PG&E rolling blackouts during heatwave (Aug 14 2020 —> ?)

[power.saver]

My own experience: I was on Cost Savings and a Friday, so the system naturally thought it could charge the PWs minimally just to get me to the weekend and export as much power as possible to PG&E for credit (I am on EVA-1). Because it was so hot and we had some cloud cover my solar yield was also about 80% of normal (21 kWh vs 26 kWh). So I did not get the PWs charged as much as normal before peak hit and then the PWs started exporting at 2PM. At 6pm I ended up reducing my reserve down to 40% to avoid peak chargers even with my A/C throttled way back.

Then around 6:30 we got our power turned off. Thinking first it was just local I let things run for about 30 minutes while I investigated. I checked PG&Es outage website and the map was not active. Entering my address they accepted the outage info and stated they would investigate. So I decided to risk it and again lowered my reserve to 30%.

Note: it was another 45 minutes before they stated they would restore power at 9:45 and that it was an "emergency".

Not only were my neighbors calling and texting about being out of power but I started getting feedback from all over the county.

At about 7 I decided to turn off the AC units because they suck about 7kW of power in total when on. And they were cycling fairly frequently. Now I am down to 32% and only producing about 400 W of my base load of 900 W at a loss of 500 watts per hour.

I limped along with my PWs discharging slowly to just about 30% when the power was restored around 8:40, so 2:02 was what is reported in the app for our backup duration.

So basically I need to rethink my strategy when ISO declares a possible event. I should never had exported my power to PG&E at the start of the peak period. I could have used that to keep my house at least comfortable. Even for those two hours it went from my conservative 82F to 85F, and humid. We actually opted to go outside in the 95F heat in the shade with a bit of a breeze by a pond, as that felt better. Plus the bats put on a super air show swooping into the pond to get a drink and flying by each other twisting and turning. Almost worth the hassle of the power outage.

A couple of thoughts. Had you not exported your power, the grid situation would have been worse. I continued to export all solar yesterday to help, even if just a little bit.

Also, you don't need to change your reserve when you are in a grid outage situation. The PW will discharge right past it during an outage.

 

[arnolddeleon]

I'm in the bay area, specifically Cupertino. My PW is in storm watch mode right now.

 

[aesculus]

Also, you don't need to change your reserve when you are in a grid outage situation. The PW will discharge right past it during an outage.

Thanks for that.

My first change was made because I just hit my reserve at 50% and was starting to consume PG&E power at peak rates. So I dropped it to 40%. Then after eating most of that up the power went out so that is when I went lower, which as you stated, I did not need to do.

I am running on Self Powered mode right now trying to get my PWs charged. Not sure what is going to happen at peak so will have to wait and see. This part is new to me. Since it's a weekend I only need to go self powered from 3PM to 7PM but there are no options for that in Self Powered mode.

 

[bmah]

I’m not convinced...this isn’t the kind of widespread event as the PSPS events last fall. Also activating Storm Watch would result in more load on the grid with Powerwalls charging up.

...and my system went into Storm Watch mode 20 minutes ago. I stand corrected.

Bruce.

 

[ohmman]

In Sonoma, my PWs are not in Storm Watch mode despite having received a notice that there were rolling blackouts in the area yesterday evening. The good news is that we never had an outage at my home. I keep my reserve at 60% and I'd already bumped against that and was using grid power. I didn't want to mess with things, so I just left everything as-is.

Today I'm precooling the house in advance of a potential outage. I've had situations where I can run my AC on my 2PW setup, and other situations where the surge to kick the unit on trips the breaker. Because it's not a guaranteed thing, maintaining a cool temperature in the house (and chilling all of the mass in the house a bit) should help carry me over. We are also not forecast to get quite as hot today as yesterday. My Davis VantageVue recorded 106F yesterday. No thanks.

 

[aesculus]

I’m not convinced...this isn’t the kind of widespread event as the PSPS events last fall. Also activating Storm Watch would result in more load on the grid with Powerwalls charging up.

Actually if they were really smart they would totally do this, but at a fine time scale.

So they should enact Storm Watch mode up until around 3PM, and charge everyone's batteries to 100%. Then turn it off. And from that point on hopefully they would discharge during the low solar production.

But Tesla really needs a new mode for this IMHO. It has a few nuances to it that even manually I am finding a bit challenging to implement.

 

[aesculus]

I've had situations where I can run my AC on my 2PW setup, and other situations where the surge to kick the unit on trips the breaker.

Hey. You just reminded me of an issue I did not experience. My AC (heat pumps) do not have soft starts on them. And for about 30 minutes they both cycled on and off a number of times on my two PWs.

 

[iPlug]

We have had several afternoon and evening power outages in Rocklin in Placer County over the last couple of weeks. They affected a few thousand people for 2-3 hours each time and there were no prior warnings from PG&E, but when we called in for updates their periodic call back updates worked well.

It's just been our corner of Rocklin, some of us on the east side of I-80. Apparently some bad (?transformer) hardware that must have been replaced in the last couple weeks as this portion of the grid has been handling the higher demand stresses of recent nights when we do the "duck curve" thing with many solar homes in our neck of the woods.

Was not planning on getting any power walls soon since we are in the lowest PG&E fire zone area. But with those recent outages and now the rolling blackout threats, may reconsider sooner.

 

[jboy210]

In Sonoma, my PWs are not in Storm Watch mode despite having received a notice that there were rolling blackouts in the area yesterday evening. The good news is that we never had an outage at my home. I keep my reserve at 60% and I'd already bumped against that and was using grid power. I didn't want to mess with things, so I just left everything as-is.

Today I'm precooling the house in advance of a potential outage. I've had situations where I can run my AC on my 2PW setup, and other situations where the surge to kick the unit on trips the breaker. Because it's not a guaranteed thing, maintaining a cool temperature in the house (and chilling all of the mass in the house a bit) should help carry me over. We are also not forecast to get quite as hot today as yesterday. My Davis VantageVue recorded 106F yesterday. No thanks.

Cal IOS terminate yesterday's power emergency last night. However looks like they a new one today for at least East and South Bay.

And 106. phew, nothing. 109 yesterday in East Bay.

 

[jboy210]

It's just been our corner of Rocklin, some of us on the east side of I-80. Apparently some bad (?transformer) hardware that must have been replaced in the last couple weeks as this portion of the grid has been handling the higher demand stresses of recent nights when we do the "duck curve" thing with many solar homes in our neck of the woods.

Was not planning on getting any power walls soon since we are in the lowest PG&E fire zone area. But with those recent outages and now the rolling blackout threats, may reconsider sooner.

4 days of PSPS in late October and Nov last fall caused us to add to 2 Powerwalls to our order. If this sort of hot weather is the new normal I am considering adding a 3rd.

 

[aesculus]

Storm Watch not yet activated in the Bay Area. I’m sure it will activate.

I’m not convinced...this isn’t the kind of widespread event as the PSPS events last fall. Also activating Storm Watch would result in more load on the grid with Powerwalls charging up.

In any case we’ll find out one way or the other...

Bruce.

Well that is an interesting question and the statement can be answered as a basic "no"

Well I stand corrected. While it appears that the Bay Area may have gone into Storm Watch for both dry lightning and the heatwave, in El Dorado county where I live I am now in Storm Watch too (12:30PM). According to the detail NWS map I am only in a Excessive Heat Warning zone, until 9PM Wed.

Bay Area fire weather watch upgraded to red flag warning due to heat wave, dry lightning

 

[SMAlset]

Cal IOS terminate yesterday's power emergency last night. However looks like they a new one today for at least East and South Bay.

And 106. phew, nothing. 109 yesterday in East Bay.

Not according to KCRA out of Sacramento posted like 20 min. ago. Could change but Cal ISO said they think with the weekend and less demand they will squeak by. Nothing guaranteed for rest if week however. So they had two power plants down on Friday taking out 1000+ MW.

California blackouts, PG&E power outages: Could it happen again Saturday?

 

[SMAlset]

4 days of PSPS in late October and Nov last fall caused us to add to 2 Powerwalls to our order. If this sort of hot weather is the new normal I am considering adding a 3rd.

We upped our order from 2 to 3 a few months ago. Ultimately it would save us another installation fee. I looked at what the simulation showed we could run and for how many hours and figured we’d need more to get us from evening to sunshine the next day comfortably and cover A/C use while building up the battery again. The projected lows for these evenings has been in the 70s. Not great sleeping weather IMO. Believe it or not our install is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

 

[ohmman]

I'll probably be adding a third (or fourth) as well. I am transitioning a lot of my NG to electric, including migrating to a heat pump. Winter outages could be tough in that situation.

So much for the slightly cooler forecast today. We're back up to 106. Monday/Tuesday forecast looks rough as well, everyone stay safe and cool.

 

[aesculus]

So much for the slightly cooler forecast today. We're back up to 106

We peaked at 107F. But with the clouds moving in we are now at a cool 106. And of course the solar production took a hit too with the heat and cloud cover. And since we are in Storm Watch (not going to toggle it today after last nights event), we are feeding from the grid. It's set to expire at 9PM Wed for me but who knows.

At least it's EVA1 Sat/Sun so the pain will be less. Next week is going to be just as brutal so strap in everybody.

 

[JPP]

I have a colleague in San Rafael (Marin County). Yesterday Friday at 6:45 pm they had an unannounced blackout for about 2-3 hours. Here in the East Bay it has been hot (Lafayette 105, Concord 110° today). Storm Watch went live at 11:30 am as the State announced a Fire Alert (high temps, risk of lightning). It is hazy and partially cloudy so less than optimal solar PV performance. No outage here yet, but stay tuned. We have 2 PWs and 16kW of solar on our home. But due to our electrical system layout (kind of odd, several sub panels), our 2 5 ton AC compressors are not backed up, so when we lose power, it's gonna be unpleasant.

And EV-A is just a memory--we are on EV2-A and get punished from 4-9 pm.

 

[bmah]

I have a colleague in San Rafael (Marin County). Yesterday Friday at 6:45 pm they had an unannounced blackout for about 2-3 hours. Here in the East Bay it has been hot (Lafayette 105, Concord 110° today). Storm Watch went live at 11:30 am as the State announced a Fire Alert (high temps, risk of lightning). It is hazy and partially cloudy so less than optimal solar PV performance. No outage here yet, but stay tuned. We have 2 PWs and 16kW of solar on our home. But due to our electrical system layout (kind of odd, several sub panels), our 2 5 ton AC compressors are not backed up, so when we lose power, it's gonna be unpleasant.

And EV-A is just a memory--we are on EV2-A and get punished from 4-9 pm.

Yesterday there were clouds that made for fluctuating solar production in the middle of the day. Today seems to be more consistent, although we had a few drop-outs this afternoon. I have the suspicion that our AC cycling on and off might have caused some voltage fluctuation that the inverters didn't like. Our AC units are also not backed up so if we have a grid outage we'll lose cooling (at least we'll have plenty of electricity to run fans...and fortunately this is our house, not a data center).

In situations like this I really don't worry about EV-A vs. EV2-A...I'm just happy we can keep the lights on, refrigerator cold, and Internet up.

(I complained about this in at least two other threads, but I've been on EV2-A for over a month, having actually received bills saying "EV-2A", but the silly "change your rate plan" thing on the PG&E Web site still says I'm on EV-A. Thanks, PG&E.)

Bruce.

 

[ohmman]

I'm just happy we can keep the lights on, refrigerator cold, and Internet up.

Internet is “up” at my house but Comcast is down. I’ve had to go 4G for connectivity...

 

[RobbL]

@JPP, I am also on EV-2A, but with the app and a Powerwall, I just look at it as an opportunity to sell back from 4 - 9, at the highest rate, using my Powerwall as the source during those hours rather than the grid and recharge it from solar for free, or at worst, from the grid when rates are lowest.

 

[bmah]

I just discovered this with all kinds of geeky power data (supply and demand graphs, alert info, etc.):

http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx

(Background: CA ISO is the California Independent Systems Operator, the organization that is responsible for operating the power grid in California.)

They also have an app for iOS and Android with a lot of this same stuff in a mobile-friendly format.

Bruce.