I just turned off storm watch, raised my reserve to try to balance helping the grid and being prepared for a possible outage. If storm watch is still active tonight safely past peak, then the powerwall will presumably charge
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StormWatch on in NorCal again! (September 2020)
- Thread starter jboy210
- Start date
Incredulocious
LEAF → RAV4EV → Model 3 → Model Y
Yeah, I keep having to turn off storm watch because leaving it on causes it to use grid power for the house during the peak afternoon time in a misguided attempt to keep my Powerwalls at 100%.
With storm watch off and remaining in self-powered mode, I can continue to power the house off my solar and charge the Powerwalls up to full by early afternoon and then export the excess through the late afternoon and still power the house through the night with the Powerwalls as usual – all without using the grid unless I need to charge the car heavily overnight.
Silly rabbit / storm watch. Now in the winter, with limited solar production, it’ll likely be helpful.
Tesla Powerwalls Installed
With storm watch off and remaining in self-powered mode, I can continue to power the house off my solar and charge the Powerwalls up to full by early afternoon and then export the excess through the late afternoon and still power the house through the night with the Powerwalls as usual – all without using the grid unless I need to charge the car heavily overnight.
Silly rabbit / storm watch. Now in the winter, with limited solar production, it’ll likely be helpful.
Tesla Powerwalls Installed
There probably need to be a summer emergency mode where it will top off your powerwall by maybe 2 or 3pm then avoid charging until after 10pm. Tesla can easily add that feature OTA.
Looks like the grid is doing fine at most places right now. Should see bunch more red dots in about an hour.
California ISO - Prices
Real time prices
Looks like the grid is doing fine at most places right now. Should see bunch more red dots in about an hour.
California ISO - Prices
Real time prices
AMPd
Well-Known Member
Stage 2 Emergency now. Does this mean utilities have already been requested to trim load?
We have our A/C temp setting turned up and using a fan to move air where we are sitting. Pretty much trimmed other usage back once we’ve been able to see our house usage with the app. Been through a PSPS and hate to see anyone be in that situation. Outside temp just dropped below 100 at 99. Heck it was 80 at 9am this morning. Going to be a long week.
We have our A/C temp setting turned up and using a fan to move air where we are sitting. Pretty much trimmed other usage back once we’ve been able to see our house usage with the app. Been through a PSPS and hate to see anyone be in that situation. Outside temp just dropped below 100 at 99. Heck it was 80 at 9am this morning. Going to be a long week.
I turned up my AC to 82 degrees inside today
We I used my Pellet BBQ grill for breakfast this morning rather than my Electric double oven
We hand washed all our dishes today rather than using the dishwasher
We didnt do laundry today even though the weekends is when we normally do laundry
We have all our blinds and curtains closed, and are doing everything we can to minimize electric usage
I am somewhat resentful that someone who is not here, in my home, is telling me that if I dont also completely disconnect from the grid to run off my powerwalls (while I am under a red flag warning, and our area is under threat of rolling blackouts), I am somehow "not helping" like I should.
Thanks for not answering my question on whether you have lost power after 10pm in the last 2 months, which means no.
Good point, let CA worry about themselves. Good luck!
What's interesting is that the available capacity came down. Earlier I believe it was as high as 54,000 MW. At your screenshot, it was down to 50,000MW. Now it is even lower at 49,510 MW with peak demand at 47000MW. Are they not buying as much as what they earlier expected? That is cutting it very close
Stage 3 Emergency is when they cut loads.
Yes. Once the peak has passed, they begin reducing imports and cut back on the peaker plants.
Thanks for not answering my question on whether you have lost power after 10pm in the last 2 months, which means no.
Good point, let CA worry about themselves. Good luck!
FWIW, I turned of Storm Watch at 5pm.
For what it’s worth, my understanding is that for a large load of dishes a modern energy efficient dishwasher will use less power than washing them by hand if you have an electric water heater. The dishwasher will only use 3 or 4 gallons of hot water, which is probably more than you would use to fill the sink to wash the dishes.
Of course if you only have a small amount of dishes then it’s portably better to hand wash.
I believe peaker plants and imports are captured in the total capacity number.
It's possible that the capacity includes current renewable generation like solar + wind which, unlike spinning generation, does not have a static generation or capacity. Also likely some plants went offline due to unplanned outages. Happens all the time especially when maintenance is deferred.
Not as severe in NV with smaller population but the NV is being asked to conserve as well. This is a regional issue, not just CA.
Energy companies urge conservation to avoid rolling blackouts
NV Energy
Save Energy Residential Tips:
- Turn off lights
- Turn off pool pumps
- Unplug appliances not in use
- Avoid using large electrical appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and electric clothes dryers
- Adjust the thermostat to 78 degrees or higher to reduce the use of air conditioning during this time, and use ceiling fans to cool people and pets. Pre-cool your home prior to 2 p.m.
- Keep the refrigerator and freezer closed as much as possible
- Close window coverings to keep the heat out
- Do not charge electric vehicles between 2 and 9 p.m.
Haven’t we been dealing with two scenarios today (and probably for a few days forward)? 1) The CAIOS demand due to high temps where they could order utilities to do rolling blackouts. 2) The High Fire Red Flag danger that results in PSPS blackouts.
Our temp here has dropped a few degrees with the sun setting, still mid-90s, but notice we have 5mph winds with 10mph gusts. We’re valley floor. I was looking at the fire/smoke airnow map and noticed that it’s now showing 3 gps satellite fire locations around Henry Coe State Park that were not there most of the day. Assume with winds kicking up they broke out again. Something to keep an eye on. There are still a number of active fires in northern Calif/Bay area. If you live in one of the PG&E wildfire zones and winds pickup tonight I don’t know if turning off Stormwatch would be a prudent move. Those guys over near Mammoth Pool Reservoir got caught in a bad way by the fast moving fire.
Our temp here has dropped a few degrees with the sun setting, still mid-90s, but notice we have 5mph winds with 10mph gusts. We’re valley floor. I was looking at the fire/smoke airnow map and noticed that it’s now showing 3 gps satellite fire locations around Henry Coe State Park that were not there most of the day. Assume with winds kicking up they broke out again. Something to keep an eye on. There are still a number of active fires in northern Calif/Bay area. If you live in one of the PG&E wildfire zones and winds pickup tonight I don’t know if turning off Stormwatch would be a prudent move. Those guys over near Mammoth Pool Reservoir got caught in a bad way by the fast moving fire.
Personally I was shocked yesterday when regional Storm Watch was triggered at peak demand on a maxed out power grid. Our house instantly switched from exporting 3kw of solar to drawing almost 10kw to top off our 2 Powerwalls (which were at 80%). If more houses had Powerwalls this easily would have brought the grid down. Whoever initiates Storm Watch needs to think this through better as the Powerwalls should be increasing not decreasing grid stability.
I did not want to be part of the problem so turned Storm Watch off and let the house run the Powerwalls down to 60% so as to not burden the grid until after sunset.
I did not want to be part of the problem so turned Storm Watch off and let the house run the Powerwalls down to 60% so as to not burden the grid until after sunset.
"Hey CAISO? So, I hear you decided not to accept our very generous offer to help you protect the your grid. Well I see you have a Stage 2 Emergency, and I need to look after my customers. So, I think we need to have them all charge up their batteries right now. It's only 7kW per battery, so no problem for you, right?"
