SolarEdge monitoring

[mnhim001]

Hi everyone,

I've had my PV system installed for about 8 months now and can't seem to get my battery and consumption set up correctly. I have an 11kWp system with an LG Chem battery and SolarEdge Inverter. I've been monitoring the system through the SolarEdge app and I've done some comparison with what the app tells me how much I export and how much my utility company tells me that they receive from me, and it is way off. SolarEdge is telling me I exported 662.23kWh, and my utility company is telling me I sent to them 360kWh.

So, I contacted my installer, my installer contacted SolarEdge. They did some tinkering around with the battery and then this time it shows consumption and self consumption. Prior, it only showed consumption, so now self consumption was new to me. With self consumption, I also did notice my utility bill was lower.

But, with this came other issues. My battery was depleting, and would not get charged for 3-4 days. So, I contacted my installed, the installer contacted SolarEdge. They did some more tinkering around and now my battery charges every day, but I had to specify a time to start charging. It boggles me why the battery can't start charging as soon as the sun hits the panels. But, whatever its charging now.

But now, I no longer have self consumption. Its been 4 months that I've been working with my installer to get this right and they can't seem to get it right.

What I want is for the solar panels to charge my battery as soon as sun is available, and at the same time to power my house. Also, to start powering my house 100% from battery starting at 4pm until the battery is down to 20%, if extra energy is needed then import from the grid. At 20% do not charge from the grid, wait for the sun to charge. Any excess energy can then be exported to the grid for credit.

Is that too much to configure? It seems like I am collecting energy from the sun and charging my battery, but I am not consuming any excess energy to power my house and any excess energy is not getting exported to the grid.

I tried calling SolarEdge myself but they won't talk to me. They only work directly with the installer. Anyone know how how to deal with set up? Anyone from SolarEdge can assist?

[oregon_phil]

I don't have a SolarEdge system, but might have some thoughts on your problem. You give some info on your system, but it is pretty generic. Year of install, Inverter model Number, Battery model number and identification of other accessories would be helpful. For example, do you have a separate Energy Meter or do you have an HD Wave with RGM? or neither?

Is it possible for system owners to perform charge/discharge profile programming per this app note? "Charge/Discharge Profile Programming through the Monitoring Portal – Application Note"

Finally, try to write your "wants" into a day of week/date/time of day based logic statement(s). Your installer/SE is probably trying to interpret your words into something the SE app can understand.

Read the attached document, and see if that helps.

[oregon_phil]

Hi everyone,

I've had my PV system installed for about 8 months now and can't seem to get my battery and consumption set up correctly. I have an 11kWp system with an LG Chem battery and SolarEdge Inverter. I've been monitoring the system through the SolarEdge app and I've done some comparison with what the app tells me how much I export and how much my utility company tells me that they receive from me, and it is way off. SolarEdge is telling me I exported 662.23kWh, and my utility company is telling me I sent to them 360kWh.

So, I contacted my installer, my installer contacted SolarEdge. They did some tinkering around with the battery and then this time it shows consumption and self consumption. Prior, it only showed consumption, so now self consumption was new to me. With self consumption, I also did notice my utility bill was lower.

But, with this came other issues. My battery was depleting, and would not get charged for 3-4 days. So, I contacted my installed, the installer contacted SolarEdge. They did some more tinkering around and now my battery charges every day, but I had to specify a time to start charging. It boggles me why the battery can't start charging as soon as the sun hits the panels. But, whatever its charging now.

But now, I no longer have self consumption. Its been 4 months that I've been working with my installer to get this right and they can't seem to get it right.

What I want is for the solar panels to charge my battery as soon as sun is available, and at the same time to power my house. Also, to start powering my house 100% from battery starting at 4pm until the battery is down to 20%, if extra energy is needed then import from the grid. At 20% do not charge from the grid, wait for the sun to charge. Any excess energy can then be exported to the grid for credit.

Is that too much to configure? It seems like I am collecting energy from the sun and charging my battery, but I am not consuming any excess energy to power my house and any excess energy is not getting exported to the grid.

I tried calling SolarEdge myself but they won't talk to me. They only work directly with the installer. Anyone know how how to deal with set up? Anyone from SolarEdge can assist?

To answer your question "Is that too much to configure?", I think the answer is yes that is too much to configure given the information you have provided.

I have been doing some research into your problem and have found some information that might be helpful. There is a video on YouTube from SolarEdge that shows how to set up a Storage profile in the video titled "Learning Lab: StorEdge Profile Creation in the SolarEdge Monitoring Platform".

I think the problem is that you have not specified your LG Chem RESU battery capacity, your electricity usage habits during a 24hr period, or your solar power generation capability.

Original set up: "SolarEdge is telling me I exported 662.23kWh, and my utility company is telling me I sent to them 360kWh". Who knows what storage profile was used. I would check and verify CT installation.

1st set of profile changes 1: "My battery was depleting, and would not get charged for 3-4 days." Storage profile most likely set for Self Consumption priority Use PV production for self-consumption, then charge/discharge battery as needed to maximize self-consumption . You aren't making enough excess solar kWh in one day to recharge your battery. You need more solar kWh's or reduce your usage.

2nd set of profile changes: "Now my battery charges every day, but I had to specify a time to start charging." The installer probably set up different storage profiles during the day. My guess is the default is Self Consumption, but set up X amount of hours before 4pm as Charge from solar power then at 4pm changed to Discharge to minimize import for Y amount of hours. Your installer needs to know X and Y to correctly set up your system. In any case, you and your installer need to know your power usage and solar generation profiles during any given day.

Watch the YouTube video from SolarEdge, it is most informative.

[mnhim001]

To answer your question "Is that too much to configure?", I think the answer is yes that is too much to configure given the information you have provided.

I have been doing some research into your problem and have found some information that might be helpful. There is a video on YouTube from SolarEdge that shows how to set up a Storage profile in the video titled "Learning Lab: StorEdge Profile Creation in the SolarEdge Monitoring Platform".

I think the problem is that you have not specified your LG Chem RESU battery capacity, your electricity usage habits during a 24hr period, or your solar power generation capability.


Watch the YouTube video from SolarEdge, it is most informative.

Thank you, I'll definitely take a look at the YouTube video. It's just frustrating that I can't talk to SolarEdge directly and have to go through the installer. And it's not even the installer that I speak to, it's the receptionist which makes a lot of what I say lost in translation when she reaches out to Solaredge.

My battery capacity is 9.8Wh.

I've asked the installer to give me full access to my battery, but they won't allow it.

[Srrndhound]

It's just frustrating that I can't talk to SolarEdge directly and have to go through the installer.

It's been several months since your last post. Did you get everything working to your satisfaction?

BTW, why do you say you cannot talk to SolarEdge directly? Have you called their US support number, 510-498-3200? They also have tech support chat. I've used both with success.

[mnhim001]

It's been several months since your last post. Did you get everything working to your satisfaction?

BTW, why do you say you cannot talk to SolarEdge directly? Have you called their US support number, 510-498-3200? They also have tech support chat. I've used both with success.

I have contacted them via chat and they have directed me back to my installer. My installer then have to call them and explain my complaints to SolarEdge.

I had my solar installer come out and they checked things out and said everything is working as expected. I still unhappy that my electric bill is still high $100+. If I add the cost of solar finance and the cost of my electric bill its over $400 now.

[darkskies]

Just as a reference point. I have a 11.4kW inverter with HD-Wave, 16 kWh LG chem battery, generator, and Backup Interface. What you are asking for is exactly what my system does. Early morning, panel power house with excess charging battery. Once battery is at 100%, excess goes to grid. In late afternoon, battery starts contributing to powering house, and in the evening, battery powers house, until it hits 20% (which, I can configure via the SE app on phone, once installer gave me permissions). I think my system is set (by the installer) for max self-consumption. Other choices are Time of Use and Manual Control.

For my location, there is no advantage for time of use settings (fixed rate, regardless of time of day). So the short answer is that it should just work (assuming you have similar model inverter.

Here's an example day, showing production (green), consumption (red), and self consumption...
image.png
Regarding SE support. You should be able to go to their support web site, log in as a homeowner and open cases, etc. I must admit, they suck. Half of the time they will just reply and close the case, without really resolving, and I've had to reopen several times to get them to address the issues (usually they are of the form of newer features that are not yet working), or they will say you have to have the installer contact them to resolve the issue. They have never worked with me to troubleshoot an issue.

[Srrndhound]

I had my solar installer come out and they checked things out and said everything is working as expected.

It would be great if you could post your SolarEdge screenshot to get a better idea of what's happening. Who's your power company, if you don't mind?

[mnhim001]

It would be great if you could post your SolarEdge screenshot to get a better idea of what's happening. Who's your power company, if you don't mind?

Here are screenshot. I feel like I send a lot of excess energy to SCE (Southern California Edison), but I still get a high monthly bill from there.Screenshot_20241012_072831.jpg

[darkskies]

That seems reasonable. Your battery gets charged by noon, PV provides power, excess goes to utility, and then house runs off battery for part of the night. You're importing 7.64 kWh and exporting 24.5 kWH (over 3x more).

Maybe folks from your area can chime in on the utility company and how that works in your area. For me, the tariff is fixed, I need to produce about 25% more, to break-even. Just to give you an idea, here is September for me:

PRODUCTION IMPORT CONSUMPTION EXPORT COST PRODUCED CHARGES ESTIMATED-COST SAVINGS CREDITS TOTAL-SAVINGS BREAK-EVEN
1,038 175 645 523 $18.80 $53.16 $-34.36 $127.53 $161.89 $0 $162 769

I produced about a Megawatt, consumed 645 kWh. Charged from utility were almost $20, but I produced $53. The estimated-cost is if I didn't have solar. The break-even, is the production that I'd have to do, to have zero cost for a consumption of 645 kWh. This is all based on the rates and billing from my utility company on the East coast. YMMV.

[mnhim001]

That seems reasonable. Your battery gets charged by noon, PV provides power, excess goes to utility, and then house runs off battery for part of the night. You're importing 7.64 kWh and exporting 24.5 kWH (over 3x more).

Maybe folks from your area can chime in on the utility company and how that works in your area. For me, the tariff is fixed, I need to produce about 25% more, to break-even. Just to give you an idea, here is September for me:

PRODUCTION IMPORT CONSUMPTION EXPORT COST PRODUCED CHARGES ESTIMATED-COST SAVINGS CREDITS TOTAL-SAVINGS BREAK-EVEN
1,038 175 645 523 $18.80 $53.16 $-34.36 $127.53 $161.89 $0 $162 769

I produced about a Megawatt, consumed 645 kWh. Charged from utility were almost $20, but I produced $53. The estimated-cost is if I didn't have solar. The break-even, is the production that I'd have to do, to have zero cost for a consumption of 645 kWh. This is all based on the rates and billing from my utility company on the East coast. YMMV.

I'll upload my SCE bill when I get back hime, it shows on SE I export a certain amount while SCE shows much less.

[Srrndhound]

In late afternoon, battery starts contributing to powering house, and in the evening, battery powers house, until it hits 20%...

For my location, there is no advantage for time of use settings (fixed rate, regardless of time of day).

Just curious. If your rates are same all day, what benefit do you get by running juice into and out of the battery everyday? It would seem to me to add some power conversion inefficiencies to charge and discharge the battery when instead you can use the grid as your virtual battery with less conversion loss and less "wear" on the battery.

I used to do the same, running the battery down to 20% every day, but it saved me no money, and it meant that if I had a grid failure in the evening I would have less backup available to get me thru to the next day's sunrise. So now I leave the battery reserve at 100%. I welcome your thoughts.

[darkskies]

Well, the LG batteries are charged from the panel side (420-450 VDC) of the inverter. There is no DC ->AC -> DC conversion to charge the batteries. One of the advantages of the SE system. So, for example, if you have a 7.6kw inverter (like I had before), and the panels are generating 10.6kw, you can be charging from the excess 3kw, and the 7.6kw can be going to house and grid.

Second, the tariff I have is not 1:1, so if I can self consume as much as possible, instead of producing 25% more to break even, it has a cost benefit. If I was producing way more than consuming, then it would be less of an advantage. The battery let's me self-consume through most of the night quite often.

Third, SE has a "Weather Guard" feature, where, if there is bad weather approaching, it will not drain down the battery, but will leave it at 100%, so that you have the most charge possible, in case of outage. For where I live, the outages of any duration, are always in the Winter, and can be several days.

I have a generator integration, so the system will run on battery, until it hits a programmed limit, and then run on generator. as soon as the panels have cleared (they usually do quickly due to a steep roof), the PV will charge the battery. Caveat: SE doesn't seem to have the transitioning from generator, back to battery working yet - I'm nagging them about that.

Yes, I'm cycling the battery daily. The LG batteries are warrantied for 10 years at 70% capacity, with a max 54MWh output, so there is a limited lifetime for the battery. Last year I was able to produce 2.3MwH from battery, about 6kWh a day, on average.

The battery lets me self-consume additional power in a pretty efficient manner, saves some cost when grid fails (propane is very expensive fuel source for generator), and provides a faster switchover, when the grid fails.

When the installer was planning/proposing the system for the house that we had just bought, we decided to include the battery, mostly because of the cost of propane for the generator (not knowing how often there were outages in this area, but neighbors had indicated it was frequent in the Winter and could last 2-5 days). I really never did a detailed analysis to see if more panels (and larger income) would be better than the cost of the battery and savings on expected propane use.

[Srrndhound]

Well, the LG batteries are charged from the panel side (420-450 VDC) of the inverter. There is no DC ->AC -> DC conversion to charge the batteries.

Understood (I have SE gear, too). The charging process still runs through a DC-DC converter, and the battery itself is not a 100% energy capture mechanism. These are not a huge losses, but it's not zero either.

Second, the tariff I have is not 1:1, so if I can self consume as much as possible, instead of producing 25% more to break even, it has a cost benefit. If I was producing way more than consuming, then it would be less of an advantage. The battery let's me self-consume through most of the night quite often.

Oh, I totally misunderstood when you said fixed rate, regardless of time of day.

Third, SE has a "Weather Guard" feature, where, if there is bad weather approaching, it will not drain down the battery, but will leave it at 100%, so that you have the most charge possible, in case of outage. For where I live, the outages of any duration, are always in the Winter, and can be several days.

Yes, Weather Guard is a useful feature. If only they had a crystal ball feature that could predict when the grid would go down from non-weather related factors. Folks sometimes like to target substations, just as an example.