Solar Exports being counted as Home Usage

[darhall993]

After 3+ years of normal operation my Powerwall 2's Firmware was updated in early May and since then my system started counting all exports as Home Usage. I called Powerwall support and the Level 1 resource explained the new Firmware versions will not allow for the CT configuration to be swapped in software and I must have the CT physically swapped. I called my Telsa approved Installer and they came out and swapped the CT and re-ran the wizard to configure the Powerwall's. Everything seemed to be working fine but it was cloudy day so no exports on that day.

On the following sunny day, the system behaved the same way, the app reported all of the exports as home usage. So I called support again and they escalated to Level2. After two weeks of not hearing anything back I called again, the L1 tech explained the system is behaving properly and they had closed the case. At this point I am frustrated but being an IT and Technology guy I asked a few questions. 1st, I asked how much usage the L1 tech could see for the current day, he indicated he showed my system had used approximately 10.5kWh (which sounds about right for a vacation home with no one there). When I informed him that the app showed 65kWh he said "There is nothing else I can do for you, the system is working properly". I politely asked how I can get help with a Tesla Powerwall and the Tesla App not showing the same data. He asked me to call my installer and have them troubleshoot this. My installer is beyond frustrated, they asked them to travel out to the site again and use a meter to check on the flows etc.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

I realize that CT's misplacement is common in new installations, but this is not the case here. I've attached a couple of pics from the app where you can see the exports in Grey and then on the same day very low usage in Blue with one spike where my hot tub cycled on.

So in summary, my system is working fine but my Home Usage numbers are all jacked up. At the end of the past 2 months my local Utility reports the exports properly but I dont have accurate data on the home usage in the Tesla App.

 

[getakey]

it looks like the graphs are correct, but the usage summary numbers are way off?

 

[darhall993]

it looks like the graphs are correct, but the usage summary numbers are way off?

Exactly, but if you export the data its all home usage too. So it looks like the graphs are the only thing that are correct in the App

 

[Matt-FL]

I think the usage graph is off - 66kwh for the minimal usage seems excessive. Comparing to mine, I've used a lot more but showing less. Definitely some math issue there.

 

[offandonagain]

Do you have access to the Tesla Gateway web interface? There's an API that will show you whether the CTs are inverted in software. I'd start there. If the gateway is connected to your wifi network you should be able to find its ip address and log in at https://<ip>/ (password should be written on a label inside the gateway). Once you're logged in, go to https://<ip>/api/meters

There are other API endpoints that would help you investigate the issue: GitHub - vloschiavo/powerwall2: Tesla Powerwall 2 - Local Gateway API documentation
More on connecting on the gateway: Connecting to Tesla Gateway and Powerwall+ | Tesla Support

I'd question their explanation that "new Firmware versions will not allow for the CT configuration to be swapped". Seems like something that would break a lot of installations and we'd hear about on this forum earlier.

 

[darhall993]

Do you have access to the Tesla Gateway web interface? There's an API that will show you whether the CTs are inverted in software. I'd start there. If the gateway is connected to your wifi network you should be able to find its ip address and log in at https://<ip>/ (password should be written on a label inside the gateway). Once you're logged in, go to https://<ip>/api/meters

There are other API endpoints that would help you investigate the issue: GitHub - vloschiavo/powerwall2: Tesla Powerwall 2 - Local Gateway API documentation
More on connecting on the gateway: Connecting to Tesla Gateway and Powerwall+ | Tesla Support

I'd question their explanation that "new Firmware versions will not allow for the CT configuration to be swapped". Seems like something that would break a lot of installations and we'd hear about on this forum earlier.

Thanks @offandonagain, some good suggestions. I do have access to the Tesla Gateway interface, but this location is a 1.5 hour drive each way. I could configure a VPN and reach the network so I may look into that later this week. Agree that if Firmware in fact did not allow the CT configuration to be swapped we would have probably seen a rash of this issue.

 

[Vines]

Thanks @offandonagain, some good suggestions. I do have access to the Tesla Gateway interface, but this location is a 1.5 hour drive each way. I could configure a VPN and reach the network so I may look into that later this week. Agree that if Firmware in fact did not allow the CT configuration to be swapped we would have probably seen a rash of this issue.

Electronically flipping CT's is never good. Its a known problem that they get unflipped when a firmware update happens.

If it was my system I'd enter the commissioning wizard and see what that says, if there are errors it will be obvious.

 

[getakey]

If it is the CTs, why are the graphs correct?

 

[darhall993]

Electronically flipping CT's is never good. Its a known problem that they get unflipped when a firmware update happens.

If it was my system I'd enter the commissioning wizard and see what that says, if there are errors it will be obvious.

@Vines, totally agree. After the last firmware update my installer went out, physically flipped the CT's and ran the wizard. But Level 2 says "data is correct on our side". So on the Powerwall side they see the correct usage, the app appears to be looking at or calculating something else.

 

[Vines]

@Vines, totally agree. After the last firmware update my installer went out, physically flipped the CT's and ran the wizard. But Level 2 says "data is correct on our side". So on the Powerwall side they see the correct usage, the app appears to be looking at or calculating something else.

If the error is with the app, then maybe try reinstalling the app, or sharing it with a family member and see what they see?

 

[offandonagain]

If the error is with the app, then maybe try reinstalling the app, or sharing it with a family member and see what they see?

This seems worth trying, however as far I can tell: the app doesn't maintain any state other than API tokens and doesn't perform any math other than displaying API responses. All the data comes from Tesla's backends; the discrepancy seen above is possible because of two different API calls: one for "power" values (the real-time power flow on the home screen and 5-min historical values on the charts) and one for "energy" values (daily totals shown in the top left).

I don't know much about how CT readings are accumulated on the gateway or how they make their way to Tesla's backends, but it seems like in this case the grid power values are correct, but they are not being accumulated (i.e. the grid energy values are zero). The gateway API responses might tell us if that's the case.

 

[Vines]

This seems worth trying, however as far I can tell: the app doesn't maintain any state other than API tokens and doesn't perform any math other than displaying API responses. All the data comes from Tesla's backends; the discrepancy seen above is possible because of two different API calls: one for "power" values (the real-time power flow on the home screen and 5-min historical values on the charts) and one for "energy" values (daily totals shown in the top left).

I don't know much about how CT readings are accumulated on the gateway or how they make their way to Tesla's backends, but it seems like in this case the grid power values are correct, but they are not being accumulated (i.e. the grid energy values are zero). The gateway API responses might tell us if that's the case.

Hmm, I havent looked at any API values to this point. I typically interact with malfunctioning systems through the Tesla interface. Here is my home for the last 24 hours:

Maybe you can convince your installer to show you this same screen to prove the backend data looks good to them. I wouldnt be afraid to call in to support again and see what they might see.

It could be comething got wonky when the CT's were flipped for so long, and something in the app algorithm eventually corrected this. Could be if there was a correction that it might be now causing an issue since things are fixed on the hardware side and no longer ned correction.

This is certainly a wierd problem.

 

[Vines]

Hmm, I havent looked at any API values to this point. I typically interact with malfunctioning systems through the Tesla interface. Here is my home for the last 24 hours:

View attachment 947068

Maybe you can convince your installer to show you this same screen to prove the backend data looks good to them. I wouldnt be afraid to call in to support again and see what they might see.

It could be comething got wonky when the CT's were flipped for so long, and something in the app algorithm eventually corrected this. Could be if there was a correction that it might be now causing an issue since things are fixed on the hardware side and no longer ned correction.

This is certainly a wierd problem.

The other pages of this interface on the installer side also have some good basic checks. I assume your installer has already checked that everything is green on the system performance page.

 

[darhall993]

If the error is with the app, then maybe try reinstalling the app, or sharing it with a family member and see what they see?

Yes, I did that too, I have removed the app and reinstalled with the same results, I also have another iOS device that shows the same behavior.

 

[darhall993]

Hmm, I havent looked at any API values to this point. I typically interact with malfunctioning systems through the Tesla interface. Here is my home for the last 24 hours:

View attachment 947068

Maybe you can convince your installer to show you this same screen to prove the backend data looks good to them. I wouldnt be afraid to call in to support again and see what they might see.

It could be comething got wonky when the CT's were flipped for so long, and something in the app algorithm eventually corrected this. Could be if there was a correction that it might be now causing an issue since things are fixed on the hardware side and no longer ned correction.

This is certainly a wierd problem.

Thanks to all for the insights. The local installer is going back onsite on this Friday and I’ll report back to this thread on the progress.

 

[Matt-FL]

Do you have access to the Tesla Gateway web interface? There's an API that will show you whether the CTs are inverted in software. I'd start there. If the gateway is connected to your wifi network you should be able to find its ip address and log in at https://<ip>/ (password should be written on a label inside the gateway). Once you're logged in, go to https://<ip>/api/meters

There are other API endpoints that would help you investigate the issue: GitHub - vloschiavo/powerwall2: Tesla Powerwall 2 - Local Gateway API documentation
More on connecting on the gateway: Connecting to Tesla Gateway and Powerwall+ | Tesla Support

I'd question their explanation that "new Firmware versions will not allow for the CT configuration to be swapped". Seems like something that would break a lot of installations and we'd hear about on this forum earlier.

Curious if you have other /api/? links that can grab data - really hoping to find one that grabs string data.

 

[Vines]

Thanks to all for the insights. The local installer is going back onsite on this Friday and I’ll report back to this thread on the progress.

Good deal, it will be interesting to see the resolution. I am curious if this is a bug causing weirdness in the app, or a new flavor of CT problem.

 

[offandonagain]

Curious if you have other /api/? links that can grab data - really hoping to find one that grabs string data.

All the api calls are listed in the link I posted above. There is one for string data too (/api/devices/vitals), but it's a little harder to decode. You might want to look at pypowerwall or the Powerwall-Dashboard for that. With pypowerwall you can get the data like this:

> import pypowerwall
> api = pypowerwall.Powerwall(PW_HOST, PW_PASSWORD, PW_EMAIL, 'America/Los_Angeles')
> api.strings()

{'A': {'Current': 8.07,
  'Voltage': 379.5,
  'Power': 3033.0,
  'State': 'PV_Active',
  'Connected': True},
 'B': {'Current': 8.2,
  'Voltage': 379.8,
  'Power': 3088.0,
  'State': 'PV_Active_Parallel',
  'Connected': True},
 'C': {'Current': 4.68,
  'Voltage': 380.3,
  'Power': 1778.0,
  'State': 'PV_Active',
  'Connected': True},
 'D': {'Current': 0.0,
  'Voltage': -0.5999999999999996,
  'Power': 0.0,
  'State': 'PV_Active',
  'Connected': False}}

 

[Matt-FL]

That output looks like a PW+, not sure the Gateway 2 can provide those details.

 

[offandonagain]

That output looks like a PW+, not sure the Gateway 2 can provide those details.

Ah indeed, looks like string data requires a PW+ (integrated Tesla inverter). The output is from my gateway, but perhaps standalone Tesla inverters don't report these diagnostics to the gateway.

EDIT: However it might be possible to get that data directly from the standalone inverter when in installer mode (for a brief time after power-cycling)? I don't have a standalone inverter, but others might now.