Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Powerwall in New England ?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
"But blocking installation of powerwall preemptively seems like just asking for somebody to take you to court (I really wish somebody would)."

I like that lol. The state is leaning towards TOU. I went to the latest bond bill hearing on energy and environmental affair a few months ago. TOU was labeled as the future of Mass Solar Energy. There are a few studies of TOU which are ongoing at both HOU and SEN. I knew for a fact there is a study about "Electric vehicle time of use rates." ongoing with Baker's administration.
 
I had TOU as a pilot program from NStar about 5 years ago. I ended up canceling it, since my bill was quite a bit higher then on a normal payment plan. So not looking forward to TOU at all, but I get a feeling that I will not have any say in that.
 
I met with my state rep this week to discuss Tesla's exclusion from Eversource. We helped him get solar panels when our town did the SolarizeMass program. Hopefully he'll have something helpful to share.
 
That is awesome. Tesla is telling me the issue won't be resolved until next year, but that my 3 Powerwalls are sitting at their warehouse in Marlboro. Previously they said they wouldn't build them until the issue was resolved...
 
One bit of information that I got from Tesla, is that, apparently, Eversource will approve Powerwall installation even if you have net metering if your total system size is under 22kWh (I think they said 22, but might've been 21). Which sort of makes sense, since 21 or 22 is the limit for Mass ACA as well. With two Powerwalls, my system might just land under that number. Although I wanted 3, I would rather get something then nothing. Information came from Tesla Energy consultant, so take it for what it's worth.
 
I'm not sure if Powerwall is a good fit for New England. Over the 20+ years, I live here, I barely had a power outage in the winter that lasts more than 12 hours. and the solar panel does not produce enough electricity in the winter for my family's normal usage. to charge the powerwall with solar is not feasible in the winter time. and I have a 13.5KW solar system.

Just not entirely sure the cost of Powerwall is a good fit for New England.
 
I'm not sure if Powerwall is a good fit for New England. Over the 20+ years, I live here, I barely had a power outage in the winter that lasts more than 12 hours. and the solar panel does not produce enough electricity in the winter for my family's normal usage. to charge the powerwall with solar is not feasible in the winter time. and I have a 13.5KW solar system.

Just not entirely sure the cost of Powerwall is a good fit for New England.
It wouldn't fit my needs in the winter either. Luckily in my 8 years in this location, I've never lost power for more than a few minutes and even that is rare. I heat the house entirely with mini splits.
 
I'm not sure if Powerwall is a good fit for New England. Over the 20+ years, I live here, I barely had a power outage in the winter that lasts more than 12 hours. and the solar panel does not produce enough electricity in the winter for my family's normal usage. to charge the powerwall with solar is not feasible in the winter time. and I have a 13.5KW solar system.

Just not entirely sure the cost of Powerwall is a good fit for New England.
You make a fair point. However, if you live on well water, even a couple hour outage is a major headache - no water, no toilets either :((yes, first world problem for sure). Over the last few years, we have experienced at least 1-2 several hour outage every fall and winter. My house is south facing , so as long as I clear most of the snow from the panels, I can see making good use of the powerwalls in times of an outage. Besides, I for one do not want the hassle of a generator that needs to maintained routinely or needs a large propane tank to be kept full (and all the contracts that go with it). My other concern is that if there’s a widespread outage, I’ll be in line waiting to get more gas to run a generator, assuming that the gas station has power.
It’s definitely very situational on whether or not powerwalls make sense but you have to also consider the alternatives in case of an emergency.
 
You all must have better luck than we do. We've had two multi-day power outages in the last 12 months. We also had a 9-month nightmare with National Grid where we were seeing 30-volt drops and our car (very understandably) thought we had a wiring fault. National Grid wouldn't do anything until we got the MA DPU to intervene.

Powerwall can't come fast enough for us -- only question is 2 or 4 of them.
 
The DPU has not ruled on the battery storage on Tesla's case. At this very moment, if the customer installs the Tesla Powerwall, the customer will lose net metering and its credits.

Also, the PowerWall cannot draw or export energy back to the grid. this pretty much means, in the winter, the solar panel has to charge the power wall first, while you draw electricity from the grid to power the home usage. it is sort equivalent of using the grid to power your power wall. (at a slightly higher cost)

Last, the DPU is going after NationalGrid for a number of safety violations plus the slow response time from last winter (yes, last winter, WTH?), but the process is long.

Robby, I feel you. A number of friends of mine, who live at Andover and South Shore, had multiple power outage for multiple days. all in the NationalGrid territory.

Get as many power walls as economically feasible. For multi-day outage, you'll need them.
 
One bit of information that I got from Tesla, is that, apparently, Eversource will approve Powerwall installation even if you have net metering if your total system size is under 22kWh (I think they said 22, but might've been 21). Which sort of makes sense, since 21 or 22 is the limit for Mass ACA as well. With two Powerwalls, my system might just land under that number. Although I wanted 3, I would rather get something then nothing. Information came from Tesla Energy consultant, so take it for what it's worth.

Had another conversation with Tesla. 21kWh limit is apparently only for National Grid. Eversource currently approves installations of Powerwall (without lose of Net metering) only for systems under 15kWh. I have no idea where they took this 15kWh figure. Mass ACA is supposed to allow 21, not 15. 15 includes both your solar array as well as Powerwall. My solar array is 9.7 at this point, so I can only install one Powerwall, which is not enough, but at least something, and will allow me to keep water pump and oil water boiler on during power outages.
At least things are moving, it seems. Got a call from somebody from Tesla in CA, who wanted to confirm that I agree to them sending me new interconnection agreement for just a single Powerwall. They seem to be pretty confident that Eversource will approve it.

They only downside is that if I install single Powerwall right now, and Eversource lifts this restriction later, I will have to pay new price for all other Powerwalls. I put my deposit on the Powerwall over a year ago, so they said they will honer original price for the next installation...

But in general, the feeling that I get is that nobody knows anything at all. Different people have different information, and some don't have any information at all. My neighbor just had Tesla sales rep come out to do evaluation of his house and told him that they will install 12kWh solar array and 3 Powerwalls for him - no problem, and everything will be done by February. I promptly told my neighbor that it's not going to happen, so he should expect the project to at least stall for a while, if not get canceled all together...
 
The DPU docket # 17-105 provided an advisory ruling (Novermber 2017)

Therefore, the Department does not adopt any new rule but offers the advisory opinion that, while the general eligibility of energy storage systems paired with net metering facilities for net metering services requires further investigation, in the interim, Small Scale Solar & Battery Storage Facilities, in the manner as presented by Tesla in its Petition should be eligible to net meter pursuant to G.L. c. 164, §§ 138-140, and 220 CMR 18.00, subject to the configuration conditions set forth herein. 12

Then the utilities found out that the Tesla Power Wall export energy to the grid. DPU docket #17-146, almost filed immediately after the advisory ruling from 17-105.

The last I heard of this case is that Tesla sought the DPU to give a definite date to make a ruling. The letter from Tesla was dated 9/24/2018.

you can find all the dockets and readings from the DPU's website, click file room and then search by docket number.

It was Eversource who escalated the dispute which made many folks believe that the case is for Eversource Territory. But it is really a case for all utilities in the commonwealth.

@ivolodin, I'm not familiar with what Eversrouce and Nationalgrid did in the past on approving the power wall installation. they might have continued approving power wall installation at their discretion since the DPU has not made a new ruling yet. I take back "the customer will lose net metering and its credits" comment.

now if later on, hypothetically speaking, the DPU rules that battery storage will disqualify a site from the net metering, I think as long as your site had the power wall installed before the ruling date, you should be grandfathered in. (this is just my opinion)
 
Last edited:
  • Informative
Reactions: masam
Thanks folks; this has been a helpful and informative discussion for me. We are in a unique position -- our Powerwall was approved by National Grid back in April with net metering explicitly allowed. But, it has not yet been installed due to the supply shortage. There is no reference to an expiration date in the documents.

I have had so much grief with National Grid that at this point, if they take away net metering, we will just double down on Powerwealls and go completely off the electric grid.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: masam