SolarEdge Generation Monitoring - hardwired (ethernet) network connection

[LandToSea]

That was the same response I got. As I recall, I called tesla on a Friday afternoon and I got the email from solaredge with my account info on the following Monday afternoon. Keep an eye on your email because I never got a call or anything letting me know that the account had been created, just the welcome email from solaredge.

I never got the follow up email. I called back and they said they do not have the ability to do that and have no record of my previous call. They said only my installation coordinator can do such things. I emailed her and she is totally clueless as to what I am asking. She replied that as soon as they fire up my system I will see the system state in the Tesla app. Everything I said about the Solar Edge app went over her head.

 

[BrettS]

I never got the follow up email. I called back and they said they do not have the ability to do that and have no record of my previous call. They said only my installation coordinator can do such things. I emailed her and she is totally clueless as to what I am asking. She replied that as soon as they fire up my system I will see the system state in the Tesla app. Everything I said about the Solar Edge app went over her head.

That’s odd. I believe that the email came from an @solaredge.com email address. Maybe double check your junk folder and see if it might have gotten caught up there.

If that doesn’t work, maybe try to call back and talk to someone else. The number I called is the after PTO support number, 877-798-3752. Just ask for access to the solaredge monitoring portal. The person I spoke with knew exactly what I wanted and quickly created the request for me.

 

[MXDogCrate]

Does this apply to Solar Roofs as well? Assuming it’s the same hardware?

 

[BrettS]

Does this apply to Solar Roofs as well? Assuming it’s the same hardware?

I believe that typically they use delta inverters for solar roofs. However, if you do have solaredge inverters then it would apply.

 

[trautmane2]

Does this apply to Solar Roofs as well? Assuming it’s the same hardware?

FYI: I just started this thread:
Monitoring Options For Solar Glass Roof, No Powerwalls

in an attempt to solicit monitoring information for the Delta inverters installed for solar glass roofs.

 

[GHTech]

I have a 8.16 kW PV and 2 PW system that was installed Sep. 1st. Finally, got PTO today. My Gateway (small black box) said "No Signal" from the first day. My Tesla App was working fine as it was getting the info from the Gateway 2. I called Tech Support about the Gateway a couple of times, and they said it was not needed that I can put it away in the box. I had put a request in for the SolarEdge account a couple of weeks ago, but when I followed up was told that it will be submitted after PTO. I had been running extended test on the weekends of the whole system, so as soon as I got the PTO this morning, I turned everything on.

I called Tesla to get them to push the SolarEdge request through. They said that activations need to do it, as they had not got the PTO paperwork yet. Anyway, they did the activation. We also discussed the Gateway, and they said that it stopped reporting on the day I put it in the box. I asked them about the report that the Gateway is not passing on the info to SolarEdge, and he said that there was a firmware update for the Gateway, that was released recently, that fixes it. I was at work when I made this call. As soon as I got home, I reconnected the Gateway, and called activations. The person this time said that it is now reporting, and it would take up to 24 hours to properly complete (have heard that before). I asked her about the data to SolarEdge, and she also mentioned the new firmware. She said that she will run a diagnostic, and if the firmware is needed that she will send it on to that team. If what both said is accurate, then we may not need the ethernet cable. I will see when I get the SolarEdge access.

 

[BrettS]

I have a 8.16 kW PV and 2 PW system that was installed Sep. 1st. Finally, got PTO today. My Gateway (small black box) said "No Signal" from the first day. My Tesla App was working fine as it was getting the info from the Gateway 2. I called Tech Support about the Gateway a couple of times, and they said it was not needed that I can put it away in the box. I had put a request in for the SolarEdge account a couple of weeks ago, but when I followed up was told that it will be submitted after PTO. I had been running extended test on the weekends of the whole system, so as soon as I got the PTO this morning, I turned everything on.

I called Tesla to get them to push the SolarEdge request through. They said that activations need to do it, as they had not got the PTO paperwork yet. Anyway, they did the activation. We also discussed the Gateway, and they said that it stopped reporting on the day I put it in the box. I asked them about the report that the Gateway is not passing on the info to SolarEdge, and he said that there was a firmware update for the Gateway, that was released recently, that fixes it. I was at work when I made this call. As soon as I got home, I reconnected the Gateway, and called activations. The person this time said that it is now reporting, and it would take up to 24 hours to properly complete (have heard that before). I asked her about the data to SolarEdge, and she also mentioned the new firmware. She said that she will run a diagnostic, and if the firmware is needed that she will send it on to that team. If what both said is accurate, then we may not need the ethernet cable. I will see when I get the SolarEdge access.

That would be great if it worked. Apparently for some time tesla did pass the data on to solaredge, so the ethernet cable was not necessary, but a number of months ago (around the beginning of the year, I think) they just stopped. It never worked for my install that was completed in June. I don’t think anyone ever got a good answer from tesla about why they stopped or if they would ever start again and since it hadn’t been functioning for months I think most of us just gave up on them ever starting again. Definitely let us know if you’re able to get it working.

Maybe I’ll plug my gateway in again and see if it gets a firmware update (although I’m not sure there’s any way for us to know what firmware version it’s on)

 

[GHTech]

That would be great if it worked. Apparently for some time tesla did pass the data on to solaredge, so the ethernet cable was not necessary, but a number of months ago (around the beginning of the year, I think) they just stopped. It never worked for my install that was completed in June. I don’t think anyone ever got a good answer from tesla about why they stopped or if they would ever start again and since it hadn’t been functioning for months I think most of us just gave up on them ever starting again. Definitely let us know if you’re able to get it working.

Maybe I’ll plug my gateway in again and see if it gets a firmware update (although I’m not sure there’s any way for us to know what firmware version it’s on)

I am not sure if I would be able to test it, as my inverter does not seem to be talking to my Gateway. I need to get that resolved as well.

 

[GHTech]

Greetings,

Just (about 1 hour ago) got access to SolarEdge monitoring, and looks like the new firmware update for the Gateway (small one, and not the Gateway 2 - TEG) does allow the data to go from the Inverter through Tesla to SolarEdge. Screenshot attached. I had briefly connected the ethernet cable a couple of weeks ago, but did not keep it connected for more than 30 minutes. At the moment, only the Zigbee is working.

I did call Tesla Support a couple of weeks ago, and asked them to check on the new firmware (as they had told me about it earlier). They said that they will run a diagnosis, and if it needs the new firmware, that they will ask the responsible team to update.

My SolarEdge access is only for the Dashboard, and not the Layout, so I don't see the individual panel info. Will call tomorrow.

Regards,

GHTech

 

[BrettS]

Just (about 1 hour ago) got access to SolarEdge monitoring, and looks like the new firmware update for the Gateway (small one, and not the Gateway 2 - TEG) does allow the data to go from the Inverter through Tesla to SolarEdge. Screenshot attached. I had briefly connected the ethernet cable a couple of weeks ago, but did not keep it connected for more than 30 minutes. At the moment, only the Zigbee is working.

That’s great news. A lot of people have been hoping that this would start working again. I’m going to try to reconnect my gateway in the hopes that it gets the firmware update and starts sending data to SolarEdge.

 

[BrettS]

So I just unplugged my inverter’s ethernet cables and reconnected my zigbee gateway and it’s working. Sort of. I think. I’m actually not totally sure what’s going on.

So normally when the inverters are connected via ethernet the blue light on the inverter stays on all of the time. This makes sense because the blue light indicates that the inverter is in communication with solaredge. If I use one of the apps to check the inverter status it reports “s_ok” which also indicates that it is in communication with solaredge.

But now that ethernet is disconnected and it’s connected through the gateway the blue light is off most of the time. And the inverter status does not show “s_ok”. However, for some reason every few minutes the blue light goes on and the inverter reports “s_ok”, then a short time later the blue light goes off again and the “s_ok” status goes away. However, it does appear that during these short times when it’s able to connect it is passing data to SolarEdge. My SolarEdge app is displaying data from time periods after I disconnected the ethernet cables, so clearly it has been able to send data to SolarEdge through the zigbee gateway.

This is definitely new and different behavior. Before today when I tried to disconnect ethernet and connect the inverters through the zigbee gateway the blue light never went on and the inverters never indicated the “s_ok” status. And my solaredge app never received updated data from the time after the ethernet cables had been disconnected.

So I have no idea why the communication seems to be intermittent like it is, but despite that it does seem to be working. As long as it keeps sending data to SolarEdge in a reasonably timely fashion I will leave it connected like this and see how it goes.

 

[GHTech]

Hi BrettS,

Same here. My blue light comes on for a little while, and then goes off.

Regards,

GHTech

 

[BrettS]

Same here. My blue light comes on for a little while, and then goes off.

It’s very odd. I don’t believe that is ‘normal’, meaning I don’t believe that’s how it would behave with an ethernet connection or a SolarEdge zigbee gateway. However, it does seem to be working. And we already knew that the Tesla zigbee gateway does weird things.

 

[GeorgeIoak]

I'll have to watch it again but I recall the blue communication LED going off when I was watching it and I've never connected an ethernet cable not connected to Solaredge (yet). My best guess is that maybe when it's Zigbee only communication it might change the LED when it is actually communicating which is only every 15 minutes, right?

 

[BrettS]

I'll have to watch it again but I recall the blue communication LED going off when I was watching it and I've never connected an ethernet cable not connected to Solaredge (yet). My best guess is that maybe when it's Zigbee only communication it might change the LED when it is actually communicating which is only every 15 minutes, right?

When it was connected via ethernet the inverters would report their status every 15 minutes on the dot. (Not necessarily at :00, :15, :30, and :45, but each status update was exactly 15 minutes after the last). Oddly it seems to be communicating more frequently now that it is connected to the zigbee gateway. Maybe every 5-8 minutes or so.

I think what’s happening is that the inverters are seeing that they are disconnected, so the blue light goes off, then every 5-8 minutes the connection is able to be made, so the blue light goes on and the inverters transmit their most recent data. Then they get disconnected again and the cycle repeats. If they were able to stay connected continuously then I think they would report every 15 minutes,

 

[GeorgeIoak]

the inverters never indicated the “s_ok” status

Where do you see this s_ok message?

 

[BrettS]

Where do you see this s_ok message?

If you have an inverter with an LCD screen you can see it on the screen. If you don’t, then you need to use SetApp or the MySolarEdge app to connect to the inverter’s adhoc WiFi network and view the inverter’s communication status. But really, the blue light is all you need. If the blue light is on then it has an “s_ok” status. If the blue light is off then it doesn’t.

 

[BrettS]

So just a quick note that my inverters are still successfully communicating with SolarEdge through my zigbee gateway. I’m still seeing the blue light coming on intermittently and inconsistent communication intervals, but the data is making it to solaredge in a timely manner.

 

[k-mal_808]

So just a quick note that my inverters are still successfully communicating with SolarEdge through my zigbee gateway. I’m still seeing the blue light coming on intermittently and inconsistent communication intervals, but the data is making it to solaredge in a timely manner.

That’s great news for solar only installs.

 

[willow_hiller]

Hi @BrettS , can I ask how well a SolarEdge customer account works for total production monitoring (I'm assuming the customer account is easier to get than the installer account)? I've got to enter my total meter reading in kWh in order to collect SRECs each month. I figured I could make do with the LED screen on my inverter, but this morning (after producing my first MWh), I noticed the precision on the LED screen has flipped from kWh to MWh with 3 decimal points. I'm assuming I'll lose decimal points as more MWh are produced, and this lack of precision may annoy the SREC broker over time.

My options as far as I can see:

1. Switch to the Tesla App for total production monitoring (the app missed out on my first ~50 kWh of production, so I haven't yet hit a MWh in the app, but folks say it's very close to what SolarEdge reports).
2. Sign up for SolarEdge monitoring now that Tesla seems to be faithfully relaying the production data