Battery not discharging

[awtoner]

I’ve got Solaredge electronics, an LG Chem battery, and Mission Solar panels which were installed in the summer of 2018. All was good since I purchased the house in the summer of 2019 - battery discharged to 20% every night.

Ever since Nov 12-13 there’s been no battery discharge. The battery seems self-discharge to 97-98% by the time the sun comes up, then the solar charges it back to 100%. But evening demand that used to be satisfied by battery discharge is now coming from the grid.

I contacted SolarEdge support who said that apparently I ended up on a TOU profile which somehow stopped battery discharge in the winter season. The battery continued to discharge the past two winters, so I don’t understand who or when this changed. Since Peterson-Dean isn’t replying, SolarEdge gave me an installer account.

Now that I’ve got control, I still can’t get the battery to discharge. I’ve tried to maximize self-discharge and also creating custom profiles. They are accepted by the inverter but nothing changes. Solaredge hasn’t replied in a few days. I don’t see any errors.

Any suggestion on what to try next? I’ve already started reaching out to other local companies for service.

[soby]

I have the SolarEdge StorEdge Inverter and LG Chem RESU10H battery with an installer account as well. It took some work (and I sometimes wish I got a Powerwall) because SolarEdge doesn't really want homeowners messing with the battery but having full control is worth the effort. Just have to keep tabs on it to make sure it never discharges too far. Seems like you’ve done what you’re supposed to do to be able to control the battery. Let's see if I can help.

First some questions:
1) Do you have a backup loads panel?
2) If yes above, have you tried simulating a power outage to see if it goes into Backup Mode correctly?
3) Does your power company have Time of Use (TOU) rate structure?

I attached two screenshots from my monitoring regarding the battery setup. Can you share equivalent screenshots from your system? That will give me some idea of what your dealing with.

- Soby

[awtoner]

Thanks for the reply.

New info is that I ran a StorEdge self test from the inverter, and it comes back with a Bat 1 DISCHARGE FAILE. So it seems like I've got something going on with the StorEdge or battery, not with the profiles. I think SolarEdge support's initial reply back in November was a red herring. They're now saying I need to have a tech come look at it. I've spoken to one solar installer who says a service call is $330 (parts are covered under warranty but not labor). So assuming a repair is needed, I've got the hassle and expense of two service calls vs. the amount I'm not saving on nightly discharge. A rough calculation says it is costing me about $70/month if my battery was discharging 80% of its capacity every night.

SolarEdge (remote) and I (local micro SD card) tried doing firmware updates, but the problem remains. The SolarEdge support agent thought something was going on with communication, but the firmware update goes through as if communication with the battery is OK. I also still get battery state-of-charge on the inverter and monitoring portal. I also shut down the system and checked the communication wires between the battery and StorEdge; they test good but I haven't tried replacing the cable. I really don't think it is just a communication problem.

1 & 2) Yes I have a backup loads panel. I will find some time to try simulating a power outage. Since it will likely result in a power outage for my backed up circuits, I need to work around my family.
3) Yes my power company has a TOU rate structure, but from what I can tell there's never been a difference in charge/discharge for my system depending on time of day or season. Super off-peak is $0.26/kW-Hr in the summer and on-peak is $0.51. In the winter, it is $0.34 to $0.36. So while there is a much larger spread in the summer, the rates aren't so low in the winter that I'd want to disable battery discharge to save cycles and extend battery life. Again, I think the profile was always there for year-round battery discharge but there's been a recent hardware failure in the battery or StorEdge.
Profiles) Screen shots attached. I've tried both Maximize self-consumption and a few custom profiles. One custom profile is probably like your clipping profile. On another one I tried to force export. I've also tried turning on several appliances in the house to force discharge (like your suggested backup test) but still didn't get discharge.
Screenshot_2020-12-18 Admin.png
Screenshot_2020-12-18 Home(1).png

[soby]

Ugh, that sounds like a serious problem. It’s likely your inverter or battery will need to be replaced and the labor associated with that won’t be cheap. I would hope that SolarEdge would have caught this already but is your battery part of the recall?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-03/lg-chem-recalls-some-batteries-on-fire-risk-sunrun-says

I would say give LG Chem support a call and verify that detail before having a SolarEdge tech visit.

[awtoner]

Short story: LG Chem worked with a Bluebrook Electric (local installer) to replace the battery, and everything is good now. I've got a new battery for my troubles.

Longer details:
Since the original installer (Peterson-Dean) was going through bankruptcy at the time and not performing service, SolarEdge suggested some other installers for the service. Barnes Solar apparently had experience with SolarEdge and LG Chem, and was initially responsive unlike other installers. But their 2-hour service visit (costing me $350) just confirmed what I already suspected - that it wasn't just a configuration problem and would need hardware service. The tech also questioned the comm wiring between the SolarEdge and battery, not liking that Peterson-Dean had connected two wires in parallel (clearly not a real issue). Barnes ultimately said they didn't want to work with a battery they didn't install, so I wasn't happy about the wasted $350.

LG Chem stepped up and got me in touch with Bluebrook. Everything improved from there. It took a few months to get a new battery due to a backorder. They took care of having the old battery picked up and a new one delivered and installed.

[soby]

Did you have to pay Bluebrook too or did it end up costing you just the $350?

[awtoner]

Did you have to pay Bluebrook too or did it end up costing you just the $350?

I didn't have to pay anything to Bluebrook. Once LG Chem got involved it was all between them and Bluebrook. I wish SolarEdge had pointed me in that direction instead of Barnes.

[soby]

It could always be worse. My original solar installer failed first electrical inspection due to poor workmanship and sold me an LG Chem battery that was sitting in their warehouse for so long that it had discharged to the point of no return.

Lawyers had to get involved and I ultimately got another local company to come and finish the install, RMA the battery and get permission to connect with National Grid. I ended up with a much newer battery that just barely avoided the recall although my warranty was cut a bit short since it still goes based on 6 months after the date of manufacture of the first battery.

I came out ahead by a few thousand dollars in the end but I don't have a labor warranty with any installer. I'm not too broken up about that since a lot of them go bankrupt like your original installer.

[berts]

I have just had my solar LG battery replaced and the new battery will not discharge. I've contacted LG, Solar Edge and the new installer but haven't received any feedback from anyone. Since you have went through this before do you have any suggestions of how to proceed?
berts

[soby]

If it has communication but wont discharge, it's probably just configured in a such a way that never allows discharge. Ideally, your battery installer would help you reconfigure that through the SolarEdge website.

[berts]

My original battery installer was PetersenDean and they went out of business during Covid pandemic. LG says I'm a "abandoned customer". That's for sure!! The installer for the recalled LG battery is NovaSource Power Services and I have a call into them to see if they will help me with the SolarEdge website.