Storm Watch Activated in SF East Bay

[JPP]

I have a colleague in San Rafael (Marin County). Yesterday Friday at 6:45 pm they had an unannounced blackout for about 2-3 hours. Here in the East Bay it has been hot (Lafayette 105, Concord 110° today). Storm Watch went live at 11:30 am as the State announced a Fire Alert (high temps, risk of lightning). It is hazy and partially cloudy so less than optimal solar PV performance. No outage here yet, but stay tuned. We have 2 PWs and 16kW of solar on our home. But due to our electrical system layout (kind of odd, several sub panels), our 2 5 ton AC compressors are not backed up, so when we lose power, it's gonna be unpleasant.

And EV-A is just a memory--we are on EV2-A and get punished from 4-9 pm.

 

[zanary]

I have a colleague in San Rafael (Marin County). Yesterday Friday at 6:45 pm they had an unannounced blackout for about 2-3 hours. Here in the East Bay it has been hot (Lafayette 105, Concord 110° today). Storm Watch went live at 11:30 am as the State announced a Fire Alert (high temps, risk of lightning). It is hazy and partially cloudy so less than optimal solar PV performance. No outage here yet, but stay tuned. We have 2 PWs and 16kW of solar on our home. But due to our electrical system layout (kind of odd, several sub panels), our 2 5 ton AC compressors are not backed up, so when we lose power, it's gonna be unpleasant.

And EV-A is just a memory--we are on EV2-A and get punished from 4-9 pm.

Wow. Quantity 2 5 ton AC and only 2 powerwalls. I have a really small system (limited roof). 3.2kh with 3 powerwalls and I put the whole home (including my 2 ton AC) on the load center. The only think I put on the grid side was my 75 amp Tesla Wall Charger.

 

[JPP]

Wow. Quantity 2 5 ton AC and only 2 powerwalls. I have a really small system (limited roof). 3.2kh with 3 powerwalls and I put the whole home (including my 2 ton AC) on the load center. The only think I put on the grid side was my 75 amp Tesla Wall Charger.

As I said, my electrical topography, meter and disconnect location, distance to main house, number and location of preexisting sub panels (with the 2 AC compressors on a separate and somewhat remote sub panel ,and the main house air handlers on the 'backed up' panels), etc, etc meant that having 3 PWs for the main house was not useful/necessary. Oh, I could have done a major re-engineering and spent 10s of thousands, but I accept the power arbitrage I do now and the extent of power backup I will have in an outage.

 

[charlesj]

Interesting update on the local Storm Watch here in Monterey and my event.
Storm Watch was on all afternoon, battery fully charged from solar and grid at 6.7kW rate. Fine.
When battery was full solar fed house and grid.
Then, about 6:15 Pm had a real power outage, grid down, even cable TV and wi-fi went down meaning wherever Comcast has its sub station that feeds our local are also lost power.
Neighbor told me that PG&E called by recording they are working on it. So, it must have been a real reason, not rolling shut down as in the past when area went down on purpose, cable was still operating.

Power out lasted 1h25m. Storm watch was still on, battery full, after dinner, ready to watch TV. I decided to turn off Storm Watch as had plenty of battery power until tomorrows good solar will be back charging.
And that is when things got interesting. Waited a number of minutes, maybe 10, SW orange label went off the app. Checked if battery was feeding house. That didn't happen. Grid was still powering house. Watched a show, 45 minutes later still the same, grid feeding house and SW still turned off. Turned grid off manually, battery kicked in as it should. 20 min later turned grid back on and waited. Grid was powering house again, SW was still turned off in app so I turned off grid for the evening.

The mystery to me is why grid powering house when I am still in self power mode and SW turned off? What am I missing?

 

[SMAlset]

Interesting update on the local Storm Watch here in Monterey and my event....Then, about 6:15 Pm had a real power outage, grid down, even cable TV and wi-fi went down meaning wherever Comcast has its sub station that feeds our local are also lost power.

Neighbor told me that PG&E called by recording they are working on it. So, it must have been a real reason, not rolling shut down as in the past when area went down on purpose, cable was still operating.

Power out lasted 1h25m. Storm watch was still on, battery full, after dinner, ready to watch TV. I decided to turn off Storm Watch as had plenty of battery power until tomorrows good solar will be back charging.....

Sounds like Central Coast was chosen for this rolling blackout.
PG&E: Rotating power outages impacting the Central Coast

 

[SMAlset]

Well a storm did roll in to where we live at around 4:15am. Had noticed some lightning then Dark Skies app announced it was going to rain, which it did (light here) and then got the full thunder rumbling effect. Still seems to be lingering patches of rain but some areas from the radar were pretty heavy but brief. Good to know the storm watch on the PWs/app is there. Much to learn when ours gets installed.

 

[jboy210]

Good strength thunderstorms in tri valley. Lost power once already according to app. Lots of rain. No need to water garden today.

 

[runfarnn]

Interesting update on the local Storm Watch here in Monterey and my event.
Storm Watch was on all afternoon, battery fully charged from solar and grid at 6.7kW rate. Fine.
When battery was full solar fed house and grid.
Then, about 6:15 Pm had a real power outage, grid down, even cable TV and wi-fi went down meaning wherever Comcast has its sub station that feeds our local are also lost power.
Neighbor told me that PG&E called by recording they are working on it. So, it must have been a real reason, not rolling shut down as in the past when area went down on purpose, cable was still operating.

Power out lasted 1h25m. Storm watch was still on, battery full, after dinner, ready to watch TV. I decided to turn off Storm Watch as had plenty of battery power until tomorrows good solar will be back charging.
And that is when things got interesting. Waited a number of minutes, maybe 10, SW orange label went off the app. Checked if battery was feeding house. That didn't happen. Grid was still powering house. Watched a show, 45 minutes later still the same, grid feeding house and SW still turned off. Turned grid off manually, battery kicked in as it should. 20 min later turned grid back on and waited. Grid was powering house again, SW was still turned off in app so I turned off grid for the evening.

The mystery to me is why grid powering house when I am still in self power mode and SW turned off? What am I missing?

We have the same problem as well but our power didn't go down. We are on the phone with Tesla PW tech support and I will update this thread if we get the problem resolved.

 

[charlesj]

We have the same problem as well but our power didn't go down. We are on the phone with Tesla PW tech support and I will update this thread if we get the problem resolved.

Thanks.

Yes, we had lots of wind and lightning here in Monterey. Woke me up about 2:15AM and closed all windows. What a light show.

What gets me is that turning off Storm Watch didn't stop using grid power when battery was 100% charged.

Right now it seems to be sunny enough to recharge battery as usual. SW is still on, I checked and turned it off again.

 

[SMAlset]

Here’s what firefighters were dealing with overnight with the lightning sparked wildfires and some outages (SF Chronicle):

Wild weather in Bay Area brings lightning, thunderstorms, gusty winds and spot fires

I walk out to see my car looking really crappy today. Lots of dust in our area from construction and with the rain but otherwise unscathed by storm.

 

[aesculus]

What gets me is that turning off Storm Watch didn't stop using grid power when battery was 100% charged.

Right now it seems to be sunny enough to recharge battery as usual. SW is still on, I checked and turned it off again.

This happened to me as well a few SWs ago. I was able to toggle it a few times and then the third time it stayed on until SW was over.

So I think that Tesla has more control over it that just having the app turn it on or off. Probably trying to keep us from gaming the system.

 

[charlesj]

This happened to me as well a few SWs ago. I was able to toggle it a few times and then the third time it stayed on until SW was over.

So I think that Tesla has more control over it that just having the app turn it on or off. Probably trying to keep us from gaming the system.

Thanks. But, gaming is still possible with that main breaker, if one wants to be bothered.

 

[Janus]

What gets me is that turning off Storm Watch didn't stop using grid power when battery was 100% charged.

I noticed several other folks complain about the same behavior. I.e. toggling the switch during an active SW doesn't change the PW behavior. Kind of wonder if there's a software issue. Where the GW is not re-checking its configuration once it enters a SW state. Not sure if it's intentional or an oversight.

 

[runfarnn]

I noticed several other folks complain about the same behavior. I.e. toggling the switch during an active SW doesn't change the PW behavior. Kind of wonder if there's a software issue. Where the GW is not re-checking its configuration once it enters a SW state. Not sure if it's intentional or an oversight.

I believe this is the case. We reset our system prior to calling Tech Support and they asked us to wait for a few hours before checking again. Since the problem wasn't resolved when we checked again, we called Tech Support again. After spending some time on the phone and not being able to resolve the problem, they escalated the issue and it started working again (using the PW rather than the grid when the PW as full) starting about 15 mins back.

 

[charlesj]

I believe this is the case. We reset our system prior to calling Tech Support and they asked us to wait for a few hours before checking again. Since the problem wasn't resolved when we checked again, we called Tech Support again. After spending some time on the phone and not being able to resolve the problem, they escalated the issue and it started working again (using the PW rather than the grid when the PW as full) starting about 15 mins back.

That is interesting. I let mine go about 45 min before checking if the off switching worked. Not at 45min. Why should it take that long to begin with?
Does everyone now needs to call tech support and tie them up to do what they need to do individually?

 

[miimura]

I normally leave Storm Watch turned off. However, Saturday evening my PWs got down to my 25% Reserve setting and when I woke up Sunday morning there were very thick clouds and occasional lightning and little hope for filling the PWs from solar. So, I toggled Storm Watch on and a few minutes later they started charging from the grid. I let them take on about 17kWh before turning it off again. They will probably reach 100% on solar by 1pm.

 

[charlesj]

I normally leave Storm Watch turned off. However, Saturday evening my PWs got down to my 25% Reserve setting and when I woke up Sunday morning there were very thick clouds and occasional lightning and little hope for filling the PWs from solar. So, I toggled Storm Watch on and a few minutes later they started charging from the grid. I let them take on about 17kWh before turning it off again. They will probably reach 100% on solar by 1pm.

When you turned off Storm Watch in the app did your system respond properly by letting solar feed the house and battery and perhaps feed the grid with excess generation or did the grid still supply power. If it worked properly how long did it take for that response as mine didn't respond, nor several others as well. I had to turn main breaker off to stop grid feeding house and not solar or battery.
It took mine all of last night and most of today to work properly after breaker was turned on again.

 

[miimura]

When you turned off Storm Watch in the app did your system respond properly by letting solar feed the house and battery and perhaps feed the grid with excess generation or did the grid still supply power. If it worked properly how long did it take for that response as mine didn't respond, nor several others as well. I had to turn main breaker off to stop grid feeding house and not solar or battery.
It took mine all of last night and most of today to work properly after breaker was turned on again.

Short answer is Yes, it worked as expected. I didn't keep a close eye on exactly how long it took to stop charging from the grid. It was less than 15 minutes. After that it continued charging from solar.

 

[charlesj]

Well, mine worked well for a short time after I turned on the main breaker, grid did not supply power. Then later in the evening I looked, and once again grid was feeding house for a while even though battery was at 98% and SW was still off.
I guess I need to call tech support Monday as others had to do to have them fix it. This is getting ridiculous. SW doesn't stay off for some reason. I rather not keep turning off the grid manually for it to work.
Don't even want to check to see if SW is still being broadcast.

 

[jboy210]

When you turned off Storm Watch in the app did your system respond properly by letting solar feed the house and battery and perhaps feed the grid with excess generation or did the grid still supply power. If it worked properly how long did it take for that response as mine didn't respond, nor several others as well. I had to turn main breaker off to stop grid feeding house and not solar or battery.
It took mine all of last night and most of today to work properly after breaker was turned on again.

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.