TL;DNR: Powerwall +s won’t work unless it is getting solar energy – no output at night. Non-Tesla installer awaiting parts to link older solar array production and consumption monitoring to TEG
Background:
I live outside Tesla Energy Service area so I have to pay the Vig for a 3d party installer. The installer is VERY familiar with Powerwalls and install lots of them.
I have a 20KW Sun Power system with 3 Sunny Boy String inverters.
After the Texas fun in February, I decided to use some of my gains from the market and add another 10KW and Powerwalls. The Vig kept me to 2 PW in my allowed budget.
At install they put the 10KW system into the Gateway and wired the gateway below the 20KW system. The 20KW system is not wired into the gateway. They plan to connect the production and consumption monitoring for the 20KW system into the gateway, but Tesla “didn’t send the right connectors” and they are awaiting those parts to finish the monitoring. Unfortunately, parts move at Elon Standard Time so they can arrive anytime between 2 days and when the sun’s coronasphere engulfs the planet.
After all was installed on 1July, I wanted to do a grid cut off test, but two critical 60 amp breakers weren’t able to be installed because things did not get transferred from the design notes to the wire diagram, so the test would have been somewhat pointless as the A/C would not be on.
Over the 4th of July weekend I noticed that power was bring supplied at night and my 20KW system was sending power to the grid during the day and the PW were working to power the house. I found this odd and not very economical. Also, there was no energy from the grid coming or going. On my 10KW system monitoring with Sun Power, power used is always power produced
For the remainder of the year I am on a fixed rate ~0.11 a KWh bought and a ~0.05KWh sold (after production exceeds demand for the month). Next year it goes time based with $5 a KW (not KWh) during Super Peak (for solar users). The buying and selling energy issues aren't critical now, but could be in a year.
I have contacted the installer with many questions and reminded them that they repeatedly told me I would be able to use my legacy solar monitoring and consumption system despite them saying I would be using the Tesla primarily. They are contacting Tesla for their input on Powerwall oddities.
I have contacted Tesla and they said it was wired wrong (no kidding) because she could not see any grid activity. She did not know if that would cause the system to shut down at night. She sent the problem further up the tech chain to see if there was a gateway or PW issue as well. Four days, no further response from Tesla.
I do understand that the PW can only take so much energy in, but does it make sense that I am selling energy while using power walls? I don’t think so. I am guessing I am not the only one who has more production than the power walls can take and it isn’t wired to “waste” the created energy.
Is the lack of the proper monitoring connections from the legacy 20KW the root cause of some/all of the problems regarding PW use? I think the Gateway sees the 20KW system as “the grid” and I don’t know if the proper parts to the monitoring will fix that. It may, but the level of people at the installers I have reached so far don’t know (to be fair, I have a newbie supervisor overseeing the project).
I am confident it will be resolved as the company does stand behind their work and I get that my system is a unicorn with a pre-existing string inverter system with added micro inverter system added, so I cut them a lot of slack.
Background:
I live outside Tesla Energy Service area so I have to pay the Vig for a 3d party installer. The installer is VERY familiar with Powerwalls and install lots of them.
I have a 20KW Sun Power system with 3 Sunny Boy String inverters.
After the Texas fun in February, I decided to use some of my gains from the market and add another 10KW and Powerwalls. The Vig kept me to 2 PW in my allowed budget.
At install they put the 10KW system into the Gateway and wired the gateway below the 20KW system. The 20KW system is not wired into the gateway. They plan to connect the production and consumption monitoring for the 20KW system into the gateway, but Tesla “didn’t send the right connectors” and they are awaiting those parts to finish the monitoring. Unfortunately, parts move at Elon Standard Time so they can arrive anytime between 2 days and when the sun’s coronasphere engulfs the planet.
After all was installed on 1July, I wanted to do a grid cut off test, but two critical 60 amp breakers weren’t able to be installed because things did not get transferred from the design notes to the wire diagram, so the test would have been somewhat pointless as the A/C would not be on.
Over the 4th of July weekend I noticed that power was bring supplied at night and my 20KW system was sending power to the grid during the day and the PW were working to power the house. I found this odd and not very economical. Also, there was no energy from the grid coming or going. On my 10KW system monitoring with Sun Power, power used is always power produced
For the remainder of the year I am on a fixed rate ~0.11 a KWh bought and a ~0.05KWh sold (after production exceeds demand for the month). Next year it goes time based with $5 a KW (not KWh) during Super Peak (for solar users). The buying and selling energy issues aren't critical now, but could be in a year.
I have contacted the installer with many questions and reminded them that they repeatedly told me I would be able to use my legacy solar monitoring and consumption system despite them saying I would be using the Tesla primarily. They are contacting Tesla for their input on Powerwall oddities.
I have contacted Tesla and they said it was wired wrong (no kidding) because she could not see any grid activity. She did not know if that would cause the system to shut down at night. She sent the problem further up the tech chain to see if there was a gateway or PW issue as well. Four days, no further response from Tesla.
I do understand that the PW can only take so much energy in, but does it make sense that I am selling energy while using power walls? I don’t think so. I am guessing I am not the only one who has more production than the power walls can take and it isn’t wired to “waste” the created energy.
Is the lack of the proper monitoring connections from the legacy 20KW the root cause of some/all of the problems regarding PW use? I think the Gateway sees the 20KW system as “the grid” and I don’t know if the proper parts to the monitoring will fix that. It may, but the level of people at the installers I have reached so far don’t know (to be fair, I have a newbie supervisor overseeing the project).
I am confident it will be resolved as the company does stand behind their work and I get that my system is a unicorn with a pre-existing string inverter system with added micro inverter system added, so I cut them a lot of slack.