Storm Watch in CA 9/22/19?

[sevenout]

I live in Northern California and just noticed that Storm Watch was activated today. There are no storms forecast for my area that I can see. Going to be 90-96 degrees over the next 3 days. Might get some rain next weekend but nothing I would count as a major storm.

Anyone else get this? Is this normal? Only had my solar and PWs for almost 2 months so just learning everything. Thinking of turning off Storm Watch temporarily because I don’t need my PWs charging from the grid over the next several days.

 

[Kuba415]

Got it too. I live in Walnut Creek where unless I am worried that PGE said that they may shut down, no idea why I would be in a Storm Watch.

 

[zanary]

Yup. Someone turned it on by accident I think

 

[woferry]

On the news this morning they said PG&E was considering outages over the next few days in the North Bay due to the fire threat (heat & wind). So I would imagine it's related to that. I turned off Storm Watch on my setup a while ago since with my current usage I shouldn't need to draw from the grid and should be self-sufficient during outages as well (seems unlikely that San Jose would be affected, anyway).

 

[miimura]

I also turned off Storm Watch at the end of the Winter season and will only turn it on when I think I might need it. I don't want any possibility of accidental or unwanted Storm Watch charging during Peak.

 

[sevenout]

I’m not on PG&E. I have SMUD.

Anyway, I turned off Storm Watch in the app. About 10 minutes later I noticed SW was not shown in the status. I turned SW back on and now it seems back to normal. Maybe it got canceled.

 

[cwied]

Here are the details of the PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff): PG&E weather awareness

I'm guessing Tesla may just be turning on Stormwatch by PG&E geographic zone rather than figuring which areas are actually going to be impacted. You may be in Zone 5, which has a PSPS watch for Monday and Tuesday. In actuality it looks like at worst only a small portion of Zone 5 will be impacted (Public Safety Power Shutoff Event), but it may explain why Storm Watch is turned on in your area.

 

[sevenout]

@cwied you might be right. SW was reactived on my system last night. Tesla should know I’m using SMUD for electricity and not PG&E since they had to work with them to activate my system. I may have to turn SW off if I’m going to be impacted every time PG&E turns off power to prevent another fire.

 

[zanary]

I'm guessing that even though you are in a SMUD area, it's possible that the power could be shut off...

Rob Mayeda on Twitter

The imagery shows part of the Sac Area in some of those RED area, and it keeps changing.

 

[sevenout]

@zanary you might be right. However, SMUD doesn’t serve those areas. Just Sacramento metro. If PG&E turns off the power, I don’t see that affecting me. In guess I’ll find out.

 

[zanary]

@zanary you might be right. However, SMUD doesn’t serve those areas. Just Sacramento metro. If PG&E turns off the power, I don’t see that affecting me. In guess I’ll find out.

That got me thinking. Could the CPUC be telling the grid operators that they may need to shutdown? Just a thought.

 

[barely]

I live in Northern California and just noticed that Storm Watch was activated today. There are no storms forecast for my area that I can see. Going to be 90-96 degrees over the next 3 days. Might get some rain next weekend but nothing I would count as a major storm.

Anyone else get this? Is this normal? Only had my solar and PWs for almost 2 months so just learning everything. Thinking of turning off Storm Watch temporarily because I don’t need my PWs charging from the grid over the next several days.

I believe it is the red flag warning:


URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service San Francisco CA
332 AM PDT Mon Sep 23 2019

...Red Flag Warning in effect for the North Bay Mountains, East
Bay Hills, and Diablo Range tonight through early Wednesday
morning...

.Building high pressure will result in gusty offshore winds
developing late this evening which would bring critical fire
weather conditions over the North and East Bay Mountains/Hills
through early Wednesday morning. Additionally, hot afternoon
temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday along with low humidity
values in the teens will contribute to increased fire danger.

CAZ507-511-232200-
/O.CON.KMTR.FW.W.0002.190924T0400Z-190925T1200Z/
North Bay Mountains-East Bay Hills and the Diablo Range-
332 AM PDT Mon Sep 23 2019

...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THIS EVENING TO
5 AM PDT WEDNESDAY FOR GUSTY WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY FOR
FIRE WEATHER ZONES 507 AND 511...

* AFFECTED AREA...The North Bay Mountains, East Bay Hills and
Diablo Range above 1000 feet. Fire weather zones 507 and 511.

* WIND...North to northeast winds 10 to 25 mph with gusts 30 to
35 mph. Locally higher gusts to 40 mph in the North Bay
Mountains possible, particularly in Sonoma and Napa counties.

* HUMIDITY...Widespread minimum daytime humidity values in the
teens to low 20s. Overnight recoveries of 30 to 50 percent.

* HIGHEST THREAT...North Bay Mountains, particularly the peaks
and ridges in Napa County.

* IMPACTS...Any fires that develop will have the potential to
spread rapidly.

 

[sevenout]

That got me thinking. Could the CPUC be telling the grid operators that they may need to shutdown? Just a thought.

I suppose so. Still doesn't make any sense for SMUD to turn off power since SMUD doesn't service any of the fire danger areas. I think only PG&E services those areas.

I believe it is the red flag warning:

You are exactly right.

My issue is that the warning is primarily for PG&E customers. I don't get electricity from PG&E, I get it from SMUD. It does appear though that the warning coming from the National Weather Service is probably taken by Tesla as it would for an actual major storm. Since this "storm" is just going to cause PG&E to possibly turn off power to its customers to mitigate potential fire danger, I've tuned off Storm Watch on my system temporarily. I'm confident that my power will not be turned off and I don't want my PWs to charge from the grid unnecessarily. I'll turn SW back on later this week after this "storm" is over.

 

[miimura]

Personally, I leave Storm Watch turned off until I feel there is a storm that might knock out the power and I won't have enough generation to survive. Basically, I only worry about it Nov-Feb.

 

[ohmman]

My Powerwalls just went into Storm Watch in sync with PG&E pushing a notification that we're in a potential outage situation. It didn't start with the red flag warning, which has been active since this morning. Either way, it's a good feature and I'm glad to have it. We are in the wildland urban interface which makes it likelier that we'll experience an outage. Having our Powerwalls allows us to have water from our well and keep the rest of the house alive. There's still plenty of sun this time of year, so I can even charge our cars when the PWs are full.

 

[Maaz]

Mine just went into storm watch mode and we are in Southern California with no storms in sight. Southern California Edison customers.

 

[cwied]

Mine just went into storm watch mode and we are in Southern California with no storms in sight. Southern California Edison customers.

Probably due to the Public Safety Power Shutoff SCE is considering: Public Safety Power Shutoffs

If you're not in one of the affected areas, it may be that Tesla has your location information wrong.

 

[Maaz]

Probably due to the Public Safety Power Shutoff SCE is considering: Public Safety Power Shutoffs

If you're not in one of the affected areas, it may be that Tesla has your location information wrong.

Thank you for this. I am a couple hours from these listed areas but not listed.

 

[NuShrike]

Mine just went into storm watch mode and we are in Southern California with no storms in sight. Southern California Edison customers.

Same. SCE but not in any of the announced cut-off counties.

This is first email, or 2nd email, that Storm Watch is on.

 

[EinSV]

My Powerwalls just went into Storm Watch in sync with PG&E pushing a notification that we're in a potential outage situation. It didn't start with the red flag warning, which has been active since this morning. Either way, it's a good feature and I'm glad to have it. We are in the wildland urban interface which makes it likelier that we'll experience an outage. Having our Powerwalls allows us to have water from our well and keep the rest of the house alive. There's still plenty of sun this time of year, so I can even charge our cars when the PWs are full.

@ohmman, based on past experience, how long do you think you can keep power running with just solar and powerwalls?