What happened here? [Storm Watch activated without notification]

[getakey]

Screen shot is from Saturday.
We had been on Stormwatch for several days. Came off SW at 3pm on Saturday. You can see PW started powering house as Peak also started at 3. However, what happened at ~5pm? Grid started charging PW during Peak rates. The SOC before SW lifted was 98%.

Peak ends at 7pm.

 

[gpez]

What does your to/from Powerwall total kWh for the day say?

Just rough estimate and pixel counting seems to suggest 3.10kWh from PW and 4.75kWh to PW so maybe SW kicked back on at ~5:30pm and charged you to 100%?

 

[BrettS]

Yeah, definitely looks like stormwatch came back on. That should be the only reason that the powerwall would charge from the grid. It has also been demonstrated that if stormwatch comes on during a peak time that it will still pull from the grid at peak rates.

 

[getakey]

well we were not home and was not monitoring forcast and SW, but I don't think any red alert came back on
Anyone in Sac area see Red Alert come back on?

 

[gpez]

Is it possible the removal of Storm Watch at 3pm was a mistake? From what I see there was a red flag warning in effect from 3:08pm - 7:00pm Foresthill Weather.com - Fire Weather Planning Forecast

CAZ217-182215-
Southern Sacramento Valley in Yolo-
Sacramento Far Western Placer, southern Sutter and Solano County
Below 1000 Ft-
308 PM PDT Sat Oct 17 2020

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM PDT THIS EVENING...

Still curious what your to/from PW totals were.

 

[getakey]

On Saturday:
To PW = 6.3 kWh
From PW = 5 kWh

 

[swedge]

With the recent Storm Watch activations, I have been letting storm watch top off our PW during off peak, but then disabling Storm Watch so PW can supply our load during peak. During both recent PSPS and brown outs, we were not in areas to be affected according to the PG&E, but being on NEM 1 there is no extra cost, and it gave us 100% charge even if smoke or fog limited our solar capacity.

One note on this, it appears to take PW a few minutes to respond to changes in Storm Watch setting, but it does respond correctly.

It would be nice is we could get notifications when Storm Watch status changes, so I could leave it enabled and not worry about peak charges. Our off peak rate (EV2-A) is 16.6¢ /kWh while summer peak is 47.9¢, ouch. Winter it is "only" 35.2¢.

SW

 

[miimura]

With the recent Storm Watch activations, I have been letting storm watch top off our PW during off peak, but then disabling Storm Watch so PW can supply our load during peak. During both recent PSPS and brown outs, we were not in areas to be affected according to the PG&E, but being on NEM 1 there is no extra cost, and it gave us 100% charge even if smoke or fog limited our solar capacity.

One note on this, it appears to take PW a few minutes to respond to changes in Storm Watch setting, but it does respond correctly.

It would be nice is we could get notifications when Storm Watch status changes, so I could leave it enabled and not worry about peak charges. Our off peak rate (EV2-A) is 16.6¢ /kWh while summer peak is 47.9¢, ouch. Winter it is "only" 35.2¢.

SW

Also remember that the Winter rate season started on October 1 for the EV2-A rate plan. Older rate plans have a 6 month Summer season, so the Winter rate season starts on November 1 for those plans.

 

[getakey]

Just happened again, but I see it did go nto SW mode. The red alert isn't scheduled until 11pm tonight though. Theey must trigger SW in advance of Red Flg?

 

[dcorb9906]

There was a fire near Cameron Park/Shingle Springs yesterday around that time so that's probably what triggered SW. Not sure about today.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

We've been having a lot of Red Flag Warning days in Colorado recently. A couple of weeks ago, we were getting notifications so I knew Storm Watch was activated. I would set reminders so that I could turn it off during peak (or part-peak) periods so that we wouldn't be charging the Powerwalls from the grid.

We've noticed that we haven't received notifications on any of our mobile devices for the past 10 days or so. We're still on 1.49.0.

Is everyone else still consistently getting Storm Watch notifications?

 

[getakey]

I have not received any notifications lately and we went into SW at least twice

 

[aesculus]

This is why I leave SW off. I don't need it to charge my PWs at 55+ cents a kWhr.

I just wait for off peak and toggle it on then the day of an event.

 

[jboy210]

Just happened again, but I see it did go nto SW mode. The red alert isn't scheduled until 11pm tonight though. Theey must trigger SW in advance of Red Flg?

Pretty sure that is the idea of Storm Watch. Power companies make their own decisions on when to cut power. And they will do ahead of the predictive wind's arrival since cutting power is a preventive measure. Storm Watch lets you charge well before this potential power shutdown.

I charged the PWs to 80% this AM and toggled off StormWatch. I will check around 2 pm and see where the PWs are. If necessary I will turn on StormWatch to ensure I can get the PWs to full before the 4 pm peak rate start.

 

[LadyLion]

With the recent Storm Watch activations, I have been letting storm watch top off our PW during off peak, but then disabling Storm Watch so PW can supply our load during peak. During both recent PSPS and brown outs, we were not in areas to be affected according to the PG&E, but being on NEM 1 there is no extra cost, and it gave us 100% charge even if smoke or fog limited our solar capacity.

SW

Please explain why “there is no extra cost “ when on NEM-1. I thought power back to the grid is credited at .04 by PGE.

I just got my PTO and activation on Friday! Hooray! I first applied on July 13, so it took 3 months & 3 weeks total time.
Not bad for busy SF Bay Area. Very satisfied.
Now I am waiting for pest abatement, estimated time is 6-8 weeks, cost $2250. It may be subbed out by Tesla.
My system is 36 panels and 3 PWs.

@SMAlset Have you received PTO?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Storm Watch activated again last night and we still aren't getting notifications. Fortunately it was activated during off-peak rates.

 

[getakey]

Please explain why “there is no extra cost “ when on NEM-1. I thought power back to the grid is credited at .04 by PGE.

I just got my PTO and activation on Friday! Hooray! I first applied on July 13, so it took 3 months & 3 weeks total time.
Not bad for busy SF Bay Area. Very satisfied.
Now I am waiting for pest abatement, estimated time is 6-8 weeks, cost $2250. It may be subbed out by Tesla.
My system is 36 panels and 3 PWs.

@SMAlset Have you received PTO?

Power back to the grid is at the retail rate when it is sent. So if you send to grid during Peak you gete credit at Peak rate. The 4 cent payback is only if you have net over produced for the entire year.

 

[SMAlset]

Please explain why “there is no extra cost “ when on NEM-1. I thought power back to the grid is credited at .04 by PGE.

I just got my PTO and activation on Friday! Hooray! I first applied on July 13, so it took 3 months & 3 weeks total time.
Not bad for busy SF Bay Area. Very satisfied.
Now I am waiting for pest abatement, estimated time is 6-8 weeks, cost $2250. It may be subbed out by Tesla.
My system is 36 panels and 3 PWs.

@SMAlset Have you received PTO?

Yes, PG&E sent an email on 10/29. Paid our final half per contract and started capturing the sun on 10/30. Feels good!

Saw that when I looked a little while ago we were on Standby and full charged, winds were pretty strong this morning, suns been out however and PWs charged and been sending power to the grid. Now we’re getting our first real rain on our panels. Coming down pretty good. Had thought it was just the wind I was hearing. .2kW, still producing and ready if we go on Stormwatch but don’t think our area will be affected.

 

[LadyLion]

Power back to the grid is at the retail rate when it is sent. So if you send to grid during Peak you gete credit at Peak rate. The 4 cent payback is only if you have net over produced for the entire year.

Does this also apply to NEM-2?
Why do owners prefer to stay on NEM-1 as long as possible through grandfathering? I was trying to research my question and read that.

 

[miimura]

Does this also apply to NEM-2?
Why do owners prefer to stay on NEM-1 as long as possible through grandfathering? I was trying to research my question and read that.

NEM-2 has "Non-Bypassable Charges". This means that you pay a small amount for each kWh drawn from the grid that is payable in the billing period. Credits in your annual true-up cannot offset those charges. NEM-1 does not have these charges. That is why people want to stay on NEM-1 as long as possible. In reality, NBCs are not that bad. Since my solar is much too small, I would save a lot more money by expanding my solar system and going to NEM-2.