Setting schedule for mid-day off-peak

[csanders90D]

Hi, just got my Powerwall last week, and I'm trying to get the time-based schedule set up. I'm on the EV-TOU-5 plan from SDGE, which has a strange midweek schedule during March and April:
Midnight-6AM: $0.09
6AM - 10AM: $0.24
10AM - 2PM: $0.09
2PM - Midnight: $0.24

So, my goal is to charge from 10AM-2PM, then power the house from 2PM until it hits reserve.

It looks like I can only set one peak period per day, so the best I've been able to do is setting peak to 2PM-Midnight. This leaves the sunrise-10AM solar charging the battery when I'd rather it went to the grid, but at least that's not too much power at that time.

Am I missing a better way to set it up? Thanks!

 

[miimura]

I think it makes the most sense to make the 6-10am period Part-Peak in the Tesla schedule. However, you may still incur grid draw for your household usage during that period if the Powerwall SOC is low. You should definitely call Powerwall support and tell them that they need to add multiple periods for each TOU type. You're not the first one with this problem.

 

[Frankman60]

I am also on the EV-TOU5 rate plan and will need to set up my Powerwall Time Based Control soon. The EV-TOU5 plan has different Super Off Peak ($.09) periods on weekdays and the weekend/holidays. The weekday Super Off Peak is 12 AM to 6 AM. On weekends and holidays the Super Off Peak period is extended until 2 PM (14 hours). See this for more info: Electric Vehicle Pricing Plans | San Diego Gas & Electric

 

[csanders90D]

Unfortunately, I can’t set 6-10am to part-peak because it seems that part-peak has to be touching peak.

However, I think I found a solution, I’ll see tomorrow how well it works out. If you drag the end of peak to before the beginning, it will reverse and wrap around midnight. So, I set peak to go from 2pm until 10am the next day. That leaves the 10-2 window as off-peak where it should be charging the battery. The schedule is wrong for the midnight-6am period, but I don’t think it will affect my usage because I’ll have hit the reserve before midnight.

 

[csanders90D]

Yep, that did what I wanted, though it feels weird to have my midnight car charging time labeled as “peak.”

Cloudy morning, so there wasn’t much solar, but it did the right thing and waited until 10 to charge. It hit full at 1pm, then discharged from 2 until it hit reserve at about 8.

 

[abasile]

Yep, that did what I wanted, though it feels weird to have my midnight car charging time labeled as “peak.”

The problem, of course, is that if your evening usage is low and you don't hit your reserve before midnight, then you're using the Powerwall to charge your EVs instead of saving that energy for the following 6 AM - 10 AM peak period. Also, you might in the future feel comfortable reducing the size of your backup reserve so that the Powerwall can cover more of your peak usage.

More and more TOU (time of use) rate plans are going to look like the one you're on right now, so Tesla is definitely going to need to support multiple peak/off-peak/part-peak time periods per day. It would also be great if the app had the option of auto-populating this info based on your utility company and rate plan, at least for the major utility companies, provided that the user always retains the option of manually overriding the presets.

 

[JES2]

...provided that the user always retains the option of manually overriding the presets.

And, that is the current problem on my end. I would like the ability to have my Powerwall NOT discharge during off-peak using "cost-saving" mode. Seems like a simple request, but Tesla just can't seem to make that happen or doesn't want to. I watched as the Powerwall drained to 20% during off-peak (when I pay $0.00 for energy) and now during peak, I have little Powerwall resources when the cost of energy is now $0.23.

Thanks, Tesla Energy...