I’m in the same boat re feed in tariff greater than off peak. Very frustrated by this change. I’ve noticed my power wall weirdly charging off the grid in shoulder periods now as well. Benefit of filling up off peak also ensured on bad weather days at least there was an off peak rate full charge of the power wall ready to go to get us through the peak period. Now at the start of the day power wall is only charged circa 20%, so if the weather rolls in we get hit hard by peak rates. Basically this has killed the power walls off peak/peak load shifting functionality which was one of the reasons I purchased it!
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
V4 of app drops Balanced/Cost Saving (Advanced Time-Based Control) options. Replaced with Time-Based Control
- Thread starter jboy210
- Start date
New here. Does Tesla restrict comments about non-Tesla app control of PW2? I use Hubitat with Powerwall Manager SmartApp for SmartThings (and Hubitat) Hubs and the Hubitat Rule Machine to control my 2xPW.
When time is 3:00 PM
disableStormwatch() on Tesla Powerwall
setBackupReservePercent(50) on Tesla Powerwall
Wait for Event: When time is 4:00 PM
setBackupReservePercent(0) on Tesla Powerwall
Wait for event: When time is 12:00 AM
enableStormwatch() on Tesla Powerwall
setBackupReservePercent(100) on Tesla Powerwall
I've not seen the V4 TBC which may be similar to what I use, but it seems Rule Machine might give the control many are seeking.
When time is 3:00 PM
disableStormwatch() on Tesla Powerwall
setBackupReservePercent(50) on Tesla Powerwall
Wait for Event: When time is 4:00 PM
setBackupReservePercent(0) on Tesla Powerwall
Wait for event: When time is 12:00 AM
enableStormwatch() on Tesla Powerwall
setBackupReservePercent(100) on Tesla Powerwall
I've not seen the V4 TBC which may be similar to what I use, but it seems Rule Machine might give the control many are seeking.
I’m super confused after updating my Tesla app to 4.2.0 to match my husband’s phone app version (one recent outage was not showing up on my older app version). Have they done away in the app with showing our energy savings based on the SVCE rate we are on? You use to see a whole list of providers that would show up to give you a better understanding and now I only see “Provider Tesla - Tesla TOU” and there’s a whole schedule for TOU posted. No way to change to anything else. This same info is shown under “Settings”. We are on Self-Powered (backup reserve 25/75%) and Time-Based is not activated.
We are on an EV2A/NEM2PS plan with PGE/SVCE so this doesn’t apply to us. Any idea what gives with the app display now? Would be nice to see the estimated Energy Savings based on the plan we are actually on. Don’t see any way to bring it up either.
We are on an EV2A/NEM2PS plan with PGE/SVCE so this doesn’t apply to us. Any idea what gives with the app display now? Would be nice to see the estimated Energy Savings based on the plan we are actually on. Don’t see any way to bring it up either.
Reading more of the threads and found the answer to my questions on the Rates Schedule in this thread: Utility Rate Plans Where are they? Basically will be added sometime between October and November for most people. I know the seasonal rate changes are happening and generation providers may be changing rates as well so expect this coincides with the forthcoming app updates.
I'm extremely frustrated by these changes as well. We have three Powerwall installations - before the update two were on "Cost Savings" and the third was on "Balanced".
It used to be under the Advanced Balanced/Cost Savings, when we hit peak in the late afternoon, the TEG would send all solar back to the grid and we would run exclusively off the Powerwalls. This was great because our peak time credits were high, and helped off-set our other expenses.
Now, in the Time-Based-Control, when we hit peak in the late afternoon, the TEG sends solar to our home first and only sends solar back to the grid if there's any excess. The Powerwalls are not used at all until after sundown. So, we are losing significant peak time credits that we were receiving under V3 of the app.
Any fixes for this?
FWIW - we have a second system that hasn't been touched since V4 came out, and it still runs exclusively off the Powerwalls during peak (but at no other part of the day) as it did on Advanced Cost Savings mode before V4.
It used to be under the Advanced Balanced/Cost Savings, when we hit peak in the late afternoon, the TEG would send all solar back to the grid and we would run exclusively off the Powerwalls. This was great because our peak time credits were high, and helped off-set our other expenses.
Now, in the Time-Based-Control, when we hit peak in the late afternoon, the TEG sends solar to our home first and only sends solar back to the grid if there's any excess. The Powerwalls are not used at all until after sundown. So, we are losing significant peak time credits that we were receiving under V3 of the app.
Any fixes for this?
FWIW - we have a second system that hasn't been touched since V4 came out, and it still runs exclusively off the Powerwalls during peak (but at no other part of the day) as it did on Advanced Cost Savings mode before V4.
acastal
Member
On time based my system works as follows:
Weekdays(except Friday):
Off Peak: Grid only
Partial Peak: TEG sends all of the solar to charge the batteries and the house runs from the grid. When the batteries are full it sends excess solar to the grid.
Peak: All solar to the grid and runs the house off of battery exclusively.
Fridays:
Partial Peak: If the batteries are "high enough" (I assume to carry the house during the peak taking into account the reserve) it sends all excess solar to the grid.
Peak: It sends all solar to the grid and runs the house off of the batteries.
Weekends have only Peak and Off Peak. It charges batteries with solar during off peak and when they are full sends excess to grid. During peak it sends all solar to grid and runs house from batteries.
In all cases off peak is always grid only.
RKCRLR
Active Member
I'd like like my Powerwalls to prioritize solar to my house and send the excess to the grid during peak, and only run off the Powerwalls when the solar can't keep up. If you figure out what you did to achieve this please post it here.
Sounds like you want self-powered mode. I think the only problem you might run into is that if your Powerwalls are below your reserve during peak, the TEG will charge the Powerwalls instead of sending back to the grid.
When solar can't keep up, self-powered mode should start pulling from the Powerwalls.
When solar can't keep up, self-powered mode should start pulling from the Powerwalls.
RKCRLR
Active Member
I only want the Powerwalls to discharge to the grid between the hours of 4pm-9pm. As far as I know there is no way to tell the system that in self-powered mode.
skepticcyclist
Member
Which is why I wish they kept the Balanced option. That was the best option for my needs
skepticcyclist
Member
aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
In Calif PWs never discharge to the grid (at least not yet). They will power your house and send any produced solar back to the grid during peak periods for example if you selected Time Based - Cost Savings.
But this time of the year by 6pm you won't be sending any energy back, and soon 5pm. What we really needs is for the utilities to come up with a rate plan that will pay us for our days produced solar energy whenever we want to send it to them. That is allowed by the CAPUC. That way you could produce solar during the afternoon during a off peak period, store what you wanted in access, and then send whatever you did not need to get you through peak back at peak rates. I am hoping by the time my EV1A expires in three years that PG&E has such a plan.
Not going to happen. All the rate plan changes have come because of excess solar production.
In California, we have to pay NBCs, so isn't it better to run off on Powerwall at all times when solar isn't available?
RKCRLR
Active Member
It depends on whether you are a net producer or net consumer and if you believe cycles on Powerwalls reduce its life.
I'm a net producer so I only get compensated ~$0.03/kWh. Personally, I don't believe $0.03/kWh is worth the cycles on the Powerwalls. I try to target $0 true up while minimizing Powerwall cycles and NBCs.
RKCRLR
Active Member
Yea, I misworded that. I meant to say: I only want the Powerwalls to discharge to the house between the hours of 4pm-9pm.
aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
Actually all the more reason. Excess solar is worthless when the sun goes down. They need batteries to push the solar into non production periods.
The app just sucks rocks in general. I'd like to define specific, non-contiguous blocks of time when the PWs should discharge or not discharge, but all the app allows is one contiguous block. I can't imagine this being more than a few dozen lines of code, but it's apparently too much for Tesla's cereal-box "programmers" to tackle.
Fruitcake
Does anyone know what the rational is with Fridays (not recharging PWs fully from solar)? I observed this behavior and thought it was a bug or something wrong with my PW system.
