I agree:
True = Tesla service is terrible and prone to lying
False = The new features are only available to Powerwall+ customers
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New Powerwall Advanced Options [Toggles for charging from and discharging to grid from powerwalls]
- Thread starter dailo
- Start date
I agree:
True = Tesla service is terrible and prone to lying
False = The new features are only available to Powerwall+ customers
I wonder why Tesla is making it difficult on Sunrun? Maybe to hobble competitors installations?
"If you really want grid charging, you have to buy it through us"
FWIW: I have three Powerwall 2 units and have grid charging as an option... PG&E aka "Reddy Killowatt" territory.
If Tesla downgrades all of the PW2 that do have grid charging then @holeydonut will need to be blocked from all future product feature upgrade discussions.
The No Export feature is limited to PW+. This is because it has to continuously adjust solar inverter output to match house consumption. PW+ can do this, PW2 can not. My old microinverters can not support this either.
The other new features, Grid Charging and Export Solar/Everthing, are available to PW2. But then there is the questions of what each utility allows, what each installer understands, and what each Tesla support agent thinks they know.
To paraphrase Yoda: There is no try. There is only wait or wait longer.
Support is confused about these new features. Some of us have gotten them turned on by support, while others have been told it is impossible. My first support agent sent me a piece of training materials she had been given on this subject, but these were incomprehensible due to typos which rendered them self contradictory.
In my case, my app does have the the Grid Charging option, but not the Export Solar/Everthing. My agent passed it up to tier 2 who, after many days, said that they had logged into my PW and the option is there! So the agent had me take screen shots to prove to Tier 2 that there is really a problem. I have seen this before. They use the app via "Masquerade" so they don't need my password. But sometimes that results in them seeing options which I can not see.
Between poor training and support tools which hide problems from them, the management of Energy Support has things to fix.
Don't get me started on Tesla car service and parts.
SW
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I was trying to get any of the "advanced options enabled". The Tesla rep was trying to add for me the grid-charging and export-solar options.
Of course "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.". Although I can imagine it is a combination of ignorance and just trying to get you off the phone.
ZBB
Emperor
I have 4 Powerwall 2s, plus 2 Tesla inverters. Located in the Houston area with Centerpoint as our TDU ("transmission and distribution utility"). Our REP (ie "retail electric provider") is Green Mountain Energy. Our install was done in June 2021, shortly after PW+ rollouts started. The Tesla lead installer mentioned that PW+ is basically a PW2 with a Tesla inverter semi-integrated into a single unit, but they had not yet done any installs (nearly a year ago...).
For the new options, I only have Grid Charging listed, but I've kept it disabled. The other options don't show (and don't expect to get No Export without a PW+)
As for rate plans, I had to manually enter our rate plan. This is a free-nights plan and the amounts I entered into the Tesla app are the REP kWh rate + the TDU kWh rate, and I rounded up to the nearest cent (our plan goes to the ten-thousandths of a cent...). Pretty simple -- peak buy is set to $0.19/kWh (actual rate is $0.187927), with all other rates (off-peak buy and both sell rates) set to $0 (which the blanks out). Our contract is up in mid-June, and we plan on re-newing with the same provider (already did price compares). But the new plan is about 5 cents more per kWh, so I'll update the rates when those go into effect.
So far, the system is working well in Cost Savings Mode. We pull from the grid at night (at $0). Our peak period is 6am to 8pm, and the system pulls from the Powerwalls and Solar, with limited grid draw to balance demand, charging the Powerwalls from excess solar before sending any power to the grid. Our electric bills have been between $6-8 per month -- $4.39 for the base grid connect fee, plus $2-4 for on-peak kWh pull. With the increase in rates, we'll see <$1 per month increase...
For the new options, I only have Grid Charging listed, but I've kept it disabled. The other options don't show (and don't expect to get No Export without a PW+)
As for rate plans, I had to manually enter our rate plan. This is a free-nights plan and the amounts I entered into the Tesla app are the REP kWh rate + the TDU kWh rate, and I rounded up to the nearest cent (our plan goes to the ten-thousandths of a cent...). Pretty simple -- peak buy is set to $0.19/kWh (actual rate is $0.187927), with all other rates (off-peak buy and both sell rates) set to $0 (which the blanks out). Our contract is up in mid-June, and we plan on re-newing with the same provider (already did price compares). But the new plan is about 5 cents more per kWh, so I'll update the rates when those go into effect.
So far, the system is working well in Cost Savings Mode. We pull from the grid at night (at $0). Our peak period is 6am to 8pm, and the system pulls from the Powerwalls and Solar, with limited grid draw to balance demand, charging the Powerwalls from excess solar before sending any power to the grid. Our electric bills have been between $6-8 per month -- $4.39 for the base grid connect fee, plus $2-4 for on-peak kWh pull. With the increase in rates, we'll see <$1 per month increase...
skepticcyclist
Member
I went on Tesla Chat and asked them to enable it for me and they did. It now shows up on my APP
Out of curiosity, did you get both the export anything option and grid charging, or just the latter?
skepticcyclist
Member
Currently only have the Energy Exports option with Solar or Everything (which wasn’t there before) but he said the grid charging should appear by tomorrow as it takes an hour or more to cycle. He confirmed it was enabled at his end
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Gahhhh that's the option I want... I don't want grid charging.
You have "normal Powerwall 2" right? No Powerwall+ ?
skepticcyclist
Member
Correct. I have the PW 2
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aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
Thank you for your comments. I was just able to get Tesla Chat to "fix" my settings too and it immediately showed up in the app while we were chatting (it actually set itself to everything which I will monitor).
At first I confused the Tesla person because I claimed I did not have Permission to Export, which they confirmed that I should NOT have it, since I had PTOs. Then when I explained what I wanted to do they stated I needed the Energy Exports option and then went off to investigate why my system did not show the option. Based on many other comments in this thread I was sweating bullets they would come back and tell me why I was not going to get that option. After about 3 minutes they came back asking me to verify it was on the app, and it was.
So now in theory I have all the tools I need to maximize my Powerwalls and solar systems to provide reliability, environmental stewardship and lowest cost (at least some reasonable combination of the three).