Wall Connector Dynamic Power Management - first test

[PAF-DK]

I have just had a Neurio W2-Tesla Power Meter installed on my Wall Charger gen. 3.

As it is common in our area, our house is limited at a supply of 3 x 25 A at 230/400 V.

It means that Dynamic Power Management is often necessary to avoid overloading, especially in homes with other high-load devices like heat pumps or instantaneous water heaters. Even our oven in the kitchen, with its 2300 W grill on one phase (10 A), together with EV charging at 11 kW (3 x 16 A) will get us above the 25 A at one of the phases.

The data cable between the Wall Charger and the Neurio Power Meter needs a single twisted pair for the RS485 connection. I used a standard Ethernet CAT 5E cable.

After connecting the two data wires, and the four power wires and the three CT clamps in the correct L1, L2, L3 sequence, the configuration via the Tesla One app to set the maximum current (the 25 A) is straight-forward. No other configuration is needed. The Tesla documentation does not mention any option for the Neurio to be connected to WiFi when used with Dynamic Power Management, only the data cable is needed.

The installation and configuration went without problems of any kind; I followed the instructions here: https://www.tesla.com/en_EU/support/charging/wall-connector/power-management

I tested it the following way:

• Started 11 kW charging at my Tesla
• While watching the Tesla app for the charging power, I turned our oven and other heating appliances on one by one.

Immediately the Wall Charger lowered it’s charging current a bit so that the most loaded phase did not exceed 25 A. Which means it works! Great!

However, one thing seems not to be described by Tesla: What does the colors at the Neurio LED mean? As seen at the linked video below it is green most of the time, but red approximately once every second. Does it mean that everything is as expected?

Tesla has some documentation about the Neurio LED, but when used with a Powerwall. However, it does not list the color combination I have. It may also be that the Neurio for Dynamic Power Management is a very different firmware than the Neurio for the Powerwall.

Does anyone of you have the Dynamic Power Management already installed, so we can compare the LED link color patterns?

Peter

 

[ToniA]

I also just installed the European 3-phase load balancing on my TWC v.3 (I'm from Finland, got this from Amazon DE). Seems to work fine. And the leads blink green and red like yours. I also didn't find any manual for Neurio with load balancing.

It's interesting they chose to have wired RS-485 communication, while TWC to TWC load sharing communication is over WiFi. I believe also Tesla PowerWall and Neurio have WiFi communication.

 

[PAF-DK]

I also just installed the European 3-phase load balancing on my TWC v.3 (I'm from Finland, got this from Amazon DE). Seems to work fine. And the leads blink green and red like yours. I also didn't find any manual for Neurio with load balancing.

It's interesting they chose to have wired RS-485 communication, while TWC to TWC load sharing communication is over WiFi. I believe also Tesla PowerWall and Neurio have WiFi communication.

Thank you for the feedback! Good to hear that your LED blinks in the same pattern, then it is probably ok.
I also ordered the Neurio from Amazon DE, I found the link in the German manual for Wall Connector, as it wasn't in the English and Danish manual.

I guess the choice of a wired RS-485 connection is because the Neurio and the TWC may need to be located far from each other, as the Neurio must be mounted in the electrical fuse panel because of the current clamps. They could have used the owners WiFi network, but then Dynamic Power Management would fail when the owners router fails or if he chooses to change the SSID or password - resulting in blown fuses at the building entrance, which the owner does not have access to or is allowed change himself. So, there need to be a direct and very reliable connection between the Neurio and the TWC.

With Power Sharing I guess Tesla thought that the multiple TWC would be mounted next to each other at the same parking lot; so the direct WiFi signal between TWC's would be strong enough for a reliable connection.

However, I am glad Dynamic Power Management uses RS-485, as it is a very reliable technology which is used in many kinds of professional equipment. I have designed such electronic circuits myself in my professional work, and know how well it works even in an environment full of electromagnetic noise.

 

[ToniA]

Yes, RS-485 is a reliable solution. But for example my neighbor had the main fuse panel in a different building. So adding a wire would have been difficult, and he chose a system with wireless communication (it wasn't over WiFi) between the meter and the charger. For me this is OK, as the main fuses and the TWC are on the same building, I only needed 12 meters of wire.