Storm Watch Activated in SF East Bay

[wwu123]

Curious if folks think the Stormwatch triggered Saturday morning had more to do with the storm that blew through early Sunday morning, or with the heatwave going on since Thursday?

These are the two things that cause prolonged power outages in my neighborhood - high winds from storms (more a winter thing), and heatwaves in summer (causing trees to just decide to drop a big branch - I'm looking at you, eucalyptus...)

 

[cwied]

Given that storm watch is still on, I'm guessing that it's because of the possibility of rotating outages rather than the Red Flag Warning on Saturday night.

 

[Sonus]

Strom watch has now been disabled in the south bay. Back to normal operation.

 

[charlesj]

Where you in Self-Powered with Storm Watch enabled? With mine in self-powered, it feeds the Powerwall with both solar and the grid. Then when the battery is full the grid quits feeding it and excess solar is dumped to the grid.

Yes, that is what happened to that point with still solar available. Normal. After sunset is when issues came about.
Full battery and grid feeding house. I decided to turn SW off, waited a long while, grid still feeding house, nothing from battery.
I suppose that is what should happen with SW on but not when it is turned off. In off mode, without changing self power, I would expect battery to feed house after sunset. That didn't happen so I turned off main breaker, grid out, PW suppled house.
Same happened Sunday, SW in off mode, grid and solar powered house, not battery, main breaker turned off again.
Others have expressed this as well, turning SW off didn't change system back to normal ops.
Called today. They will go over log but now there is no SW; will see. In the meantime, I turned off SW for the long haul.

 

[Sonus]

I don't think you can turn off SW when it is activated, the reason behind it is that SW allows you to charge for the grid if you are able to turn it on and off while it is activated in your area you will charge form the grid every time violating the contract Tesla have with the power companies that prevent us form charging from the grid

 

[cwied]

I don't think you can turn off SW when it is activated, the reason behind it is that SW allows you to charge for the grid if you are able to turn it on and off while it is activated in your area you will charge form the grid every time violating the contract Tesla have with the power companies that prevent us form charging from the grid

This is true, but you are able to do it. I tried this yesterday and it worked as you describe. When I turned Stormwatch off, it resumed normal operation and when I turned it back on again, it charged from the grid.

My Stormwatch is now off as well, so maybe it was the Red Flag warning after all.

 

[Sonus]

This is true, but you are able to do it. I tried this yesterday and it worked as you describe. When I turned Stormwatch off, it resumed normal operation and when I turned it back on again, it charged from the grid.

My Stormwatch is now off as well, so maybe it was the Red Flag warning after all.

Yes, that is what I did.
I was under the impression my app has a bug, if you think about it giving us the ability to charge form the grid is crazy, especially when the power shutoff is due to high demand.

 

[aesculus]

It is rather confusing. My area was not in a weather alert area but an excessive heat according to the NWS. I did go into Storm Watch last Friday and now it's off at 11AM today. Note we did get the high winds and thunderstorms but not like the Bay Area did.

I was late to the game of taking my App out of Cost Savings so I had moved it over to Self Powered mode over the weekend with a reserve at 50%. Well between 11am and 2:30 today my house sucked 40% of my storage to run the AC, as I was pre cooling the house in anticipation of the heavy peak today.

Had I know I was out of SW mode I would have tried something different to keep the PWs charged and just use the lower grid prices until I needed it at peak today and this evening. Now I am scrambling to recharge the batteries while minimizing my grid use. So running the house on minimum with the AC units off to gain charge. Hopefully I can get them back into the 90% range by the time the AC cuts in again around 6pm.

I suspect I will have to lower my PW reserve at that point too. Maybe switch over to Balanced once I get the battery charged as much as I can.

Learning as I go with this "new normal" heat wave.

 

[Sonus]

Switch back to cost savings, all solar power will go the batteries and the house will run from the grid during low-cost times.

 

[aesculus]

Switch back to cost savings, all solar power will go the batteries and the house will run from the grid during low-cost times.

I have to get them charged first. So I can switch when my solar:house net is zero. Right now in Self Powered it is doing just that.

In cost savings it would export all solar during peak and drain the battery down to the reserve level so I may need to tweak the reserve dynamically.

I was planning on doing this today starting at max charge until I discovered late that Self Powered with a 50% reserve ate up my storage.

 

[charlesj]

... When I turned Stormwatch off, it resumed normal operation and when I turned it back on again, it charged from the grid.

...

When I turned it off, it may have worked for a few minutes didn't monitor to make sure, I rechecked 45 minutes later and grid was powering the house, not the fully charged batteries. I checked again an hour later still, SW off mode but in SW conditions from NWS, still powere from grid so I turned off the main breaker. Then battery took over as expected.
Same the next day after the storm. While I didn't check if SW from NWS was still on here, I had to turn off the main breaker again as it was nice and sunny, storm passed, and wanted to charge from solar not the grid. Didn't work without the main breaker being off.
Today, after SW lifted it works as advertised.
I suppose I should have called Tesla then, not after the fact, but wasn't sure the techs work on the weekend.
Next time. In the meantime my SW will be off.

 

[jjrandorin]

I have to get them charged first. So I can switch when my solar:house net is zero. Right now in Self Powered it is doing just that.

In cost savings it would export all solar during peak and drain the battery down to the reserve level so I may need to tweak the reserve dynamically.

I was planning on doing this today starting at max charge until I discovered late that Self Powered with a 50% reserve ate up my storage.

You can micro manage it like I do on self powered ( I dont use cost savings at all). Use self powered but a high reserve. when the PW is under the reserve in self powered mode, it will funnel all solar to the PWs (same as if it was in backup only). Once it gets to the reserve setting, it will then let solar power the home and send excess (if any) to powerwalls, and after that, to grid.

So, if you are trying to get your PWs charged on self powered, change the reserve to something high like 80 or even 90%, which will be the same as putting them in backup only. if you are in a low grid cost time (daytime) leave the reserve at 80% or something, and as your AC cycles on and off the powerwall will provide energy to make up the difference in your solar, till it bumps against your reserve then pull from the grid. With a high reserve like 80% though you should have plenty to get through the peak.

Before peak comes, after you pre-cooled etc, simply lower your reserve to whatever you are willing to go down to to get you through peak and have enough for possible overnight outage.

Kinda "micro managery" but once you raise the reserve on self powered, you can let your house run the AC during the day, etc, without worrying if it will suck all your powerwall power, but still stay on self powered mode to ensure PW charging consistently, unlike the other modes which try to "figure it out for you".

 

[salcaide]

Given that rolling blackouts are forecasted, you would think they would keep storm watch on. Planned/forecasted power outages? This is what it was designed for. This would allow you to charge up the battery overnight using grid power, and then consume less during the day; in particular, to have enough battery to run the AC all the way to the end of the 3-10pm peak or any outage. I imagine many of us are hitting the Power Reserve limiter with the larger AC usage - adding to the grid load right at the worst point. How does one convince Tesla to turn Storm Watch back on until the forecasted rolling blackouts are over?

 

[arnolddeleon]

Curious if folks think the Stormwatch triggered Saturday morning had more to do with the storm that blew through early Sunday morning, or with the heatwave going on since Thursday?

These are the two things that cause prolonged power outages in my neighborhood - high winds from storms (more a winter thing), and heatwaves in summer (causing trees to just decide to drop a big branch - I'm looking at you, eucalyptus...)

In hindsight I think it was about the storm. No storm watch today even though CAISO was asking for energy conservation. Tesla sent email recommending users use Time Based setting and changing peak to match the current demand peak (versus your tariff).

 

[aesculus]

In hindsight I think it was about the storm. No storm watch today even though CAISO was asking for energy conservation. Tesla sent email recommending users use Time Based setting and changing peak to match the current demand peak (versus your tariff).

It was quite confusing for sure. I played with the NWS detailed map and selected various places for the detailed descriptions. The map only shows one state. But clicking into a few places I found they had both Red Flag and High Heat. My location only had High Heat and I was in Storm Watch until 11am Monday. And we did get some thunderstorms but no measurable rain. Just lightening, thunder and the roads got wet once. Nothing recorded in the rain gauge. Closest location got a whopping .01 inches.

 

[LadyLion]

In hindsight I think it was about the storm. No storm watch today even though CAISO was asking for energy conservation. Tesla sent email recommending users use Time Based setting and changing peak to match the current demand peak (versus your tariff).

How do you read the curve/chart on Casio to set TimeBased setting and changing peak to match the current demand peak? Or other method to choose time setting?

Please give an example with times and the settings you use. I am just learning and awaiting my instal September 17-18 with 3 PWs. I’m in N Bay SF and dealing with flex times and rolling outages now and would like to keep reply for future reference.
TIA

 

[arnolddeleon]

How do you read the curve/chart on Casio to set TimeBased setting and changing peak to match the current demand peak? Or other method to choose time setting?

Please give an example with times and the settings you use. I am just learning and awaiting my instal September 17-18 with 3 PWs. I’m in N Bay SF and dealing with flex times and rolling outages now and would like to keep reply for future reference.
TIA

Tesla recommended 4 to 9 pm which eyeballing the CA ISO graphs looks right. Also lines up with the rolling blackout time slots.

 

[jjrandorin]

I know this thread is about East Bay in Nor Cal, but rather than creating another thread, I figured I would just add in that StormWatch activated for me today in South Riverside county CA (I live in a city called Temecula) at about 11am today. Its been as high as 108 at my house, and is 105 right now at close to 4pm. I had to drive into work today down to North County San Diego, and on my way back home, I got hit by a Rainstorm where it was raining hard enough to have my wipers going full speed, and not clearing the water fast enough... and it was also over 100 degrees while doing so.

I drove through the quick storm, but I dont remember seeing weather this hot with rain and clouds in So. Cal before like this. We very rarely get "hot rain", unlike a lot of other places, so this is definitely a double wammy of hot temps, not cooling off at night, AND clouds somewhat curtailing solar / PV production.

EDIT
I just checked my tesla app after getting out of a virtual meeting, and stormwatch is now off. So, total time on was likely 11:30 to likely 3:30? Strange....

 

[aesculus]

I drove through the quick storm, but I dont remember seeing weather this hot with rain and clouds in So. Cal before like this. We very rarely get "hot rain", unlike a lot of other places, so this is definitely a double wammy of hot temps, not cooling off at night, AND clouds somewhat curtailing solar / PV production.

Yep. And why California has moved so much with renewables like wind and solar which is great, this exposed the Achilles heal of the model. And I don't think storage will be the answer either because we are now into the 6th day of this, with many more to come. With it hotter, more humid the AC demand is much greater. With the heat and cloud cover I am seeing about 25-30% less solar production (or more) day in and day out. I am pretty sure the whole storage idea was supposed to bridge you for a day or so, not weeks.

So the question will be for climatologists and utility planners: Is this a freak event or the new normal? If the latter we are really going to have to rethink the strategy IMHO.

From the climate side here is a perspective of this event from one of the leading researchers in the area. You can look at some of his other views by moving back in time.

Weather West

 

[jjrandorin]

Yep. And why California has moved so much with renewables like wind and solar which is great, this exposed the Achilles heal of the model. And I don't think storage will be the answer either because we are now into the 6th day of this, with many more to come. With it hotter, more humid the AC demand is much greater. With the heat and cloud cover I am seeing about 25-30% less solar production (or more) day in and day out. I am pretty sure the whole storage idea was supposed to bridge you for a day or so, not weeks.

So the question will be for climatologists and utility planners: Is this a freak event or the new normal? If the latter we are really going to have to rethink the strategy IMHO.

From the climate side here is a perspective of this event from one of the leading researchers in the area. You can look at some of his other views by moving back in time.

Weather West

That was a good quick read, thanks! I was thinking "this feels more like midwest, or florida weather than california weather". Its 4pm right now, and I should be still generating around 2.5 to 3kWh ratings from my PV, and its limping along at .4 to .5, while my AC which is set to 83 degrees is still on (and not efficient at all, as it takes 4kWh per unit, and I have 2).