SolarEdge HD inverter shutdown due to 18x22 error cause low voltage from grid

[Cstreet]

Yesterday we had another outage (3rd in the last two days) but before the last full outage my solar stopped producing and filling the Powerwalls.

I have a fairly new SolarEdge HD inverter with no display but it has three lights that were blinking. So I tried to restart it but same result. I was able to connect to the inverting using the SolarEdge SetApp from the Android app store in view only mode and found an 18x22 error.

I didn't find much online around this error so called Tesla support but they were not sure and decided someone needed to come onsite to look at it.

It then started working again an hour later but then turned back off. At the same time my neighbors started commenting on low voltage in our area. Sure enough I saw 106-107 volts and that was causing the inverter to shutdown.

Now that the power is back on today and working well the solar and inverter are working fine again. So figured I would post for the benefit of someone else in the future in case they run into this.

 

[charlesj]

Curious indeed that voltage went so low.
Maybe another tool by the PW is a kill-a-watt meter and shut the grid off if this happens again. Yes, it is a PITA but a solution?

 

[Cstreet]

Yeah I was using a Kill-a-watt to check the voltage. It was also handy for the initial off-grid testing to check the frequency used to signal the inverter to shutdown and confirming it was dropped when we had a few appliances that didn't handle 65hz well.

 

[jboy210]

I read stories online about the voltage being very low in certain parts of the Bay Area. Sorry to hear that these stories are true.

 

[gpez]

The Powerwall APIs should expose voltages as well, you could query that and see what the current status is.

https://<powerwall IP>/api/meters/aggregates

instant_average_voltage will tell you what the CTs are reading at the site, battery, load, and solar.

 

[SMAlset]

If I recall you’ve been having some problems with service in your neighborhood. Hope it gets fixed. Are they working in your area on equipment upgrades? I heard today on the news that PG&E was even creating a micro grid for some area (can’t recall where) because they had encountered several PSPSs and like a week with no power last year.

 

[Cstreet]

If I recall you’ve been having some problems with service in your neighborhood. Hope it gets fixed. Are they working in your area on equipment upgrades? I heard today on the news that PG&E was even creating a micro grid for some area (can’t recall where) because they had encountered several PSPSs and like a week with no power last year.

Yeah will live in a low density area back in the hills relative to other areas on the SF Bay Peninsula so we are last on the list to be restored.

The Powerwalls have been great this year so glad we had them installed. I got some good advice from someone in the neighborhood who had two of them installed a year earlier which was to get three .