Why didn't Stormwatch activate in NY?

[sk00]

We got quite a bit of snow in NY Hudson Valley. Not quite a foot but enough that I had to have someone plow my driveway to get out. I am sure many homes in the Catskills just a few mile away (same town and zipcode) lost power, as they often do.

How come Stormwatch didn't activate? In fact, since I got my system installed last July, I've never seen Stormwatch activate, which is odd because this region experiences frequent power outages from weather events.

 

[sunwarriors]

If you see the posts here/other places, it depends on a weather service sending a weather event trigger (maybe severe levels?). I personally just raise the reserve and turned off my Stormwatch setting since like you notice now, it's not that accurate.

If you are a net exporter, it's probably safe to just set a high reserve in the winter and not bother with Stormwatch (if you time shift usage).

 

[FurryOne]

We got quite a bit of snow in NY Hudson Valley. How come Stormwatch didn't activate?

Sunday was pretty sunny, and my Powerwalls charged up to 100% by 1pm. Later I noticed that they had been placed into Stormwatch mode sometime before 5pm. Rome is in the Mohawk Valley and we usually get more snow, but the last couple of years it's been rather lean - not that I'm complaining. During the last storm we did have 3 outages. I didn't even know until I looked outside and all the other houses were dark. (150 days and still no PTO)

 

[jjrandorin]

We got quite a bit of snow in NY Hudson Valley. Not quite a foot but enough that I had to have someone plow my driveway to get out. I am sure many homes in the Catskills just a few mile away (same town and zipcode) lost power, as they often do.

How come Stormwatch didn't activate? In fact, since I got my system installed last July, I've never seen Stormwatch activate, which is odd because this region experiences frequent power outages from weather events.

Teslas explanation on their website might help. A TL ; DR version would be that there was not the appropriate type of NWS weather alert to trigger it, although there are times when people feel that it should have triggered and it doesnt.

Storm Watch | Tesla Support

Storm Watch allows you to maximize savings by keeping a low backup reserve percentage in Self-Powered or Time-Based Control mode, while still having peace of mind that Powerwall will react in time to protect you during a severe weather event.

www.tesla.com

(relevant part from that website)

===========================================

Storm Watch​

Severe weather is the leading cause of grid outages. Storm Watch allows you to maximize savings by keeping a low backup reserve percentage in Self-Powered or Time-Based Control mode, while still having peace of mind that Powerwall will automatically react to protect you during a severe weather event.
When Storm Watch is enabled, Powerwall will automatically activate Storm Watch mode when the National Weather Service sends a severe weather alert. This mode pushes the limits and charges Powerwall to maximum capacity so it can provide backup power.
You will receive an app notification when Storm Watch mode is activated. This remains active until the weather event ends, and your system will return to its previously selected mode. Although you cannot manually activate Storm Watch mode or adjust its behavior, you can choose to disable Storm Watch altogether by going to the Tesla app, tapping on the ‘Settings’ screen and disabling 'Storm Watch.’ You can re-enable Storm Watch at any time during a weather event.

Severe Weather Events​

Storm Watch mode is triggered during severe storms that are more likely to knock down power lines and cause outages. Storm Watch mode activates when the weather event has advanced in severity, and one of the following watches or warnings has been issued in your local area:

• Hurricane (watch or warning)
• Tropical storm (watch or warning)
• Red flag (warning)
• Thunderstorm or severe thunderstorm (warning)
• Tornado (warning)
• Winter storm (warning)
• Blizzard (warning)
• High wind (warning)
• Ice storm (warning)
• Snow squall (warning)
• Wind chill (warning)
• Wind (advisory)

If Storm Watch mode hasn’t activated based on your local weather conditions, and you prefer additional energy security, set a higher Backup Reserve in advance of an anticipated grid outage.
Note: To better prepare yourself for everyday weather events or other grid instability, visit your utility provider’s website for updates.
Supported Regions: North America, Australia and New Zealand

 

[gpez]

It's possible Tesla has a misconfiguraiton on their end. My Powerwall did not get StormWatch alerts at the beginning even though, through this forum, I found others in the same county as me getting the alert. I complained to Tesla and they "fixed the glitch" on their side. My best guess? They had my location wrong in their system which meant I wasn't getting local StormWatch alerts.

If you find that other Powerwalls in your area are getting StormWatch alerts you may have the same problem I did and just need to call Tesla.

 

[solarAddict]

It's possible Tesla has a misconfiguraiton on their end. My Powerwall did not get StormWatch alerts at the beginning even though, through this forum, I found others in the same county as me getting the alert. I complained to Tesla and they "fixed the glitch" on their side. My best guess? They had my location wrong in their system which meant I wasn't getting local StormWatch alerts.

If you find that other Powerwalls in your area are getting StormWatch alerts you may have the same problem I did and just need to call Tesla.

I wonder if there is a way to verify what location Tesla has for particular setup. Our StormWatch alerts usually in sync with weather event but one last week was out of the blue - weather was calm and not eventful. Next one a day or two later was aligned with high winds in the area so it was make sense.

 

[gpez]

I wonder if there is a way to verify what location Tesla has for particular setup. Our StormWatch alerts usually in sync with weather event but one last week was out of the blue - weather was calm and not eventful. Next one a day or two later was aligned with high winds in the area so it was make sense.

I haven't looked at the Tesla Cloud APIs but the local APIs return what location was set during provisioning. My local config was correct (right zip code) but Tesla said they had it wrong. No idea if that means there's something on their end that we can see or not, I just know it works after I complained.

 

[nyprepper]

We got quite a bit of snow in NY Hudson Valley. Not quite a foot but enough that I had to have someone plow my driveway to get out. I am sure many homes in the Catskills just a few mile away (same town and zipcode) lost power, as they often do.

How come Stormwatch didn't activate? In fact, since I got my system installed last July, I've never seen Stormwatch activate, which is odd because this region experiences frequent power outages from weather events.

I'm in the Hudson Valley too and Stormwatch did not activate for me. It only activates on NWS Warnings....it does not activate on Watches/Advisories.

I'm curious, do you have net metering with your utility provider? I have net-metering and flat rate KWH fees with O&R. I keep my PW's set at 100% reserve all the time as there is no advantage to ever discharging them in anything other than a grid outage.