Storm Watch Activated in SF East Bay

[AMPd]

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).

I set my AC to 74, can’t stand anything hotter than that. Can’t imagine being in the house when it’s 83 inside!
Luckily we’re in no danger of having our power shut off (our provider is Roseville electric which is not part of caiso)

 

[charlesj]

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. ....

Storm Watch is Storm Watch experience not just NorCal
Since this SW is from NWS most likely it is for storms mostly if not totally, my thinking.
Your short duration is a confirmation at least for your location.
I wonder if anyone tried to call NWS directly to get an explanation what conditions triggers such a watch.

 

[attathomeguy]

Wish my powerwall would work but I am still waiting for PG&E PTO permit so I have no charge on my battery and solar is also not working

 

[bmah]

Storm Watch is Storm Watch experience not just NorCal
Since this SW is from NWS most likely it is for storms mostly if not totally, my thinking.
Your short duration is a confirmation at least for your location.
I wonder if anyone tried to call NWS directly to get an explanation what conditions triggers such a watch.

Storm Watch is a Tesla feature. It's partially based on NWS alerts but only Tesla knows exactly what motivates any particular Storm Watch activation. There have been instances where Storm Watch was activated with no severe weather alerts, and severe weather alerts with no Storm Watch. (Whether those differences were intentional or unintentional I have no idea.)

I would not expect NWS to know anything about it.

Bruce.

 

[jjrandorin]

Wish my powerwall would work but I am still waiting for PG&E PTO permit so I have no charge on my battery and solar is also not working

You could certainly:

1. Turn on your solar for testing purposes by turning the breakers and units on.
2. Once solar is on, turn the powerwalls on for testing purposes
3. Once you have both those on, and verified to be working, turn off your main breaker to your home, disconnecting you from the grid, for testing purposes.
4. Run your solar long enough to refill your batteries and power your home, testing functionality, while disconnected from the grid.

Once you refill your batteries, you could end your test, and have full batteries, and return yourself to grid operation... or perform a more extensive test while off grid if desired.

Just a suggestion /shrug.

 

[MJ_CA_2019]

Is there any way to see history of storm watch activation for my PowerWalls?

 

[jjrandorin]

Is there any way to see history of storm watch activation for my PowerWalls?

Not that I am aware of... It keeps a history of grid disconnections (backup history) but I dont see anyplace for Stormwatch mode history in the app. Maybe someone who is messing around with the API knows if there is history kept on the powerwall itself?

 

[gpez]

For some reason the local Powerwall API does not expose the current status or history.

 

[attathomeguy]

You could certainly:

1. Turn on your solar for testing purposes by turning the breakers and units on.
2. Once solar is on, turn the powerwalls on for testing purposes
3. Once you have both those on, and verified to be working, turn off your main breaker to your home, disconnecting you from the grid, for testing purposes.
4. Run your solar long enough to refill your batteries and power your home, testing functionality, while disconnected from the grid.

Once you refill your batteries, you could end your test, and have full batteries, and return yourself to grid operation... or perform a more extensive test while off grid if desired.

Just a suggestion /shrug.

That does not work we tried that. Tesla or Semper Solaris has remotely disabled that and it sucks!

 

[jjrandorin]

That does not work we tried that. Tesla or Semper Solaris has remotely disabled that and it sucks!

They could have remotely disabled monitoring, but not sure how they could remotely disable the physical devices... You should still be able to turn them on and see if stuff works, even if you cant monitor it, I would think?

 

[BrettS]

That does not work we tried that. Tesla or Semper Solaris has remotely disabled that and it sucks!

That’s interesting. What happens when you try to start your system up? Certainly from what we’ve seen it is typical to leave systems turned off, but not completely disabled. Do note that your inverters won’t start producing power until after they have been on and connected to AC for 5 minutes. So if you didn’t give them 5 minutes then it’s possible that you just didn’t wait long enough.

 

[jboy210]

Not that I am aware of... It keeps a history of grid disconnections (backup history) but I dont see anyplace for Stormwatch mode history in the app. Maybe someone who is messing around with the API knows if there is history kept on the powerwall itself?

I am writing a logger for most of the APIs and will take a look. I have not run into it yet.

 

[attathomeguy]

That’s interesting. What happens when you try to start your system up? Certainly from what we’ve seen it is typical to leave systems turned off, but not completely disabled. Do note that your inverters won’t start producing power until after they have been on and connected to AC for 5 minutes. So if you didn’t give them 5 minutes then it’s possible that you just didn’t wait long enough.

I have had them installed for over 2 weeks and everything has been in the on position since the city signed off last week. Battery is still at 0% All breakers in the on position and the main invertor is in the on position. According to PG&E online we are still pulling power. So the only way to test would be to turn off my main breaker to the grid?

 

[BrettS]

I have had them installed for over 2 weeks and everything has been in the on position since the city signed off last week. Battery is still at 0% All breakers in the on position and the main invertor is in the on position. According to PG&E online we are still pulling power. So the only way to test would be to turn off my main breaker to the grid?

If the powerwalls are at 0% and the inverter is not generating power, then I wouldn’t suggest turning off the disconnect as then you will lose power.

The question is why is the inverter not generating power. The powerwalls have nothing to do with it at this point. They can raise the line frequency to shut off the inverter when you are off grid, but not when you are on grid (and they wouldn’t be doing that if they weren’t fully charged anyway).

What kind of inverter do you have? Does it have a screen or status lights? What is on the screen or what lights are on?

 

[jjrandorin]

I have had them installed for over 2 weeks and everything has been in the on position since the city signed off last week. Battery is still at 0% All breakers in the on position and the main invertor is in the on position. According to PG&E online we are still pulling power. So the only way to test would be to turn off my main breaker to the grid?

If all breakers are in the On position, are the switches on the side of the powerwall(s) also in the on position? The powerwalls themselves have an on switch on them as well. Do the powerwall(s) have a green light on the side of them?

So if everything is in the on position, but you say "battery is at zero" are you sure that this is not just the tesla monitoring? I have read here that tesla does not activate monitoring through the app on third party installs until PTO is given, but not having monitoring wouldnt mean the system itself isnt working.

You could try looking at the local wifi login information for it. If I was in your shoes, I think I would shut off the main breaker to see what happens, but I would do so at like 9:30 am in the morning or so, after preparing the home for the possibility of no power. Meaning, I would tell everyone in the home that I was going to perform a test of the system, turn off any TVs or sensitive electrical devices (like high end receivers, etc), and then, when there is sun outside, throw the main breaker and check.

You could also log onto your utility companies website, and see if they offer daily monitoring (many do), and see what your home utility usage has been since system install.

I suspect, that you just dont have monitoring, but if everything is on, then your system should actually be generating power.

 

[attathomeguy]

If all breakers are in the On position, are the switches on the side of the powerwall(s) also in the on position? The powerwalls themselves have an on switch on them as well. Do the powerwall(s) have a green light on the side of them?

So if everything is in the on position, but you say "battery is at zero" are you sure that this is not just the tesla monitoring? I have read here that tesla does not activate monitoring through the app on third party installs until PTO is given, but not having monitoring wouldnt mean the system itself isnt working.

You could try looking at the local wifi login information for it. If I was in your shoes, I think I would shut off the main breaker to see what happens, but I would do so at like 9:30 am in the morning or so, after preparing the home for the possibility of no power. Meaning, I would tell everyone in the home that I was going to perform a test of the system, turn off any TVs or sensitive electrical devices (like high end receivers, etc), and then, when there is sun outside, throw the main breaker and check.

You could also log onto your utility companies website, and see if they offer daily monitoring (many do), and see what your home utility usage has been since system install.

I suspect, that you just dont have monitoring, but if everything is on, then your system should actually be generating power.

Everything is on the on position. I have gone to the local Powerwall interface via my wifi and it does show power flowing from the grid to my home. It shows no power from solar and no power going to the battery. I just checked PG&E website and as of 2 days ago we were pulling power from PG&E so I think my system is remotely disabled until the PTO is approved which sucks

 

[BrettS]

Everything is on the on position. I have gone to the local Powerwall interface via my wifi and it does show power flowing from the grid to my home. It shows no power from solar and no power going to the battery. I just checked PG&E website and as of 2 days ago we were pulling power from PG&E so I think my system is remotely disabled until the PTO is approved which sucks

I still think that starting with the inverter is the best way to try to figure out what’s going on here. If the inverter is not producing power, then that’s what the gateway would be showing. The gateway cannot turn off the inverter when you are connected to the grid. So whatever is going on is happening with the inverter. Either something got missed (there are often several AC breakers and/or disconnects as well as a power switch an a DC disconnect on the inverter itself) or possibly it’s been remotely disabled, but I really think that is pretty unlikely.

What brand and model is your inverter and does it have a screen or lights? What’s on the screen or what’s the status of the lights?

 

[charlesj]

Storm Watch is a Tesla feature. It's partially based on NWS alerts but only Tesla knows exactly what motivates any particular Storm Watch activation. There have been instances where Storm Watch was activated with no severe weather alerts, and severe weather alerts with no Storm Watch. (Whether those differences were intentional or unintentional I have no idea.)

I would not expect NWS to know anything about it.

Bruce.

Yes, one thing is sure is that we don't know what algorithm Tesla is using to turn that feature on but the explanation is that SW communicates with NWS. It also includes ice storms or anything that could know power lines down.
No mention of communications with any other agency.
Sever weather can have a broad protocol what to include.

 

[charlesj]

Everything is on the on position. I have gone to the local Powerwall interface via my wifi and it does show power flowing from the grid to my home. It shows no power from solar and no power going to the battery. I just checked PG&E website and as of 2 days ago we were pulling power from PG&E so I think my system is remotely disabled until the PTO is approved which sucks

Do you have a net meter from before or with this install? If not, meter cannot go backwards right now; that may be why not.

Turning off the main breaker will not cause a problem except resetting clocks, answering machines, etc if you have on.

While I had solar for 8 years, my powerwalls are new and was on the minute it was installed, May 21 with no PTO until recently.

 

[attathomeguy]

Do you have a net meter from before or with this install? If not, meter cannot go backwards right now; that may be why not.

Turning off the main breaker will not cause a problem except resetting clocks, answering machines, etc if you have on.

While I had solar for 8 years, my powerwalls are new and was on the minute it was installed, May 21 with no PTO until recently.

We do not have a net meter so that might be the issue