Power Wall behavior during PG&E Outage

[sorka]

Do you know what the state of charge (SOC) your batteries were at when the power outage occurred? And do you know what frequency your powerwalls generate at a high SOC during an outage?

If the power outage occurred while you were at a high SOC and your solar curtailment frequency is too high, a lot of electronics (especially remote controlled lights and LEDs) can be affected and turn on or off. Most electronics are sensitive to high frequency on the power line.

Without knowing some of the particulars of your system at the time of the outage, it is hard to say exactly what caused the behavior you saw.

Mine don't go 60Hz when at 100% provided they weren't being charged at the time of the switchover. If the power goes out and they are 98% or more and then they start getting charged, then the output rises to 61% pretty quickly.

The switchover is often seamless but sometimes not. Typically there's about a 60th a second or two interruption and depending on where it happened in the cycle and the kinds of power supplies your stuff have, it can completely seamless or things might go a little crazy. Most of the time, for me, I have no clue the power went out until the app notifies me that I'm on backup.

 

[charlesj]

... hooked up to frontier fiber cable. Probably the last year I have traditional TV though.

I am jealous about that fiber hookup.

 

[sorka]

People still use TiVo?

I do. I have an Edge with TiVo Mini satellites all through the house. I've tried everything else including the X1. Just can't beat the experience with anything else.

 

[sorka]

You should check out Xfinity X1... super easy and fast if you have mesh wifi in your house.

When I upgraded to gigabit, I tried the X1 for a week. Sent it back. It wasn't even close.

 

[sorka]

Makes sense. I just never thought about adding a UPS to the Tivo since the PWs switchover was quick enough. Strangely, the switchover was not fast enough for my desktop computer and NAS.

Maybe I should add a UPS to the Tivo. How big is the UPS you have?

My TiVo has never rebooted due to any of the 6 power outages and over dozen tests manually turning off the main service breaker.

 

[sorka]

Our membership here is obviously a set of old geezers (and geezerettes', lol) who have not cut the cord Note that I am lumping myself in there, as I also still have a TiVo, with one main box and 3 smaller ones on various TVs around my home, hooked up to frontier fiber cable. Probably the last year I have traditional TV though.

Before I got cable tv again as part of getting Gigabit, I was just OTA on my TiVo with streaming so in that sense I was already a cord cutter. Got Gigabit when pandemic hit because I needed faster upload. Tried X1 for a week. Sent it back. Now i don't need Gigabit anymore so getting ready to downgrade back to just internet and hook the antenna back up.

 

[sorka]

I have a tiny UPS just for the main Tivo box. I got a APC BGE90M (125VA) for about $20 on clearance in 2018. My Tivo MIni extender and its connected LCD TV don't have a UPS and both reboot at the slightest interruption or Powerwall transition.
I have separate SmartUPS 1500's on my server and central transfer switch that power my structured wiring cabinet, selected lights, and home office.

The Mini's sometimes glitch, but they are just the second screen devices for other rooms and aren't doing the actual recording.