily using grid power for us since our system can fill the Powerwalls and power the house in 4-5 hours even now. Is the system smart enough to know this and not pull from the grid when conditions are such that you can be 100% self powered, which is what we see day after day.

Currently, you can toggle Storm Watch on or off. It would be nice if there was an option to "Avoid Peak" or something. Our Storm Watch was activated last week because it was warm and windy and there was fire danger. It was full sun out and I didn't want to charge from the grid so I just disabled Storm Watch during the peak period. The red flag warning ended by the time I turned Storm Watch back on.

 

[ohmman]

Note that Stormwatch seems to charge to over 100% in addition to charging from grid.

Right. For me, this is more concerning than a dollar or two of electricity - since the normal 100% is some reduced charge level for battery protection reasons, having Storm Watch charge the packs to 100% and hold them there for a couple of days before the power actually goes out is a little disconcerting. But I don't see a very easy way around it, and I appreciated having the PWs ready to go once the power did get cut.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Fortunately Storm Watch sends notifications when it activates. If it's during the day (peak and part-peak), I'm usually awake and receive the notification on my mobile devices. I can then go and disable it temporarily, if desired. If I'm sleeping, I might miss the notification but that would usually be at night during off-peak.