Shygar
Member
If anything, Tesla should warn us when this is active saying it might impact ITC. But really I guess the IRS would have to answer this question.
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Storm watch active...
- Thread starter rjdunn
- Start date
eml2
Member
Even if you turn off Storm Active, how can you prove to IRS that you turn it off all the times? The proof has to come from Tesla, assuming Tesla will store our Powerwall state for all the years that we own the Powerwall.
zanary
Active Member
The Tesla app gets an APNS when they activate Storm Watch.
Plus when you go into the app, it's also shown on the screen that your Powerwalls are in Storm Watch.
ITC is only a US government tax credit, and they have Powerwall customers all over the world, so they provably won't mention regional specific settings. Storm Watch is now available in over 5 countries when I last spoke to Tesla Energy.
zanary
Active Member
This goes back to my original question to see if anyone has ever been audit for ITC compliance? I highly doubt it. I think it's more of unenforced regulations.
For reference, here is the Private Letter Ruling from the IRS referencing the applicability of the ITC to Powerwall installations: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/201809003.pdf
I don't think anyone would be audited specifically for ITC compliance, but if your return for the year you claimed the ITC were audited, this could come up. It doesn't seem likely that they would look at this in that much detail, though. My guess is that Tesla is taking a calculated risk in providing the feature to US customers.
I don't think anyone would be audited specifically for ITC compliance, but if your return for the year you claimed the ITC were audited, this could come up. It doesn't seem likely that they would look at this in that much detail, though. My guess is that Tesla is taking a calculated risk in providing the feature to US customers.
My experience with Storm Watch has been less than satisfactory. We have been expecting a major winter storm in the Sierra Nevada for a while now and several days before the storm was due, I changed my Reserve from my default 15% to 60% when the SOC on my single PW2 was at about 80%. I have had Storm Watch on for some time now. But as I have often experienced, the PW2 or gateway does not always react right away to requested changes, and so it discharged the PW2 down to 15% that day. The next 3 days we have had rain and minimal sun with the solar panels only producing a few hundred watts peak. I watched my SOC drop a few percent a day over the next 2 days. Two days ago we have severe storm warnings and even a tornado warning, but it was not until the first clap of thunder struck that I got the Storm Watch activated notification which told me that it would now start charging, but since it was after dark, it didn't, not from solar, not from the grid.
Now this morning, after getting about a foot of snow last night, we had a power failure and I got the notice that the PW2 was at 8% SOC and powering the house. Hmmm, that's not going to last long, I thought. I immediately fired up the generator, rather than waiting for the PW2 to fail and the generator automatically start. Now the PW2 is sitting at 6% SOC. I probably should try and remove some of the snow from the solar panels and hope to up the SOC as I am not sure how long this power outage will last. A few years ago we were without power for 10 days!
At least my generator/PW2/Gateway switching is working well and my 18 kW generator is powering the house!
Now this morning, after getting about a foot of snow last night, we had a power failure and I got the notice that the PW2 was at 8% SOC and powering the house. Hmmm, that's not going to last long, I thought. I immediately fired up the generator, rather than waiting for the PW2 to fail and the generator automatically start. Now the PW2 is sitting at 6% SOC. I probably should try and remove some of the snow from the solar panels and hope to up the SOC as I am not sure how long this power outage will last. A few years ago we were without power for 10 days!
At least my generator/PW2/Gateway switching is working well and my 18 kW generator is powering the house!
I think the problem is that Storm Watch was never turned on by Tesla for @shs1 in this storm. I've had Storm Watch enabled in the app since it was first added. We've had many National Weather Service alerts but Storm Watch hasn't ever kicked in. Not only have I not been able to charge my Powerwalls from the grid, but I've actually seen them sending power to the grid during a snowstorm.
When yours worked, was it due to severe winds? So far, I don't think we've seen anyone reporting it is activated due to severe snow storms.
Since I did get a notice that Storm Watch was activated it was probably "turned on" by Tesla for my account. What didn't work was it didn't then charge from the grid. I wasn't sure that was allowed in California, but from the other response, it would seem that it is. The Storm Watch activation was during a severe thunderstorm warning and that was several days before the snow storm. While we had had a tornado warning earlier in the day, I think that it was not in effect when the storm warning notification was activated. BTW NWS has a hierarchy of alerts and warnings and obviously not all trigger a Storm Watch activation.
Ah ok. I didn't realized you had received a notification that it had been activated. If you did, then it should've been able to charge from the grid. Do you happen to remember what the notification said and if it was related to wind, snow, etc. or just that it was active?
I am sorry I don't remember the exact wording of the notification that Storm Watch had been activated, and don't seen those messages saved anywhere on my phone.
I just got another notification from the Gateway that the system has returned to on-grid operation, and the PG&E outage center seems to agree, but so far the app shows the PW2 at 5% and on Standby. I may have to power cycle it to get it to start charging. Of course the brilliant sun we had a few minutes ago is gone now....
Glad the grid is back up for you. We’ve been experiencing an outage for the last seven hours, and the road conditions aren’t great, so its hard to say when power will be restored. Thankfully, our Powerwalls have kept the heat on! They’re down to 31% charge, though, so I’m really wishing I had set a higher reserve several days ago, before the snow buried our solar panels.
I’m starting to think that having the ability to charge from the grid at will would be more valuable to us than the ITC, if we could make that choice. Storm Watch mode is of little value to us if it isn’t going to activate for our larger snowstorms. The rest of the year, we generally have plenty of solar production, so I’m not really worried about wind events, thunderstorms, etc.
The power went down again after my last report, but is back up once more, so I can't complain too much.
It seems like you do need to learn how to play the game. I wish I had set my reserve higher a few days before I did, but that lesson is now learned. My PW2 is now down to 4% and although I did get some of the snow off my solar panels, they are covered again, so no PW2 charging yet. If Storm Watch would activate grid charging that would be great, especially if if came a bit before the storm happened. As you say though, snow will not typically trigger such an alert, but around here at least, snow can bring down some of our trees dead from the Tree Mortality Disaster and take out the power. I am just glad I insisted that the PW2 be installed in such a way that I could still use my generator, otherwise I would have had no power for most of the day.
Happy to report that our grid power was restored 40 minutes ago. The Powerwalls are now down to 21% and everyone stayed warm, thankfully. I’m going to try a makeshift snow rake tomorrow, to hopefully get some snow off our lowermost solar panels, but it’s cold and icy and it may be days before we have meaningful solar production. So far, no Storm Watch activation... (as expected)
Today turned out to be a cold but bright and sunny day, and once most of the remaining snow melted and/or fell of my 11 kW solar panels, I hoped it would be a good day to get some charge back into my PW2. But it seems that my PW2 is struggling to charge up quickly. It starts to charge at 1 or 2 kW, but then stops shortly thereafter. So far today the solar has put out at least 13 kWh at 2-5 kW, but the PW2 has only managed to charge to 23% so far, indicating that only about 1/4 of my solar power went in that direction. I am attaching an image from the app to show this. It was 15° F here last night, but it is 34° now. Could this show intermittent charging be a result of the temperature? I am also attaching another image taken at about the same time showing the grid usage. This image shows another strange phenomenon that I sometimes see - the grid not showing my ~1kW baseline usage, but with the y axis somehow offset. Any thoughts on this as well?
Bigtanuki
Member
I think the problem is that Storm Watch was never turned on by Tesla for @shs1 in this storm. I've had Storm Watch enabled in the app since it was first added. We've had many National Weather Service alerts but Storm Watch hasn't ever kicked in. Not only have I not been able to charge my Powerwalls from the grid, but I've actually seen them sending power to the grid during a snowstorm.
When yours worked, was it due to severe winds? So far, I don't think we've seen anyone reporting it is activated due to severe snow storms.
Interesting post. I found out my neighbor (3 PW units) about a quarter mile away saw his units go into Storm Watch mode and charge from the grid before our last storm hit. Nothing here though. I'm thinking that something needs enabling from Tesla. Thoughts?
By the way, has anyone had much success contacting powerwall support via email rather than on the phone?
Given that your Powerwalls were low on charge and probably pretty cold, it makes sense that they initially charged at a slow rate. However, I do not understand why that rate failed to substantially increase over time. I would have expected the thermal management system to ramp up and help the Powerwalls to accept more charge. Could it be that the Powerwalls are not sufficiently aggressive about warming themselves up? If so, I wonder if this is something that could be fixed in software.
I haven’t really tried to use email, though I have found that late in the evening is usually a good time to call. A couple of nights ago, I called after 10 PM PST and was able to speak with a Powerwall support rep immediately. It seems that they keep hours which enable them to support the relatively large base of customers in Australia.
