Storm Watch for 1/25/2021

[aesculus]

I think storm watch just kicked on for El Dorado County. I have it set in the app but its not showing as on. However just a few minutes ago my power flow from the grid just went to 6.7 kW to the PWs and they are charging. Solar is only putting out about 2.5 kW.

 

[getakey]

I'm in El Dorado Hill and my PWs are discharging right now. No Storm Watch shown in the app

 

[El joe]

Sacramento here and I'm not seeing anything. :/

 

[getakey]

I went to NWS and it does show High Wind Warning starting tomorrow

 

[aesculus]

Confirmed Storm Watch. I am in Shingle Springs so a bit further up the hill.

 

[getakey]

thats probably the difference.

 

[jhn_]

Storm Watch probably staggers the start of charging a bit. Might not be a problem now, but as more Powerwalls come online there could be some serious grid issues just caused by 10s or 100s of thousands of households all starting a 6+kWh draw at the same moment.

 

[getakey]

Confirmed Storm Watch. I am in Shingle Springs so a bit further up the hill.

I looked on NWS. Your area has a Winter Storm watch for 3 days. My area only has a High wind warning and flash flood watch

 

[Cstreet]

I have a feature request to allow customer initiated stormwatch a few times a year .

We are in the SF Bay area in the hills and getting all sorts of warnings about wind and heavy rain including from our utility which often means trees taking out power lines. I just manually set my system to hold 100% a few days back since with little sun it's taken a few days to top up. But it would be nice to get that last few percent given the chance is high of an outage.

 

[getakey]

we just went into Storm Watch. No change in NWS forecast

 

[aesculus]

we just went into Storm Watch. No change in NWS forecast

So maybe @jhn_ assessment is accurate. They may stage the activation so as not to put to much of a burden on the grid in a geographic area.

 

[dcorb9906]

I'm just north of Sacramento and my storm watch kicked on at 5:40pm.

 

[RKCRLR]

I wish they'd add an option to defer grid charging until off-peak rates. My solar panels are still covered with snow so the powerwalls were recharged during peak rate when the storm watch was activated.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I'm a light sleeper and I can hear when Storm Watch kicks in, especially if there's a car or two charging. Often, I'll check the app and see Powerwalls are charging at ~13.3 kW but the app doesn't indicate Storm Watch has been activated yet. I think there's just a lag in the app showing the Storm Watch label underneath Powerwall as usually it shows up within a minute or two.

 

[aesculus]

I wish they'd add an option to defer grid charging until off-peak rates. My solar panels are still covered with snow so the powerwalls were recharged during peak rate when the storm watch was activated.

During the summer high cost period when I also run a low reserve I leave SW off and then monitor this forum and the weather to determine if a SW is probable. Then once I think I am going to be (is?) affected I wait until off peak, and then turn it on.

Since I run 75% reserve this time of the year and my PWs were at 80% I decided to let it go. Not much different than my heat pumps kicking on because it was around 35F.

 

[h2ofun]

During the summer high cost period when I also run a low reserve I leave SW off and then monitor this forum and the weather to determine if a SW is probable. Then once I think I am going to be (is?) affected I wait until off peak, and then turn it on.

Since I run 75% reserve this time of the year and my PWs were at 80% I decided to let it go. Not much different than my heat pumps kicking on because it was around 35F.

But if you are one ev2-a, is off peak not midnight?

 

[aesculus]

But if you are one ev2-a, is off peak not midnight?

I am on EVA1. "But you got to do what you got to do"

 

[h2ofun]

I am on EVA1. "But you got to do what you got to do"

This is one concern I have with batteries, they seem to need a look of work, while my solar needs nothing. When the wife asked me
if it was worth the hassle to deal with batteries, since we probably have a zero true up, and we have a whole house generator, I said, yep your are right, they will give us hassle.

 

[jhn_]

This is one concern I have with batteries, they seem to need a look of work, while my solar needs nothing. When the wife asked me
if it was worth the hassle to deal with batteries, since we probably have a zero true up, and we have a whole house generator, I said, yep your are right, they will give us hassle.

Each situation is different. Here in New England there isn’t enough sun in the winter months without storing some in a battery to have zero true up. But the rate from the grid is also the same price 24/7 so we don’t have to micromanage the battery or EV charging.

 

[wjgjr]

This is one concern I have with batteries, they seem to need a look of work, while my solar needs nothing. When the wife asked me
if it was worth the hassle to deal with batteries, since we probably have a zero true up, and we have a whole house generator, I said, yep your are right, they will give us hassle.

The thing is, the batteries are not a hassle at all for most people. It is only extra work for the minority (which is more heavily represented on this site) who really are interested in playing with the technology and/or are trying to squeeze all the value out of them. For most people, they make the decision to have backup power and/or load shifting, configure it, and forget. And it works well for that.

There are absolutely things Tesla could do to improve the software, including adding options to storm watch (which could include off-peak only options or options to only charge if below a certain threshold off- or on-peak) but these are, I suspect, not major concerns for most people. Additionally, while storm watch is great, it is worth remembering that it actually exists in a potential gray area with respect to the federal ITC, and adding more features such that it appears to make it easier to charge from, and potentially arbitrage with the grid, could invite more scrutiny - especially in areas of CA where storm watch is activating pretty frequently.