NorCal PG&E blackouts

[miimura]

...but if your internet/ISP is down, even if your home network is up, will the Tesla app 'see' the gateway/Powerwall to let you know its status?

My Powerwall is connected to Tesla with the provided cellular radio. It does not go through my WiFi or LAN.

 

[cwerdna]

When my local neighborhood loses power, in maybe 10-30 minutes, Comcast goes down, likely as some kind of backup battery on a coax amp or switch runs down. Makes me sort of wonder about going with a satellite ISP as redundancy.

I've had power outages and continued to work on Comcast fine before (I have my cable modem and access point on UPSes). However, I don't remember for how long. At other times, I wasn't home and I eventually lost my connection to my Nest cams and NVR, figuring the battery on a UPS died... I didn't know if it was that or Comcrap dying.

For this PG&E PS PS, I lost power at ~11:58 pm and Comcrap went out at ~12:45 am. Xfinity app showed an unplanned outage for my area for 2300+ or 2500+ customers w/an ETA repair time of Oct 17th (probably bogus).

 

[Janus]

I have AT&T fiber at my house (resold by sonic.net, although I think that fact is irrelevant). It stayed up the whole time...not sure what active components there are in that sort of network that need power. Our cell phones (AT&T) worked as far as I could tell.

The majority of fiber-to-premise in the US (i.e. at&t, Verizon, Google, etc) is passive. Electricity is only used at the ONT (the device that converts the fiber to copper) and the central office. Unlike other technologies (DSL, Cable, etc) which need boosters and converters installed between you and the central office, fiber just uses a few prisms along the way. As happened here, many of those boosters and converters get their power from the utility pole they are strapped to, so in a major power outage, they stop working. Vs. with fiber, as long as the generator at the CO is still working (and you have a battery backup for your ONT), one can still maintain internet access.

 

[JPP]

The majority of fiber-to-premise in the US (i.e. at&t, Verizon, Google, etc) is passive. Electricity is only used at the ONT (the device that converts the fiber to copper) and the central office. Unlike other technologies (DSL, Cable, etc) which need boosters and converters installed between you and the central office, fiber just uses a few prisms along the way. As happened here, many of those boosters and converters get their power from the utility pole they are strapped to, so in a major power outage, they stop working. Vs. with fiber, as long as the generator at the CO is still working (and you have a battery backup for your ONT), one can still maintain internet access.

Unfortunately no fiber in my neighborhood, so Comcast, or ATT over copper, or satellite....sigh.

 

[ohmman]

bn

Unfortunately no fiber in my neighborhood, so Comcast, or ATT over copper, or satellite....sigh.

Same.

 

[miimura]

Even in Silicon Valley there is sadly a lack of any competitive high speed internet. Comcast is the only viable choice in my neighborhood. Less than a mile from my house as the crow flies, Comcast won't even install because the density gets too low and the number of customers per mile of cable it too small.

 

[cwerdna]

For me, my power went out on Wednesday at 11:58 pm. I knew I was in an affected area per PG&E's maps and address lookup tool. Comcast internet access went out at 12:45 am. I confirmed by visiting my cable modem's status page (http://192.168.100.1/).
..
My power came back around 3 pm on Thursday, which is much earlier than I expected. I expected to be w/o power until at least sometime Friday.

Fortunately, my work (w/free L2 charging) wasn't affected and areas just a few miles away from home also weren't affected. There are 2 paid DC FCs within 7 miles of home (if I needed to use them) and I'm pretty sure they weren't in affected areas.

The above I posted Oct 12 and refers to the Oct 9 and part of the 10th outage I experienced.

So, I checked Public Safety and Power Shutdown on Wednesday night but it said there'd be no impact. I checked Thursday night and oh no... here we go again:
"STATUS

October 24, 2019: Due to gusty winds and dry conditions, combined with a heightened fire risk, PG&E may need to turn off power for public safety at this address in the next 36 to 48 hours. As we continue to monitor conditions, please prepare for outages that could last longer than 48 hours. By providing your specific address information in this tool, you are getting a more accurate view than PSPS area map. Get the latest information on this event at pge.com/pspsupdates"

I also got the text message from PG&E on Thursday at 8:19pm and "PG&E Safety Alert: Weather conditions may require a Public Safety Power Shutoff (Message sent on Thursday, October 24th)" at 7:56 pm. Sigh...

However, I'm actually getting on a plane to go to Japan on Sunday, partly for Tokyo Motor Show.... but I might lose power the day or night before. Fortunately, my local airport is said to have backup power (even if they were affected).

 

[wraithnot]

If you knew in advance that PGE was going to start shutting down regions, you could manually increase the reserve level. Granted, unlike Storm Watch, it'd only charge up from solar. But at least your stored energy would be little higher.

This is essentially what I did today. I switched into backup-only mode once PG&E changed their mind about shutting the power off in our neighborhood in San Rafael. I didn’t have storm watch on because I had some trouble with the powerwall when it was first installed in April and I didn’t want to change any of the settings once it finally started behaving.

Our power was shut off at 8:25 pm and I’m happy to report that the powerwall is working as advertised. The lights did flicker a little and the Comcast box that also runs our WiFi rebooted. So maybe a small UPS for Comcast box would be a good idea. But otherwise so far so good. A back of the envelop calculation indicates the solar panels will provide enough energy to keep the essentials running indefinitely. We’ll see how reality matches up with prediction over the next few days.

 

[patrick40363]

My Powerwalls are working but this morning I can't get an update on data from the Tesla app.I am in northern CA and the power was shut off at 755pm last night. I can access my cars but nothing from the powerwall.

 

[ecarfan]

For those like me with Powerwall V1, having the grid go down during the night is a problem. The V1 doesn’t have the same control interface capabilities as the V2. No Storm Watch, no manual controls. My Powerwall is set to discharge during the day to reduce grid usage during peak rate times and charge at night.

I lost power (due to a PG&E PSPS) last night at 8pm with my Powerwall at 15% (that is the lowest it is set to discharge to) so this morning I have no power until the sun gets higher. What I should have done weeks ago is have my solar company reprogram my system so my Powerwall charged during the day and discharged only at night.

I have two V2 Powerwalls on order from Tesla Energy, started that process 3 weeks ago but they have not yet gotten back to me with a proposal and a quote. Maybe they are overwhelmed with orders in California.

 

[Late2theGame]

My Powerwalls are working but this morning I can't get an update on data from the Tesla app.I am in northern CA and the power was shut off at 755pm last night. I can access my cars but nothing from the powerwall.

Is you wireless still up and does your house still have internet?
During power-outages we usually lose remote access to the powerwalls due to Comcast going down.
If you are home and your wireless is still up, then the powerwall/gateway might have disconnected from it?
In that case I need to reconnect to the TEG-xyz network and reconnect to the wireless 'manually' - see:
Connecting to Tesla Gateway | Tesla Support

 

[patrick40363]

Is you wireless still up and does your house still have internet?
During power-outages we usually lose remote access to the powerwalls due to Comcast going down.
If you are home and your wireless is still up, then the powerwall/gateway might have disconnected from it?
In that case I need to reconnect to the TEG-xyz network and reconnect to the wireless 'manually' - see:
Connecting to Tesla Gateway | Tesla Support

We have fiber optic internet so we never lose the wifi. I logged into TEG this morning just to confirm it was working. I found the same link you sent online and followed the instructions.Working great. Thanks.