Solar Edge major unresolved problem

[SunEagle]

This may not help your issue but years ago I had an old Xantrex inverter go offline because of higher grid voltage. When I called SCE about the issue they fixed it quickly and the field guy explained that they routinely adjust things at the substation. In this case they had upped the voltage because of summer loads and did not ramp them down in the Fall which created higher voltage than they intended.

I use to see a voltage change on the grid every Monday and Friday. It seems the POCO would use capacitors to adjust the voltage based on industrial usage and then industry not being used due to the weekend. I am glad I did not have a sensitive inverter at that time.

[Ampster]

I use to see a voltage change on the grid every Monday and Friday. It seems the POCO would use capacitors to adjust the voltage based on industrial usage and then industry not being used due to the weekend. .........

Thanks for reminding me about how they did that. I forgot the details but now remember.

[SunEagle]

Thanks for reminding me about how the did that. I forgot the details but now remember.

Sad I know that because I use to work with POCO's as an EE.

[Treepmeyer]

All of a sudden, on Monday the inverter started acting normally, or nearly so. The head electrician at MI Solar told me last week that he and his people were going to have a discussion with Solar Edge techs because I wasn't the only installation having these problems. I don't know if SE did anything but something definitely changed. Only one shutdown for the entire week versus 41 the previous week. Voltage levels off at 260v. I strongly suspect that SE finally realized that the power management settings were incorrect. I'll let you know if I find out more.

[oregon_phil]

Do you have a log to view for events and/or firmware updates? Even if SE did something remotely, I would hope it would be logged for either you or your installer to view.

[Treepmeyer]

Yes, I have to get the customer service rep to give me a password, then I will be able to see the power management settings and, I think, a log of changes.

[Treepmeyer]

Update - problem appears solved, but its not clear how. On or about Oct. 10 the performance changed dramatically. See the screen shots attached typical for before and after. The power company did set the local regulator voltage down 2 volts and my solar edge installer thinks that is what did it. I'm not so sure. Both the installer and the power company had been working with Solar Edge because I wasn't the only one having problems. Solar Edge support said that they made no changes to my inverter's power management settings, but I rather suspect that Solar Edge did make changes the the country default power management settings. The results were dramatic. Keeping in mind that the changes were effective about 10 days into October, here are the power outputs for October over the last four years:
2019 0.99 MwH
2020 0.88
2021 0.46
2022 1.04
The fall-off in 2021 was not an anomaly. Starting in March 2021 output had dropped off consistently 25-50% compared to the same month over 2019 and 2020.
I strongly suspect that Solar Edge's power management default settings for the US were sub-optimal from the beginning. Something (maybe the power co. regulator voltage) made it worse in March, 2021 and that Solar Edge and the power company have finally focused sufficiently on the issue to get everything properly sorted out. It's been quite a slog.

Thanks very much to everyone on this forum who contributed.

Tom Reepmeyer