Powerwalls constantly discharging 200-400w regardless of setting

[ucmndd]

Yesterday out of the blue my Powerwalls started discharging approx. 200-400 watts continuously to either the grid or my home loads. Doesn’t seem to make any difference what I set my reserve to or what mode I’m in, self-powered or time based control.

I normally have my reserve set to 20% but this morning they were discharged to 10% when my solar started producing. Right now I have the reserve set to 50% and as you can see the PWs are discharging despite being only charged to 41%. They don’t seem to ever go into standby any more - just charging or discharging.

Thoughts? CT problem? Should I power down / reboot everything? System has been running for ~90 days without issue.

 

[miimura]

Not Normal. Reboot.

 

[jboy210]

Definitely does not sound right. Rebooting seems like a good 1st step.

 

[ucmndd]

So, I powered everything down, threw the main breaker to the house, and let everything sit for a minute before turning it all back on. Doesn't seem like it changed anything.

Is that the right way to "reboot"? Or should I use the recessed reset button in the GW2?

 

[miimura]

So, I powered everything down, threw the main breaker to the house, and let everything sit for a minute before turning it all back on. Doesn't seem like it changed anything.

Is that the right way to "reboot"? Or should I use the recessed reset button in the GW2?

I would have tried the reset button first.

 

[BGbreeder]

So, I powered everything down, threw the main breaker to the house, and let everything sit for a minute before turning it all back on. Doesn't seem like it changed anything.

Is that the right way to "reboot"? Or should I use the recessed reset button in the GW2?

That process isn't going to reliably power cycle your gateway. Either press the reset button on your gateway (bamboo chopstick is my tool of choice), or turn off your main breaker and turn off the power switches on your powerwalls, and then wait five minutes before switching on the powerwalls and then closing the main breaker. The internal capacitors are supposed to run the gateway for two to three minutes, according to the Tesla support representative that I spoke with.

All the best,

BG

 

[ucmndd]

That process isn't going to reliably power cycle your gateway. Either press the reset button on your gateway (bamboo chopstick is my tool of choice), or turn off your main breaker and turn off the power switches on your powerwalls, and then wait five minutes before switching on the powerwalls and then closing the main breaker. The internal capacitors are supposed to run the gateway for two to three minutes, according to the Tesla support representative that I spoke with.

All the best,

BG

Thanks for that. The chopstick reset didn't seem to do anything so I went back and did the full power-down again. It took nearly a full 10 minutes for the little LEDs inside the reset hole in my new gateway to stop blinking.

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to have changed anything either. I still see a ~200 watt discrepancy at basically all times vs. what I would expect. For example, right now at 3pm I'm at peak TOU time and would normally expect to see the PW handling all home loads and all of my solar being exported, but there is an extra 0.2kw coming out of the PWs and going to the grid over what my house is drawing.

I'd generally write that off as rounding/interface error but it's been consistent 24/7 for the past few days and it's definitely a real drain on the PWs overnight and they will happily keep discharging below my reserve setting.

Bum CT? Guess I have to call Tesla support now. Bah.

 

[BGbreeder]

Sorry for your troubles, but, yes, call Tesla energy. Hopefully it is something simple like a bad firmware rev. 2-400W is both too small and too consistent to be a bad CT to be likely to my mind, but it might be a bad connection (doubtful, but possible).

Please keep us updated.

All the best,

BG

 

[israndy]

I just had a friend go thru this:

How long between inspection and PTO? [various areas]

Long story short, if I hadn't called PG&E and checked on this, and then told Tesla exactly what was wrong, it looks like it would have just sat there in limbo for who knows how long. Didn't your system go online last week? I am sure people wanna know...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[ucmndd]

I just had a friend go thru this:

How long between inspection and PTO? [various areas]

Long story short, if I hadn't called PG&E and checked on this, and then told Tesla exactly what was wrong, it looks like it would have just sat there in limbo for who knows how long. Didn't your system go online last week? I am sure people wanna know...

teslamotorsclub.com

Thanks for that. Does sound similar but to a worse degree. Didn’t see a follow up, I assume they’re still waiting for the mythical level 2 support?

 

[ucmndd]

Update on this, I never called Tesla because I've been super busy and have generally been dreading spending the time trying to explain this to them.

In any case, today it appears to have stopped for no rhyme or reason other than it coincided with a ~1 hour scheduled grid outage overnight from 12am to 1am. When the power came back on, the PWs gave up their whole constant low-level drain thing and my energy graphs look like I'd expect them to once again.

Prior to the outage this morning, every day looked basically like this, with the constant low-level draw from the PWs during non-peak periods:



After the outage this morning, things look like they're back to normal today:



No other changes or intervention on my part. Firmware is the same as it has been, 21.1.1. So.... ? Guess I move on until it happens again.