Ohmconnect

[Ulmo]

I have many questions about OhmConnect:

• Does anybody know the rates offered by OhmConnect? How much can we earn?
• How much of a cut does OhmConnect take?
• Is there a lock-in period with OhmConnect?
  
• SolarCity and Tesla have said and/or hinted that they might arrange on our behalf for services as a group regarding storage offset services to the grid and associated entities. There are a lot of structures and ideas surrounding this topic. There are already large storage provider financial remuneration systems going in place for some companies, but the idea of residential batteries being part of this is still developing; anybody could start the process of joining on their own, but it is daunting since it is geared for corporations at the moment. This entire paragraph may be slightly imprecise, but not grossly so. But my main point is that there are a lot of opportunities in this space coming up; will OhmConnect turn out to be competitive? This is an area ripe for those good at paperwork taking advantage of the situation, and it looks like OhmConnect may be trying to give us scraps for their large scale incomes. OhmConnect's website is very non-transparent; they are obviously attempting to set up a situation in which they hide all of the accounting information from us, precisely so that they can take advantage of us without us knowing how much they are taking.

My tactic will be to wait for Tesla to improve their software and accounting methods a lot before I start getting in bed with opaque organizations like OhmConnect. I love the idea of someone stepping in and being a service provider for this space, but the way OhmConnect did it is not forthright.

 

[miimura]

Tesla has been talking about PowerWall Aggregation, so I expect that they will come up with some way for customers to participate in Demand Response in some way that is coordinated by Tesla and results in some credits for customers. Whether this ends up being more transparent that what OhmConnect has done so far remains to be seen.

 

[Dave EV]

I have many questions about OhmConnect:

• Does anybody know the rates offered by OhmConnect? How much can we earn?
• How much of a cut does OhmConnect take?
• Is there a lock-in period with OhmConnect

It looks like $1.30-$2.60 / kWh is typical with OhmConnect. Basically when an OhmHour event occurs, this is calculated from your average usage during that time of day and the reduction in energy use from that average for that event. If you could force the Powerwall to discharge to the grid during an event, that could quickly add up!
There is no lock in period, you can start or stop at any time, I believe.

 

[liuping]

It looks like $1.30-$2.60 / kWh is typical with OhmConnect. Basically when an OhmHour event occurs, this is calculated from your average usage during that time of day and the reduction in energy use from that average for that event. If you could force the Powerwall to discharge to the grid during an event, that could quickly add up!
There is no lock in period, you can start or stop at any time, I believe.

I usually get around $5-$8 per Ohmhour (around 2-4 per month), but I have a 40 streak bonus (200%) and platinum status (4x), and I have it set to give me Ohmhours during 7-9pm window (when I can reliably reduce and solar does effect things).

Between Ohmhours, and referral bonuses, and other promotions, I get over $1000 per year from Ohmconnect, which is more than enough to offset my SDG&E required charges (not offsetable by solar) and our SDG&E natural gas bill, so we have a negative energy cost per year.

I believe Ohmconnect takes a 20% cut of what the utilities pay for the collective reductions.

The main purpose of Ohmconnect is to reduce peeker planet power usage and help the environment, so I try not to abuse it or game the system.

 

[bkp_duke]

My concern with OhmConnect is that everything is based upon your "baseline". Right now I have an over-producing solar system, and am very hesitant to sign up and establish a "negative baseline".

 

[liuping]

My concern with OhmConnect is that everything is based upon your "baseline". Right now I have an over-producing solar system, and am very hesitant to sign up and establish a "negative baseline".

You can set the hours for which you receive ohmhour alerts. In the summer I set my hours to 7-9pm since solar production is negligible at that time and I’m still using a reasonable amount of electricity.

 

[Dave EV]

You can set the hours for which you receive ohmhour alerts. In the summer I set my hours to 7-9pm since solar production is negligible at that time and I’m still using a reasonable amount of electricity.

Don't forget that your credits are relative - even in the day while your solar is exporting, if you can export more solar than average, you still get credits. Again - if you could configure the Powerwall to force discharge during OhmHours regardless of what your solar system is doing, you could potentially discharge 5 kWh per OhmHour per PowerWall without doing anything else. That could be an extra $10 or more per OhmHour which would go a long ways towards improving any financial return on the PowerWall.

 

[liuping]

Don't forget that your credits are relative - even in the day while your solar is exporting, if you can export more solar than average, you still get credits. Again - if you could configure the Powerwall to force discharge during OhmHours regardless of what your solar system is doing, you could potentially discharge 5 kWh per OhmHour per PowerWall without doing anything else. That could be an extra $10 or more per OhmHour which would go a long ways towards improving any financial return on the PowerWall.

True, but the utilities do not pay Ohmconnect for negative usage, so Ohmconnect will be loosing money if many people do that.

Ohmconnect currently pays solar users for negative production improvements during Ohmhours, but if people start adding large amounts of it, they will have to stop doing it or go out of business quickly.

Hopefully CAISO will agree to changes in the rules and pay Ohmconnect for negative energy users at some point, but I would not hold my breath.

 

[bkp_duke]

True, but the utilities do not pay Ohmconnect for negative usage, so Ohmconnect will be loosing money if many people do that.

Ohmconnect currently pays solar users for negative production improvements during Ohmhours, but if people start adding large amounts of it, they will have to stop doing it or go out of business quickly.

Hopefully CAISO will agree to changes in the rules and pay Ohmconnect for negative energy users at some point, but I would not hold my breath.

See, this is my concern. I have over-provisioned solar, for future planning (3rd EV when kid gets license, pool pump, etc.) so that for the next few years there will never be a month that I'm not net exporting to the grid. The only benefit would be if I can export more during notifications, to help reduce the cost of the powerwalls.

 

[liuping]

See, this is my concern. I have over-provisioned solar, for future planning (3rd EV when kid gets license, pool pump, etc.) so that for the next few years there will never be a month that I'm not net exporting to the grid. The only benefit would be if I can export more during notifications, to help reduce the cost of the powerwalls.

If you limit the hours to after sundown, it should be fine. Just don't use the powerwalls to export from 7-10pm normally. Then when you get an Ohmhour use the power wall to take you usage to 0kWh. Ohmhours after sundown are fairly common, since so much statewide solar is off line and there is still relatively high demand.

I'm not getting the Powerwalls to make money. I'm getting them for backup, and power shifting. When the TOU times are changed to go as late as 9pm, I will be able to keep from using peak power. With a peak rate of $0.49 vs off peak of $0.25, this will be a huge win. In the mean time Ohmconnect is a bonus. If I wait until the TOU changes, SGIP will be gone.

 

[Ulmo]

Alright! I'll sign up today and see what happens.

 

[liuping]

Alright! I'll sign up today and see what happens.

I will not post my Ohmconnect referral link here due to forum rules, but contact me if you want one. There are bonuses (for you and the referer) when you sign up through a referral link.

Here's a recent article from NPR about Ohmconnect :
Energy Savings Can Be Fun, But No Need To Turn Off All The Lights
(The dollar amount mentioned in the article was based on the old system, before the new higher payout values and multipliers)

 

[bkp_duke]

I will not post my Ohmconnect referral link here due to forum rules, but contact me if you want one. There are bonuses (for you and the referer) when you sign up through a referral link.

Here's a recent article from NPR about Ohmconnect :
Energy Savings Can Be Fun, But No Need To Turn Off All The Lights
(The dollar amount mentioned in the article was based on the old system, before the new higher payout values and multipliers)

Please drop me a PM with your referral link. I'll be happy to use it after I get the PWs installed and am ready to signup for OhmConnect.

 

[juiced]

I will not post my Ohmconnect referral link here due to forum rules, but contact me if you want one. There are bonuses (for you and the referer) when you sign up through a referral link.

Here's a recent article from NPR about Ohmconnect :
Energy Savings Can Be Fun, But No Need To Turn Off All The Lights
(The dollar amount mentioned in the article was based on the old system, before the new higher payout values and multipliers)

Please send me a referral link. Sounds good. Thanks\

 

[bkp_duke]

Question, can you "force discharge" the PowerWall 2 back to the grid?

I.e. when Ohmconnect calls an Ohmhour, even if you are feeding your solar into the grid, can you tell the PW2 to discharge to the grid?

Looking to maximize payback on these (haven't had them installed yet).

 

[Ulmo]

Question, can you "force discharge" the PowerWall 2 back to the grid?

I.e. when Ohmconnect calls an Ohmhour, even if you are feeding your solar into the grid, can you tell the PW2 to discharge to the grid?

Looking to maximize payback on these (haven't had them installed yet).

No. And sometimes, it's hard to even get it to discharge into the house when it's charged, like right now; I'm trying to get it to discharge, but it won't.

Today is the first day I've had any issues with this.

 

[bkp_duke]

No. And sometimes, it's hard to even get it to discharge into the house when it's charged, like right now; I'm trying to get it to discharge, but it won't.

Today is the first day I've had any issues with this.

Well, that changes the math on this considerably.

 

[ohmman]

Well, that changes the math on this considerably.

"Soon" we are supposed to see improved abilities via the app. I don't know what those are, but I'd hope they'd include this eventually.

 

[miimura]

Question, can you "force discharge" the PowerWall 2 back to the grid?

I.e. when Ohmconnect calls an Ohmhour, even if you are feeding your solar into the grid, can you tell the PW2 to discharge to the grid?

Looking to maximize payback on these (haven't had them installed yet).

I don't expect any coordination with Ohmhour or other demand response until Tesla formally implements their own opt-in system that would take the place of OhmConnect to aggregate the PowerWalls that are installed in a given grid territory. That should provide some compensation for owners who do opt-in to their system.

I previously calculated the grid arbitrage available ($/year/PowerWall) on PG&E EV-A based on the assumption that you could force discharge 10kWh per PowerWall per day during the Peak rate period and charge from solar Part-Peak while foregoing NEM grid credits. As @Ulmo said, that does not appear to be possible today with the current software, even with manual app manipulation at the proper times.

 

[bkp_duke]

I don't expect any coordination with Ohmhour or other demand response until Tesla formally implements their own opt-in system that would take the place of OhmConnect to aggregate the PowerWalls that are installed in a given grid territory. That should provide some compensation for owners who do opt-in to their system.

I previously calculated the grid arbitrage available ($/year/PowerWall) on PG&E EV-A based on the assumption that you could force discharge 10kWh per PowerWall per day during the Peak rate period and charge from solar Part-Peak while foregoing NEM grid credits. As @Ulmo said, that does not appear to be possible today with the current software, even with manual app manipulation at the proper times.

I don't care about a coordination with OhmConnect. I want CONTROL over the system to discharge the battery as I see fit, and to opt-in to whatever program I see fit. Just because I own a Tesla Powerwall doesn't mean I will by default participate in Tesla's program.

Given the rate at which Tesla makes some of these "advances", it could take years before their official program is released. Then we will have to deal with their typical "beta phase" where we all make apologies for their stuff not working 100% as designed (NAV, audio, etc. anyone?).

Give me simple control to discharge the battery to the grid when I see fit, and I'll be happy.