I am in the Bay Area (PG&E) and have an order for a 9.6 kW solar + 2 PW in-progress. However, I recently discovered that I am in PG&E's special outage block #50. This means that I am "generally exempt from rotating outages" because "essential services such as hospitals and police and fire departments share a circuit with this block." I am not exempt from Public Safety Power Shutoffs though. One of my big reasons for getting Powerwalls was to handle rolling outages but it doesn't look like that will be an issue. It will help with the TOU plan I am on but are two (or any?) Powerwalls worth it? Should I instead get one or none?
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Should I get Powerwalls if I am on an essential "circuit/block"?
- Thread starter baysolarstream
- Start date
Welcome to TMC,
Given that its likely that, as we go forward, there will be more "penalties" put on net energy metering, my personal belief is that its better to use as much of "your own" energy as possible. From a purely financial standpoint, I think powerwalls will take a while to pencil out (if they ever do pencil out in this circumstance), but if you dont get powerwalls with your order now, it will likely be more difficult to get them added later.
Its more a "budget for it now, or decide you dont need them at all" situation. I also am not a fan of having 1 powerwall with a PV system that can output more than it can take in at any one time, so it sounds to me like 2 is the right number here.
Thank you. Great to be here. Long-time lurker, first-time poster!
This does make sense and there is some future-proofing that I could do with the Powerwalls right now and who knows what the upgrade hassle will be later! Appreciate the feedback
As someone who is also in Block 50, I can tell you that years ago it counted for something, and these days, not so much. Block 50 is supposedly exempt only from rolling outages, not other forms of outages.
If it matters to you to have power, say after an earthquake, I would recommend batteries. Get enough to accept all of your solar power, and enough to start your AC, if that is important to you.
All the best,
BG
If it matters to you to have power, say after an earthquake, I would recommend batteries. Get enough to accept all of your solar power, and enough to start your AC, if that is important to you.
All the best,
BG
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
We actually have very little power outages here in San Diego and I am still happy to have some energy storage. Like other's have mentioned, if someone is looking at this purely for rotating blackouts, or a ROI, I think it's probably not good for those cases. It's for the cases when folks have no power from some other reason and you're stuck. Even the last few weeks, there weren't that many rotaing outages, but folks still lost power due to equipment failures I think.
A few of the major outages we've had here had been 'other' issues like power company operator error and stuff like that, but if there was a major event from a storm, earthquake, foreign conflict, hackers, disgruntled employees, etc...the batteries may blunt some of that.
My thinking is what else are you going to use with the $$ and can you afford it without major stress? I know very wealth multi-millionaire folks with lots of zeros in their accounts, but no AC, no storage and will have more $$ than they can use before they die without solar/power walls.
Seems like if weather events are the norm now, seems like low cost insurance to have it rather than not. Also, adding stuff later usually doesn't turn out well and new installers don't want to touch someone elses install so either you get them at once or don't bother.
I think like many others here, I was/am still very happy to have batteries and haven't even got to really use it yet. Cost isn't as much with the tax credits IMO and I see as just not getting a Model X maybe vs. a Model Y.
This is a good way to look at it. While money is money, I don't want to be regretting a decision later because I tried to save a few dollars. Given what you (and others) have mentioned about weather and outage uncertainty and the hassle of retrofitting battery backup later, I am leaning more toward getting the Powerwalls.
Yes, I do believe that if they need to reduce fire risk in areas that have transmission lines servicing our neighborhood, outages can happen.
Another to think about this the power arbitrage that you do with the Powerwalls very roughly pay for themselves so you get "backup power" for free.
I'm in a 50 block, on the coast. We've lost power a few times. I have a powerwall, don't regret it at all (mostly 100% self powered 9 months out of the year, never use peak power from grid thanks to PW)
CrazyRabbit
Active Member
Won’t be long before they start utilizing the disconnect switch in your smart meter! Everyone should enjoy the suck!
Hospitals have battery backup circuits and large 1-3 MW generators. They will survive. But they pay for uninterruptible power so it should stay up. You don’t so they should use them meter disconnect.
Hospitals have battery backup circuits and large 1-3 MW generators. They will survive. But they pay for uninterruptible power so it should stay up. You don’t so they should use them meter disconnect.
Block 50 here as well (in south bay) although no idea where these “Block 50 protected services” are that we’re on the same line with. We lost power twice during the heatwave - Tesla apps says 2 hrs and then 24 minutes another day. So not so bad as far as loss of grid. However some very unfortunate residents in Morgan Hill lost power all 4 days. Some San Jose residents were hit hard too. Both cities have tried addressing this with PG&E. Our longest outage so far has been 11 hours.
No idea where you are located but assuming extended extreme summer heatwaves become more frequent and with area attracting more commercial/residential expansion and load on the grid, I think it’s wise to install as much solar and PWs as you can if you might be affected by the extreme periods. PG&E, cities and fire jurisdictions will limit that. It’s no simple matter to add more later and could be you’ll be more restricted in the future. If you read enough threads here you’ll see this backed up by reports from members on here in the Bay area who have tried. Many of our nighttime temps were still 89-90F at 11pm and never really cooled down much before sunrise. Depends what you and your family can tolerate. But even AC at 78+ was nice to have given the indoor/outdoor temp differentiation.
IMO Block 50 has done nothing to keep power on at our home, only our solar and 3 PWs have done that. I think we’ve only experienced a rolling black out in our area once during the 2020 timeframe when the wildfires were all over here. So for us rolling blackouts haven’t really affected us much. Since getting our system PTO’d we’ve had 22 grid events totaling 16 hrs with longest at 11 hours.
During this last stretch of extreme heat, we had to keep our AC set at 78F or above on occasion, not being sure what sun conditions would be the next day to recharge. We reached our reserve of 20% one night and never was able to fully charge next day as AC kept kicking on earlier in afternoon or morning. It was interesting trying to keep a comfortable AC setting throughout the night never knowing if you’d have grid power to rely on overnight to supply the AC power once you reached your reserve setting. Our reserves set at 20-30% were pretty much there to keep only lights and refrig/freezer on if needed. AC during summer and heat during winter are the biggest energy hogs and deplete PWs quickly.
We get by comfortably with 3PWs for the most part during the year but this extreme heatwave left me wishing we added another PW when we did our system. We had room to do two 2-PW stacks on our wall (and no more) but we stopped at 3 units. Now with changes in code and such I don’t know if we’d be able to add a 4th even if Tesla would sell and install one additional PW.
No idea where you are located but assuming extended extreme summer heatwaves become more frequent and with area attracting more commercial/residential expansion and load on the grid, I think it’s wise to install as much solar and PWs as you can if you might be affected by the extreme periods. PG&E, cities and fire jurisdictions will limit that. It’s no simple matter to add more later and could be you’ll be more restricted in the future. If you read enough threads here you’ll see this backed up by reports from members on here in the Bay area who have tried. Many of our nighttime temps were still 89-90F at 11pm and never really cooled down much before sunrise. Depends what you and your family can tolerate. But even AC at 78+ was nice to have given the indoor/outdoor temp differentiation.
IMO Block 50 has done nothing to keep power on at our home, only our solar and 3 PWs have done that. I think we’ve only experienced a rolling black out in our area once during the 2020 timeframe when the wildfires were all over here. So for us rolling blackouts haven’t really affected us much. Since getting our system PTO’d we’ve had 22 grid events totaling 16 hrs with longest at 11 hours.
During this last stretch of extreme heat, we had to keep our AC set at 78F or above on occasion, not being sure what sun conditions would be the next day to recharge. We reached our reserve of 20% one night and never was able to fully charge next day as AC kept kicking on earlier in afternoon or morning. It was interesting trying to keep a comfortable AC setting throughout the night never knowing if you’d have grid power to rely on overnight to supply the AC power once you reached your reserve setting. Our reserves set at 20-30% were pretty much there to keep only lights and refrig/freezer on if needed. AC during summer and heat during winter are the biggest energy hogs and deplete PWs quickly.
We get by comfortably with 3PWs for the most part during the year but this extreme heatwave left me wishing we added another PW when we did our system. We had room to do two 2-PW stacks on our wall (and no more) but we stopped at 3 units. Now with changes in code and such I don’t know if we’d be able to add a 4th even if Tesla would sell and install one additional PW.
We are on block 50 and to me, PSPS, are not as much of a concern. However, we have had outages due to power lines coming down, car hitting a power pole, and transformers catching fire. During these outages we have sometimes never noticed we had an outage except for the message in the app. Then we run to windows, and sure enough, the block is dark. And since we work from home this important to prevent loss of productivity/billing.
The other advantage of the Powerwalls is cost reduction. We pay a net of $15 or less per month for power. This is a big change from the previous $250-300 monthly average.
Regarding the number of Powerwalls, IMHO you want to get enough to power the whole house. That usually is two or more. We have two and are thinking about adding a 3rd at some point in the future.
The other advantage of the Powerwalls is cost reduction. We pay a net of $15 or less per month for power. This is a big change from the previous $250-300 monthly average.
Regarding the number of Powerwalls, IMHO you want to get enough to power the whole house. That usually is two or more. We have two and are thinking about adding a 3rd at some point in the future.
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