Solar inverter died but PWs are still up, Is there a way to get the system to charge the PWs during off-peak from the Grid?

[slcasner]

The tariffs should be structured to reflect real costs, but they currently do not. If they did, the fixed portion of the bill, independent of usage, would be substantial. The cost for the grandmother living on Social Security and using little electricity would go way up, and that's not going to happen. The tariffs are also distorted by incentives, such as the tiers to encourage conservation of energy. And NEM encourages installation of solar which was fine until it became too popular, so now that is being blasted as the rich being subsidized by the poor.

 

[SadSolar]

It's not clear, but did the OP confirm the inverter is totally dead? Have troubleshooting steps been performed in an effort to restart it? I have four inverters (3 Delta and one SolarEdge) and one of the Delta inverters has shut off half a dozen times over the past year. Normally this is on very hot days when the inverter is in direct sunlight. Five out of those six times, I was able to restart the inverter as soon as I noticed the issue and production resumed about 5 minutes later. The sixth time, the inverter wouldn't restart. I waited until the inverter was no longer in direct sunlight, restarted it again and production resumed. It's been running fine again for several weeks straight.

So it's possible that if the inverter isn't totally dead, the OP might be able to get their system working again by restarting the inverter.

OP here... sorry for not checking back, I didn't realize I wasn't getting alerts on posts on my thread.

I did perform a few different levels of restarts that did not help the situation.

But instead of waiting until 8/30 for Tesla to take a look, I did find 'MTool' for iOS that was able to reset the Arc fault alert. Apparently the system wouldn't come out of fault mode even during restarts, until someone (me) manually resets the alert.

Edit: there was a way to do this without the app, but I wasn't going to open the 'warning, warning high voltage' panel to push the 'reset' button. The official app is for android (which I don't have) so I had to find a non-supported iOS version, which worked. The M8 is an extremely-close-range bluetooth device, so I had to be standing next to it to get a connection.... probably why they need to send someone out to do what I did. The arc test on the app showed 'good' (as far as a layman could tell)

System has been up and running since but I don't want to jinx it. Still going to have the Tesla folks coming out on 8/30 to do a full arc fault diagnostic.

 

[SadSolar]

So, what you are saying, effectively is, I can buy 1000 of something tonight from you, specifically, for 10 cents each, and you would be happy to buy that same exact thing back from me tomorrow at noon for 40 cents each, and that is a viable business model for you? Certainly sounds great for ME, but doesnt sound so great on your end.

Funny enough, as far as I can tell, other parts of the globe allow that exact scenario for powerwall.

Additionally, here's what I'm finding as what I'm getting with my TOU NEM plan:
Off-peak cost: 27cents/kW
Peak cost: 43cents/kW

selling power back to the system at any time: 7cents/kW
edit: Actually, it's worse than that... 2 to 3 cents/kWh (Net Surplus Compensation Rate)

Minimum I have to pay them just to be part of the grid: $10/month

So, it's to their advantage no matter what, since I'm not actually selling back the 27cent/kW back at 43cent/kW... I lose 24 cents at the minimum. If they enable this though, then I, as a solar+PW customer could help offload their peak usage when those without solar/PW are taxing the system.

I believe it's exactly this logic that's pushing PG&E/SCE etc to petition with the california whatever commision to relax the no-grid-charge rules, since they win either way.

 

[jjrandorin]

Funny enough, as far as I can tell, other parts of the globe allow that exact scenario for powerwall.

Additionally, here's what I'm finding as what I'm getting with my TOU NEM plan:
Off-peak cost: 27cents/kW
Peak cost: 43cents/kW

selling power back to the system at any time: 7cents/kW
edit: Actually, it's worse than that... 2 to 3 cents/kWh (Net Surplus Compensation Rate)

Minimum I have to pay them just to be part of the grid: $10/month

So, it's to their advantage no matter what, since I'm not actually selling back the 27cent/kW back at 43cent/kW... I lose 24 cents at the minimum. If they enable this though, then I, as a solar+PW customer could help offload their peak usage when those without solar/PW are taxing the system.

I believe it's exactly this logic that's pushing PG&E/SCE etc to petition with the california whatever commision to relax the no-grid-charge rules, since they win either way.

Your NEM credits are at the exact same rate you generate them so "selling back to the system at any time = 2-3 cents" is not accurate. You get NEM credits at the exact same rate that you would be pulling from the grid at that time. the only time its 2-3 cents is at the end of the year, if you are a net producer of energy, they will pay you 2-3 cents for the over production you didnt use that year.

The grid charging rules are not PGEs nor are they Californias. Tesla has it setup that way so that there is no debate on whether their systems qualify for the income tax credit.

 

[sorka]

OP here... sorry for not checking back, I didn't realize I wasn't getting alerts on posts on my thread.

I did perform a few different levels of restarts that did not help the situation.

But instead of waiting until 8/30 for Tesla to take a look, I did find 'MTool' for iOS that was able to reset the Arc fault alert. Apparently the system wouldn't come out of fault mode even during restarts, until someone (me) manually resets the alert.

Edit: there was a way to do this without the app, but I wasn't going to open the 'warning, warning high voltage' panel to push the 'reset' button. The official app is for android (which I don't have) so I had to find a non-supported iOS version, which worked. The M8 is an extremely-close-range bluetooth device, so I had to be standing next to it to get a connection.... probably why they need to send someone out to do what I did. The arc test on the app showed 'good' (as far as a layman could tell)

System has been up and running since but I don't want to jinx it. Still going to have the Tesla folks coming out on 8/30 to do a full arc fault diagnostic.

Can you provide a little more info on this? Is this an iOS app on the app store? An Android app too? Did you peer to peer logon to the inverter through wifi using the red toggle button to allow peer to peer connection? Did you have use the solaredge app first to connect?

 

[Heretic]

Can you provide a little more info on this? Is this an iOS app on the app store? An Android app too? Did you peer to peer logon to the inverter through wifi using the red toggle button to allow peer to peer connection? Did you have use the solaredge app first to connect?

Sorka, he's describing a Delta inverter, not SolarEdge. E. G model M8, "mtool" app to connect via blue tooth.

 

[Heretic]

As far as I can tell, the Powerwall is able to charge from grid, completely software controlled by Tesla.
The issue is what the utility company and or state regulations allow. With calif/pge, and if you have solar array, it seems the only time they want you to charge from grid is for an emergency (e.g. Storm watch mode). Theres thus sort of tug of war right now where pge wants to get your ex cess energy, but they don't want you to have too much. They don't want end users to control a device connected to their infrastructure, but they also don't want to discuss a real "plug and play scenario" either.

 

[h2ofun]

As far as I can tell, the Powerwall is able to charge from grid, completely software controlled by Tesla.
The issue is what the utility company and or state regulations allow. With calif/pge, and if you have solar array, it seems the only time they want you to charge from grid is for an emergency (e.g. Storm watch mode). Theres thus sort of tug of war right now where pge wants to get your ex cess energy, but they don't want you to have too much. They don't want end users to control a device connected to their infrastructure, but they also don't want to discuss a real "plug and play scenario" either.

Need to charge from grid in winter when solar does not do much

 

[cali8484]

As far as I can tell, the Powerwall is able to charge from grid, completely software controlled by Tesla.
The issue is what the utility company and or state regulations allow. With calif/pge, and if you have solar array, it seems the only time they want you to charge from grid is for an emergency (e.g. Storm watch mode). Theres thus sort of tug of war right now where pge wants to get your ex cess energy, but they don't want you to have too much. They don't want end users to control a device connected to their infrastructure, but they also don't want to discuss a real "plug and play scenario" either.

Did you get the info from PG&E? When I talked to PG&E they told me they do not restrict when you can charge batteries from the grid. It makes sense as people can charge EV batteries and power station batteries from the grid anytime. Charging PW from grid limitation is due to the requirements of some government subsidies (e.g. SGIP, etc). PG&E does not enforce such government subsidy requirements. PG&E is guilty of many things but not in this case. Owners having no control over when PW can charge from the grid is all on Tesla.

 

[h2ofun]

Did you get the info from PG&E? When I talked to PG&E they told me they do not restrict when you can charge batteries from the grid. It makes sense as people can charge EV batteries and power station batteries from the grid anytime. Charging PW from grid limitation is due to the requirements of some government subsidies (e.g. SGIP, etc). PG&E does not enforce such government subsidy requirements. PG&E is guilty of many things but not in this case. Owners having no control over when PW can charge from the grid is all on Tesla.

Depending on what SGIP you got, nope, the ONLY reason the batteries do not charge from grid is Tesla has elected to put their head in the sand. It is legal from PGE, and SGIP and CPUC, federal government, etc. ALL of them! As with other things with Teals, customer service is NOT their top priority.