Software Version 20.40.x

[solarAddict]

Hmm.. what is strange that my Power Flow is different today. I'm in Self-Powered mode with 20% reserve. Prior to yesterday as soon as sun was up solar production had been fed to support house, and leftovers would charge the PWs. Between roughly 8 am 4 pm I used no power from grid. Starting today all solar production goes to PW and house is using grid power.

???

 

[MorrisonHiker]

View attachment 626892


View attachment 626892

When we were first activating our Powerwalls, there was a checkbox asking if we wanted to participate in Grid Services. I don't think they are offered in Colorado currently but we opted out since we wanted to have more control over our Powerwalls. At the time, we needed all the electricity we could produce. There was a disclaimer that we could always opt-in at a later date.

 

[jjrandorin]

Hmm.. what is strange that my Power Flow is different today. I'm in Self-Powered mode with 20% reserve. Prior to yesterday as soon as sun was up solar production had been fed to support house, and leftovers would charge the PWs. Between roughly 8 am 4 pm I used no power from grid. Starting today all solar production goes to PW and house is using grid power.

???

I dont have grid services, so I dont know if that has anything to do with what you are seeing. I also use self powered mode, and continue to have the same experience before and after the update as far as how solar is distributed.

Specifically, your description that "when the sun comes up, solar powers the home and excess if any goes to the powerwalls" is what is currently occurring for me, and occurred on the previous firmware version as well as this one.

 

[solarAddict]

I dont have grid services, so I dont know if that has anything to do with what you are seeing. I also use self powered mode, and continue to have the same experience before and after the update as far as how solar is distributed.

Specifically, your description that "when the sun comes up, solar powers the home and excess if any goes to the powerwalls" is what is currently occurring for me, and occurred on the previous firmware version as well as this one.

Thank you for confirming. I've emailed my installer, if I'm not going to hear from them in a reasonable time, I'll contact Tesla

p.s. PV still didn't send anything to the House today (11.5 kWh generated). I'm curious to see what's going to happen after the sunset.

 

[astrorob]

got the update overnight last night. the only indication was that the "voltage" as monitored by the PVOutput PW uploader sampled 110V for 10 minutes (instead of 216V).

...there are no release notes? was this just a version number change to the new schema?

 

[solarAddict]

All right, after-sunset update. As soon as PV stopped producing the PW began discharging to the grid at 5.5 kW rate.

So I assume this is how GS works. It was a first one for me. Interesting to see that 5.5 kE rate is consistent, -the house load increased to 1.2 kW and output to grid reduced to 4.3 kW.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

All right, after-sunset update. As soon as PV stopped producing the PW began discharging to the grid at 5.5 kW rate.

So I assume this is how GS works. It was a first one for me. Interesting to see that 5.5 kE rate is consistent, -the house load increased to 1.2 kW and output to grid reduced to 4.3 kW.

Just wondering...but did you knowingly sign up for Grid Services? (Not that there's anything wrong with it! ) As I mentioned earlier, there was a checkbox to opt-in for Grid Services when we set up our Powerwalls. Do you remember selecting it when you set your Powerwalls up? Do you know what rates your utility company is paying you? Is it possible to toggle it on and off via the app? If you are running in Self-powered mode, I would think you would want to keep the power for yourself. I guess that would depend on how much you can make sending power back to the grid.

Sorry for all the questions but I think your screenshots are the first I've seen.

 

[solarAddict]

Just wondering...but did you knowingly sign up for Grid Services? (Not that there's anything wrong with it! ) As I mentioned earlier, there was a checkbox to opt-in for Grid Services when we set up our Powerwalls. Do you remember selecting it when you set your Powerwalls up? Do you know what rates your utility company is paying you? Is it possible to toggle it on and off via the app? If you are running in Self-powered mode, I would think you would want to keep the power for yourself. I guess that would depend on how much you can make sending power back to the grid.

Sorry for all the questions but I think your screenshots are the first I've seen.

Yes I did knowingly sign up for GS. I think it was a requirement for getting a 0% 7 years loan for Powerwalls.
Yes I know the rate. Actually, there are two advantages of joining GS program in MA.
1. If I have PW the solar incentive rate is slightly higher vs if I have solar only.
2. These power events are limited in numbers and length wise (less than 3 hours each). In fact, soon after I posted the event was over, I'm glad I took a snapshot. PWs are supporting house now. Total pull was 2.5 kWh.

Here is the description of program: ConnectedSolutions | National Grid

- Do you remember selecting it when you set your Powerwalls up? - no, I dont remember. It it was there I probably checked it as I was committed to be a part of it.

- Is it possible to toggle it on and off via the app? No. Theoretically you can just unsubscribe but I have no idea what would be involved.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Yes I did knowingly sign up for GS. I think it was a requirement for getting a 0% 7 years loan for Powerwalls.
Yes I know the rate. Actually, there are two advantages of joining GS program in MA.
1. If I have PW the solar incentive rate is slightly higher vs if I have solar only.
2. These power events are limited in numbers and length wise (less than 3 hours each). In fact, soon after I posted the event was over, I'm glad I took a snapshot. PWs are supporting house now. Total pull was 2.5 kWh.

Here is the description of program: ConnectedSolutions | National Grid

- Do you remember selecting it when you set your Powerwalls up? - no, I dont remember. It it was there I probably checked it as I was committed to be a part of it.

- Is it possible to toggle it on and off via the app? No. Theoretically you can just unsubscribe but I have no idea what would be involved.

Thanks for all the answers. 2.5 kWh isn't too much of a draw, especially if it is infrequent.

 

[astrorob]

first real PGE outage this afternoon - in the correlation is not causation category when the lights were dimming as the grid was failing i just assumed there was a bug in the new PW firmware oh me of little faith.

cut back power consumption and hope to get at least 20h of runtime. we'll see.

 

[jjrandorin]

first real PGE outage this afternoon - in the correlation is not causation category when the lights were dimming as the grid was failing i just assumed there was a bug in the new PW firmware oh me of little faith.

cut back power consumption and hope to get at least 20h of runtime. we'll see.

Hopefully longer than that, as long as you have decent sun tomorrow.

 

[bmah]

first real PGE outage this afternoon - in the correlation is not causation category when the lights were dimming as the grid was failing i just assumed there was a bug in the new PW firmware oh me of little faith.

cut back power consumption and hope to get at least 20h of runtime. we'll see.

Good luck lob, but hoping the outage is much shorter than 20h.

Bruce.

 

[astrorob]

someone drove into a pole up in the hills and i guess there was a cascading failure? or maybe grid balancing/protection. it was literally just one telephone-pole like pole according to twitter. need to get james burke on the case

anyway power is restored sooner than they anticipated. i think it is going to be cloudy tomorrow so i probably wouldn't see more than 5-7kwh of production but yeah that would keep me going longer than 20h.

edit: yeah, according to PGE's map it looks like the 'lobe' that corresponds to the area where the pole was hit is still down, so our failure must have been protective.

 

[DermMD]

I just got updated from 1.50.3 after installation of a replacement gateway drive (not the whole gateway, just the computer). Now I notice 20.40.3 does not have the option for advanced customization of Powerwall storage. The only options are Backup only and self powered. Is that everyone's observation? by the way it took 3 months for Tesla to come out to inspect what was wrong. Powerwall was off line that whole time.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I just got updated from 1.50.3 after installation of a replacement gateway drive (not the whole gateway, just the computer). Now I notice 20.40.3 does not have the option for advanced customization of Powerwall storage. The only options are Backup only and self powered. Is that everyone's observation? by the way it took 3 months for Tesla to come out to inspect what was wrong. Powerwall was off line that whole time.

Typically the Advanced options show up after several days of operation. It's likely that your system just needs to run for a few days before it shows up again.

 

[DermMD]

Typically the Advanced options show up after several days of operation. It's likely that your system just needs to run for a few days before it shows up again.

Thanks. That makes sense. It actually shows I was installed yesterday and not 2 years ago. Unfortunately this means I have lost my accumulated data and cant sell credits which I was going to do this year for the first time. Maybe Tesla has the data.