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New Powerwall Advanced Options [Toggles for charging from and discharging to grid from powerwalls]

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how do I view my monthly cap? where is that on the bill? this is the kind of info I wanted to know - like is there a downside to exporting so much to the grid during peak?
The monthly cap isn't shown on the SCE bill, but if you exceed it you will be told by how much.

The downside of exporting too much during peak is you get no credit for it. So you will have paid 22¢ for it but will get zero in return.

You can call SCE and their customer service rep has the info on your monthly cap. Be sure to ask them to tell you the cap for each month.
 
how do I view my monthly cap? where is that on the bill? this is the kind of info I wanted to know - like is there a downside to exporting so much to the grid during peak?
I could tell you where this is on the PG&E black-and-white bill, but I don't know for SCE. It is basically the same as the maximum amount as what PVwatt would tell you for your system for the month/days of the billing period. So, if that number is 1200 kWh and you are charging your Powerwalls at night (and losing 10% due to efficiency loss) and sending 80% to the grid (43.2 kWh/day) that would be 1,296 kWh and then you also send say 600 kWh to the grid from solar for a total of 1,986 you would be capped at the 1,200 kWh for credit offsets and not be credited for the 786 extra.
 
I could tell you where this is on the PG&E black-and-white bill, but I don't know for SCE. It is basically the same as the maximum amount as what PVwatt would tell you for your system for the month/days of the billing period. So, if that number is 1200 kWh and you are charging your Powerwalls at night (and losing 10% due to efficiency loss) and sending 80% to the grid (43.2 kWh/day) that would be 1,296 kWh and then you also send say 600 kWh to the grid from solar for a total of 1,986 you would be capped at the 1,200 kWh for credit offsets and not be credited for the 786 extra.
Impressive math.

I checked my usage for the week and for yesterday alone I sent 39.47kWh to the grid during mid peak. So it seems that I should maybe stick with this and once its sunny enough, turn off grid charging to allow the PowerWalls to charge up from the sun and then export everything - really grid charging should only be used for cloudy/rain days.
 
The production cap is even a little worse than it sounds. Not only are you disallowed the overage, but if you're on a TOU plan, PG&E subtracts the excess export from the highest rate first, even if the excess happened during a lower rate period. This means you really don't want to run into this limit because it will reverse peak credits. I'm not sure if SCE does the same, though.
My main complaint with Tesla's own automation is that it doesn't seem to take this into account when both grid charging and export everything are on. I run my own fail-safe script that turns off export everything each afternoon if I get close to my solar production number. This only really happens on cloudy days, though.
 
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The production cap is even a little worse than it sounds. Not only are you disallowed the overage, but if you're on a TOU plan, PG&E subtracts the excess export from the highest rate first, even if the excess happened during a lower rate period. This means you really don't want to run into this limit because it will reverse peak credits. I'm not sure if SCE does the same, though.
My main complaint with Tesla's own automation is that it doesn't seem to take this into account when both grid charging and export everything are on. I run my own fail-safe script that turns off export everything each afternoon if I get close to my solar production number. This only really happens on cloudy days, though.
I have zero desire to export my batteries, just not worth the hassle. I have gone way over once before on generation limit, so no desire to do that again. I just try to set and enjoy life. Now, since both of my inverters are dead, having zero solar is no fun and a nice sunny day like today
 
Checked again today - I've now sent 90kwh back to the grid during mid peak. my Bill estimate from yesterday to today lowered from 36 to 32. I use a lot of energy in off peak and super off peak so I'm wondering how this all balances out when I eventually go over the limit. I'm going to keep tracking it to find out what that limit is.
 
my settings are working nicely so far.

my house has been grid charging at 8am. I've noticed the batteries charge up to about 50% and then the rest is charged over excess solar produced. I'm at 100% long before 4pm. then the batteries power the house and dump excess perfectly from 4-9pm.

When I started this, my bill was showing $36 for a few days in the new billing cycle. After 1 day, it dropped to $32. Another day and now it's $24.
 
(moderator note)

Moved some ITC / Tax credit discussion to the energy products and taxes thread:

 
FYI, without many expectations I chatted with Tesla's online support (presumably L1?) to inquire about the "Energy Exports" option.

First, they confirmed that the "Permission to Export" option is just for use by people pre-PTO. I didn't ask if it was only available to people with PW+, as I don't have one. But based on the technical limits, that would be my expectation.

On the "Energy Exports" option they said that it should be available to anyone whose utility allows it. I indicated that my interconnection agreement does allow production time shifting (NEM Paired Storage, as opposed to a separate Non-Export Interconnection Agreement for the PWs) and so could they enable it? To my surprise, they did! (After lots of "let me research that for a moment" exchanges.)

Now a few caveats: I still have the Grid Charging Option available, and it is clear that "Export Everything" plus "Grid Charging Yes" is not allowed by PG&E. Nonetheless nothing in the app seems to be preventing me from doing that, although I haven't tried since I did take the ITC.

Second, as mentioned the Interconnection Agreement might not allow exporting from the ESS charged by PV. Although in CA, the CPUC says that the POCOs must offer Interconnection Agreements that do allow that, IIRC.

Lastly, the benefit of Export Everything is going to depend on the relative size of your PV array and your ESS storage capacity (number of PWs). If you can easily fill up your ESS with PV during off-peak times, then there's not as much benefit to Export Everything. I happen to have an old small PV system (2.4 kW AC or so), and a comparatively large ESS (2 PWs), so I expect I'll have plenty of ESS capacity to time shift all my PV production.

I'm interested to see how the PWs behave today, if working properly at sunrise tomorrow my PWs should be down to the reserve setting. Also, it appears to me that Tesla is still figuring out when and how to enable these new options, and for whom, and I'm not sure that L1 support was supposed to (Tesla management wise) enable it for me at this point. They clearly should have a procedure or at least warning to check Interconnection Agreements, and should disallow the prohibited configuration(s).

Cheers, Wayne

I apologize if this has been answered but this megathread is just too long to completely digest. I did get through about ten pages though!

I am in LADWP (Los Angeles) and trying to figure out if I should have the "Energy Exports" option. I tried searching the thread for LADWP and got no hits. I just read my interconnection agreement and found no references at all about exporting. So should I be able to do it from my batteries (I have both PW and PW+)?

The post above says "it should be available to anyone whose utility allows it" but I wouldn't be surprised that I don't have the option even if LADWP allows it. After getting PTO it was a struggle to get them to give me the "Permission to Export" option and I definitely should have had that. So just because I'm supposed to have a feature doesn't necessarily mean I will have it, I might have to bug Tesla to turn it on.

Somewhere within Tesla I read "If ‘Energy Exports’ is not available in the Tesla app, your utility does not allow Powerwall to export energy to the grid for any Time of Use purposes." I'm not currently on a TOU plan, so not sure if that makes any difference.

Thank you!
 
I apologize if this has been answered but this megathread is just too long to completely digest. I did get through about ten pages though!

I am in LADWP (Los Angeles) and trying to figure out if I should have the "Energy Exports" option. I tried searching the thread for LADWP and got no hits. I just read my interconnection agreement and found no references at all about exporting. So should I be able to do it from my batteries (I have both PW and PW+)?

The post above says "it should be available to anyone whose utility allows it" but I wouldn't be surprised that I don't have the option even if LADWP allows it. After getting PTO it was a struggle to get them to give me the "Permission to Export" option and I definitely should have had that. So just because I'm supposed to have a feature doesn't necessarily mean I will have it, I might have to bug Tesla to turn it on.

Somewhere within Tesla I read "If ‘Energy Exports’ is not available in the Tesla app, your utility does not allow Powerwall to export energy to the grid for any Time of Use purposes." I'm not currently on a TOU plan, so not sure if that makes any difference.

Thank you!
I thought NEM2.0 (is that what you are on?) required a TOU plan?

Also, are you THE actual USC Psycho? If so, that’s awesome…and Fight On! ✌️
 
I thought NEM2.0 (is that what you are on?) required a TOU plan?

Also, are you THE actual USC Psycho? If so, that’s awesome…and Fight On! ✌️
I'm on NEM 2 but TOU is not required with LADWP. Based on my production/usage pre-PTO I'm not convinced switching to TOU will be advantageous for me without some interesting combination of grid charging and PW exporting. Lots of homework for me to do, but first need to figure out if I am allowed to export from my batteries so I can get Energy Exports available in the app.

Yes, FO ✌️

The NEM 2.0 and 3.0 rules only apply to IOUs (i.e. PG&E, SCE, and SDGE) not to municipal power providers, although I don't know what LADWP specifically requires.

NEM 3 will not apply to LADWP. Thank goodness!
 
What is an NBC? I'm also thinking I might be better off operating in self powered mode but no idea what NCS's are.
Non-bypassable charges. They are a collection of charges that add up to around 3 cents/kWh. They are a normal part of the cost of electricity but for NEM customers they must be paid on every kWh taken from the grid and cannot be offset by credits for power sent back to the grid.

Generally speaking there is not a financial benefit from running in self powered mode. Even through you avoid paying the NBCs you end up having to use more power due to the round trip losses in charging/discharging the powerwall plus any additional wear and tear on the powerwall. I run self powered mode most of the year just because I value directly using the energy I generate.
 
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I'm on NEM 2 but TOU is not required with LADWP. Based on my production/usage pre-PTO I'm not convinced switching to TOU will be advantageous for me without some interesting combination of grid charging and PW exporting. Lots of homework for me to do, but first need to figure out if I am allowed to export from my batteries so I can get Energy Exports available in the app.

Yes, FO ✌️



NEM 3 will not apply to LADWP. Thank goodness!
That’s awesome. I’ve fun into you at more then one football game! Thanks for rocking the ice hockey jersey on occasion too! ✌️