PG&E PSPS Watch September 8-9, 2020

[180r]

PG&E weather awareness

As of the time of this posting, zones covering the Sierras and some northwestern areas listed as of now.

This watch follows the Flex alert over the weekend. This has the potential to be a rough couple of days with widespread 100F+ days!

Edit: I see zones 3/4 is basically all of Bay Area too, not just northwestern

 

[getakey]

I went to the PG&E address lookup Public Safety and Power Shutdown
Surprised we are not impacted

 

[BGbreeder]

It is all about what circuit you are on. I find the PG&E address lookup much more reliable than the public announcements, which lack the granularity of the circuit for your particular location.

All the best,

BG

 

[bmah]

I went to the PG&E address lookup Public Safety and Power Shutdown
Surprised we are not impacted

IMHO it's too early for PG&E to know exactly who would be affected. This event, if it happens, is still several days away. That page might be meaningful when they get to the "warning" stage and start notifying people.

Bruce.

 

[cwerdna]

FWIW, I was hit twice by PG&E PSPS last year. I'm in the South Bay. When I drove about 2.5 miles away up an expressway still within my zip code, pretty much everyone from that point on had power.

I hope I don't get hit again this year.

 

[Merrill]

We should rename it BSBS, so let’s see we have a flex alert because they cannot provide enough energy when it gets hot. They have to shut power off because they took all their profits and did not put any money into their infrastructure. Oh and if you are helping them with solar power they have to charge you more and change the NEM and tou time so they can make more money. What is wrong with this picture, maybe a monopoly out of control.

 

[180r]

Messages like this is reported on misc FB pages in Butte County:

"PG&E PSPS Outage Alert 09/05/2020: Due to weather PG&E may turn off power for safety at <redacted> on 09/07/2020. Est shutoff: 9 PM - 1 AM. Est restoration: 09/09/2020 by 7 PM."

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
Indeed. The concurs with the latest tweet currently from PG&E https://twitter.com/PGE4Me/status/1302494304586403840?s=20.

At least my county isn't included, for now.

 

[getakey]

Cal ISO isn't looking good either

California ISO - Today's Outlook

 

[gpez]

Cal ISO isn't looking good either

California ISO - Today's Outlook

I blame this board for me going so deep in to the rabbit hole that is the California power grid operations, and I don't even live in the state.

Stay safe, neighbors!

 

[RKCRLR]

I got a notice from PG&E that I'm on watch for a PSPS on Monday starting between 11 PM and 3 AM. However, my Powerwalls aren't in Storm Watch mode (at least there's no indication on the Power Flow screen). They are 100% charged.
When should I expect them to go into Storm Watch mode? Does a watch trigger it or does it have to be an actual notification of a shutdown? Is there a certain time period before Storm Watch is activated?

 

[RKCRLR]

^^^
Never mind, I got my answer. It just got activated. Little over an hour from when I was notified.

 

[bmah]

I got a notice from PG&E that I'm on watch for a PSPS on Monday starting between 11 PM and 3 AM. However, my Powerwalls aren't in Storm Watch mode (at least there's no indication on the Power Flow screen). They are 100% charged.
When should I expect them to go into Storm Watch mode? Does a watch trigger it or does it have to be an actual notification of a shutdown? Is there a certain time period before Storm Watch is activated?

In my experience the criteria for triggering Storm Watch aren't clear. It was originally supposed to be activated for severe weather alerts, but there were some cases where it didn't even do that right. Then California's PSPS events came along, which aren't technically severe weather alerts, but at least last year Tesla somehow made Stormwatch come on for those where I am.

Anyway if your Powerwalls are 100% charged, going to Storm Watch won't do very much for you. I think it will allow them to charge past the "100%" shown in the Tesla app.

Part of me wonders (<--- based on zero actual evidence) whether there's a human being involved, taking all of this input in and enabling Storm Watch for some set of customers.

Bruce.

PS. OK I just read your follow-up post. Glad it's kinda behaving as expected. Still standing by my comments above. Good luck and stay safe!

EDIT: Sometime while I was typing the PS part above, my Powerwalls went into Storm Watch mode also. SF East Bay, under PSPS watch but not in one of the counties forecasted to be affected. The alert I got on my phone mentioned "extreme heat" but I didn't get a screenshot of it.

 

[getakey]

I just went into storm watch, but no message from PG&E
Charging from Grid and solar at 10kW to the PWs

 

[aesculus]

Now that I see two EDC people going into SW mode I am going leave mine off until at least tonight after peak. Since I am on EVA1 tomorrow is a holiday so I will think through that too.

But today's solar is dismal. You can barely see the sun in the sky. Just a red-orange orb and ash is falling everywhere. Probably the Creek fire I suspect.

 

[getakey]

Now that I see two EDC people going into SW mode I am going leave mine off until at least tonight after peak. Since I am on EVA1 tomorrow is a holiday so I will think through that too.

But today's solar is dismal. You can barely see the sun in the sky. Just a red-orange orb and ash is falling everywhere. Probably the Creek fire I suspect.

What is odd is that the Purple Air site shows air quality as good

 

[aesculus]

My bad. I thought I had turned SW off last night. So now it's on.

What is odd is that the Purple Air site shows air quality as good

It was weird but this AM you could actually see pretty far low on the horizon. But above it was super smokey. So I think the particulates actually were aloft. The AQI at my house has actually been dropping (now at 36 from 134 early this AM).

 

[SMAlset]

Found this in an article from Electrek last summer and seems like someone at Tesla (or programmed settings) sends the needed signal to go into this state:

"CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter:

“Storm Watch was active for hundreds of Powerwall customers this weekend as a result of the National Weather Service’s Red Flag Fire Warnings in California, and we will continue to activate it whenever there advance awareness of a potential power outage or physical danger.”

Some wildfires in California have been recently causing power outages.

Tesla decides when to activate Storm Watch and push it to Powerwall owners, but they can opt out of the program if they are not worried about the weather, or the possibility of losing power, and they want their home battery pack to keep cycling like it normally does."​