Powerwall Installation Fiasco

[wwhitney]

This would be the part where the inverters/micro-inverters may auto-shutdown or back-off if they sense over-current/power in the micro-grid.

Yes, I think cwied's concern is that this functionality of the Powerwalls somehow depends on the correct solar configuration in the backup gateway. But I'm almost certain it is occurring at a lower level in the architecture.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[mongo]

Yes, I think cwied's concern is that this functionality of the Powerwalls somehow depends on the correct solar configuration in the backup gateway. But I'm almost certain it is occurring at a lower level in the architecture.

Cheers, Wayne

Agreed, PW attempts to maintain 240V 60Hz, if it reaches the charge limit, the frequency goes up signaling the inverters to scale back.
Since there is no sensor specific to total load on the system, the solar (and PW) total output value is not meaningful in a backup situation.

 

[cwied]

While I agree that the gateway is probably not involved in the real-time management of the microgrid, it is common for the central computer to manage the subsidiary systems by either altering their programming or reconfiguring running parameters. In this case, I suspect they ask for brand of solar inverter so they can potentially alter the curve of frequency to state of charge to optimize for different solar inverters (even if they are not doing so yet). The question is what happens if no solar inverter is configured. Fail-safe would be that the most aggressive curve would be used, which is what I suspect would happen. Given other issues with the Powerwalls, though, I'm not sure how far Tesla's software engineers can be trusted to handle edge cases.

 

[Shygar]

Hi Wayne, I'd love to know how to reconfigure the powerwalls to not use solar at all.
I do not intend to claim the tax credit anyway since the SGIP rebate is much bigger than that.

I hope you're not waiting for the SGIP rebate from Tesla. I had Tesla install my system right at a year ago and still no word if I will ever get the SGIP. Even when I started the install a year ago the sales guy basically told me to not expect the SGIP rebate at all. I called Tesla and they told me they are just going down a list and applying for people when their name comes up. If they haven't got to me yet and the rebate is half over, I don't know what they are doing.

 

[ChrisMPK]

The only "fiasco" here is really just the OP not doing any sort of research into how the PW2 works before buying two. The installer should probably have discussed what you were trying to achieve and set the proper expectations, but in the event that they failed to do that it's incumbent upon you to know what you are buying. As others have pointed out, get your solar fixed / replaced. That seems like the real issue here.