SunPower Equipment Failure

[JJNorcal]

I had an eye opener this week when I discovered that the SunPower monitoring system I paid for is 100% ignored by SP.

I had developed a system to automatically capture output, but SP changed their unpublished API and I never got around to updating the software. I'm now more motivated to do that.

I have had everything on autopilot, including automatic payment of my PG&E bill, and I did not notice anything until my true-up bill. All of a sudden I owe $2,000 dollars to PG&E.

My first call to SP support resulted in an escalation. They had me visit my inverter, and the display indicated an arc failure. I was informed that I would receive an email update within 24 hours and that they would make an effort to work with PG&E for compensation remedy. They said that SP is not responsible for actually monitoring the data. I asked where it said that in my contract, and they asked where the contract said that they do actively monitor. Of course a real-time alert would be great, but seriously, not even an email for months? I asked how often I was supposed to check in on my system. Once a month would mean I could lose 30 days of output, maybe once a week, maybe every day to ensure that the system keeps paying for itself. Rediculous, and negligent that no notification for months.

The email I received the next day merely indicated that SP engineering was "actively monitoring" my system. I immediately called back and launched into the discussion that this is not a software failure and there is no reason to expect that an engineer would be able to monitor anything. At this point I was informed that SP had no intention of working with PG&E for compensation. I expressed a certain amount of displeasure, to say the least, and I was informed that I could expect another email that day and that a technician would be contacted within 3 days.

I received the second email, and it informed me that a technician will contact me within 5 business days. So months without power, 2 days with no action, and now 5 business days (ie 1 full week) for a technician to contact me, with no ETA for an actual scheduled visit. And this at the time of year where my output is maximal. Wow.

The point of this post is not to vent. I'm wondering if others have navigated through this situation, and if they have any suggestions as to how to deal with SP or PG&E.

And above all, don't assume that SP has your back.

[solarix]

Ya, I've never experienced any monitoring organization actually contact a customer first when a failure occurs. It has always been the customer noticing the problem first.

[slinthicum]

About a year after my system's installation, I had a SP inverter failure resulting in my system being down for about 2 weeks before I discovered it. I received the same "we are not responsible for monitoring" from my solar company. To make a long story shorter, the resolution was the company and I settled the issue when they made a charitable contribution to a local non-profit that supports disabled veterans. Don't rely on SP or your installation company to monitor production. In an article I wrote last month I detail a solution for those of us in PG&E, SDG&E, and SoCalEdison service area. You can read the article at:

https://www.emporiaenergy.com/blog/managing-electrical-energy-costs-with-tou-limitations

Before I get criticized for selling this solution, readers need to understand I received no compensation for writing this article. I am a product purchaser.

Steve

[J.P.M.]

I had an eye opener this week when I discovered that the SunPower monitoring system I paid for is 100% ignored by SP.

I had developed a system to automatically capture output, but SP changed their unpublished API and I never got around to updating the software. I'm now more motivated to do that.

I have had everything on autopilot, including automatic payment of my PG&E bill, and I did not notice anything until my true-up bill. All of a sudden I owe $2,000 dollars to PG&E.

My first call to SP support resulted in an escalation. They had me visit my inverter, and the display indicated an arc failure. I was informed that I would receive an email update within 24 hours and that they would make an effort to work with PG&E for compensation remedy. They said that SP is not responsible for actually monitoring the data. I asked where it said that in my contract, and they asked where the contract said that they do actively monitor. Of course a real-time alert would be great, but seriously, not even an email for months? I asked how often I was supposed to check in on my system. Once a month would mean I could lose 30 days of output, maybe once a week, maybe every day to ensure that the system keeps paying for itself. Rediculous, and negligent that no notification for months.

The email I received the next day merely indicated that SP engineering was "actively monitoring" my system. I immediately called back and launched into the discussion that this is not a software failure and there is no reason to expect that an engineer would be able to monitor anything. At this point I was informed that SP had no intention of working with PG&E for compensation. I expressed a certain amount of displeasure, to say the least, and I was informed that I could expect another email that day and that a technician would be contacted within 3 days.

I received the second email, and it informed me that a technician will contact me within 5 business days. So months without power, 2 days with no action, and now 5 business days (ie 1 full week) for a technician to contact me, with no ETA for an actual scheduled visit. And this at the time of year where my output is maximal. Wow.

The point of this post is not to vent. I'm wondering if others have navigated through this situation, and if they have any suggestions as to how to deal with SP or PG&E.

And above all, don't assume that SP has your back.

+1, especially on your last sentence.

I haven't had your situation but as far as Sunpower's customer service goes, my experience based on 8+years of owning a SP system - which, to be fair - has not had one problem and performed slightly better than expected - has been frustrating for me to the extent I've given up on them.

Now that they're out of the panel making business I wouldn't expect the customer service to improve a whole lot.

Beginning in the near future, the manure may hit the fan as a lot of string inverters powered by the SP positively grounded panels begin to fail at ~ 10+ years or so and the inept SP customer service combine for a perfect Chit storm as users find out there are no easy fixes or inverter replacements, and SP customer service is no more than dead air and dumb looks. Wait for it.

[oregon_phil]

Ya, I've never experienced any monitoring organization actually contact a customer first when a failure occurs. It has always been the customer noticing the problem first.

I have an SMA 7.7-40 with local access and also have data pushed to the web app Sunny Portal. Last month I turned my inverter for an hour to experiment with the SPS function to prove/disprove SPS functionality with TIGO TS4-R-O optimizers (doesn't work in my set up). An hour after I flipped the power off to the inverter, Sunny Portal pushed an e mail to me saying my inverter had a fault condition and displayed the error code. Sunny Portals emails were also pushed to me last year during our 12 day ice storm power outage and 2 day wildfire power outage. So far, I am satisfied with SMA's push notifications.

I monitor my inverter with a Raspberry Pi and Shelly EM anyway, but I though SMA's push notifications were somewhat useful.

[solarix]

Yes, the automated monitoring functions such as the SMA Sunnyportal event notifictions work very well. (I get at least a dozen of them a day because of all the Sunnyboy inverters we have out there - almost all wifi dropouts etc) The problem is when the responsible vendor does nothing with their monitoring data. I don't understand it - these big outfits have whole departments supposedly monitoring all these (thousands of systems I assume) but its like they sit around and do nothing with the data. Surely they have automated software monitoring the solar systems and ought to be calling the customer within minutes of a failure. But no - I've had occasion to call the support lines several times because one of their customers has called us out to figure out what is going on and its always "Oh yes, I see from our data that this system is down..." They do not have the "customers back" is a good way to describe it. I think these nationwide solar corporations are not to be trusted. Bless them for really pushing to get solar rolled out across the country, but they get so big their customer service falls apart.

[bcroe]

My take is, keeping monitoring (or any long term situation) as
simple as possible, and especially not relying on other people,
is the most likely not to mess up.

Here a glance at the weather, and this surplus meter, gives me
a pretty good idea of how things are working. That disc should
be moving to the right if the sun is shinning, and pretty fast for
strong sun. The numeric readout gives a good approximation
of my annual KWHour reserve buildup. I defeated the reverse
gear to the numbers, so it will back up in times of high usage.

Any daytime I get out to the inverters in the shed, a glance at
current production will reveal any serious problem. The 2
identical systems should have nearly identical power output,
any time the sun is not too close to the horizon. Bruce Roe


BiDirMtr.JPG
PVinvert21.JPG

[azdave]

I'm a hella nice guy I guess. I had a smart meter failure that resulted in my consumption not being reported for about 3 weeks. While it would have been nice to keep stacking up the credits I knew eventually they would notice so I called SRP and reported the issue. Their meter was fixed right away but then none of my generation was being logged so now quite the opposite problem. It took almost three months to get the billing straight but they did sort it all out to my benefit. I was able to review PVWatts data to prove what my generation would have been and they compensated me for more than that.

As far as monitoring, no one will ever care more about your system performance than you. I also had monitoring in my initial install package but soon realized that my own eyes and the free daily reports from my utility were all I needed to verify performance. I check it each morning when I read my email and also pass byy inverter at least 2-3 times a day so I easily see the output of both PV strings in once glance.

[hsnoil]

My first call to SP support resulted in an escalation. They had me visit my inverter, and the display indicated an arc failure. I was informed that I would receive an email update within 24 hours and that they would make an effort to work with PG&E for compensation remedy. They said that SP is not responsible for actually monitoring the data. I asked where it said that in my contract, and they asked where the contract said that they do actively monitor. Of course a real-time alert would be great, but seriously, not even an email for months? I asked how often I was supposed to check in on my system. Once a month would mean I could lose 30 days of output, maybe once a week, maybe every day to ensure that the system keeps paying for itself. Rediculous, and negligent that no notification for months.

That is how contracts work... unless it is specifically stated they aren't responsible. Of course having that out of box would be a nice feature to have for the consumer, but not exactly their fault for not monitoring when they never said they would.

The email I received the next day merely indicated that SP engineering was "actively monitoring" my system. I immediately called back and launched into the discussion that this is not a software failure and there is no reason to expect that an engineer would be able to monitor anything. At this point I was informed that SP had no intention of working with PG&E for compensation. I expressed a certain amount of displeasure, to say the least, and I was informed that I could expect another email that day and that a technician would be contacted within 3 days.

I received the second email, and it informed me that a technician will contact me within 5 business days. So months without power, 2 days with no action, and now 5 business days (ie 1 full week) for a technician to contact me, with no ETA for an actual scheduled visit. And this at the time of year where my output is maximal. Wow.

The point of this post is not to vent. I'm wondering if others have navigated through this situation, and if they have any suggestions as to how to deal with SP or PG&E.

Now this for someone considering SunPower has me more worried. Do they not let you contact their tech department directly? Nothing more annoying then when companies make it impossible to contact a department directly unless they contact you first. I always hated that.

Also, did you install through SP directly or through an installer? If it is through an installer, have you tried contacting them?

[JJNorcal]

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the feedback. Much appreciated!

That is how contracts work... unless it is specifically stated they aren't responsible. Of course having that out of box would be a nice feature to have for the consumer, but not exactly their fault for not monitoring when they never said they would.

Back when I signed the contract, my legal team (aka me) failed to realize that paying for monitoring equipment might not equate to active monitoring. This still feels like a logical assumption on my part, and I think that a good faith contract should have to call that out. Especially with all the language about a "free monitoring service" and that I must agree to keep the monitor on at all times.

Also, when I brought up that I might not have bought their monitoring equipment had I know there was no service behind it, they told me that it is important for SP to have the ability to review live when there is a problem. Given that, then why is it that they asked me to go look at my inverter and hunt for errors? They should have been able to tell exactly what is going on.

Do they not let you contact their tech department directly?

No, pretty clear that you get an off-shore call center.

Also, did you install through SP directly or through an installer?

SP Direct was the installer.

[J.P.M.]

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the feedback. Much appreciated!



Back when I signed the contract, my legal team (aka me) failed to realize that paying for monitoring equipment might not equate to active monitoring. This still feels like a logical assumption on my part, and I think that a good faith contract should have to call that out. Especially with all the language about a "free monitoring service" and that I must agree to keep the monitor on at all times.

Also, when I brought up that I might not have bought their monitoring equipment had I know there was no service behind it, they told me that it is important for SP to have the ability to review live when there is a problem. Given that, then why is it that they asked me to go look at my inverter and hunt for errors? They should have been able to tell exactly what is going on.



No, pretty clear that you get an off-shore call center.



SP Direct was the installer.

I'm not ragging on you, but it looks to me like a lot (but not all) of your disappointments at least partly stemmed from inferring things that were less than true from what some peddlers implied or told you.

I'm sorry for your predicament. For others reading this, more pre purchase education and a somewhat cynical caveat emptor attitude from potential users would make situations similar to yours less frequent.

[JJNorcal]

The fact that peddlers implied or told me untruths is sufficient for me to be disappointed. Thanks.

[J.P.M.]

The fact that peddlers implied or told me untruths is sufficient for me to be disappointed. Thanks.

FWIW, I too am a Sunpower system owner of ~ 8 1/2 years. The equipment, including the monitoring has so far been flawless, but customer support has been poor. Now that they are out of the panel business, I expect the support to become worse, if that's possible.