Pulling from grid when producing or battery full

[user121]

Hi All

I have recently had a Solaredge system installed with 10kwh battery. It works nicely and enjoying being independent.
However there is a small issue that is really annoying. Randomly it allows to pull from the grid 0.01-0.04kwh for few seconds. The number is higher if the load is higher. So if I turn the oven on it will randomly pull 0.04kwh even though the battery is charged and producing enough to cover everything.

It is frustrating as it can pull 0.5kwh from the grid a day which the system is more than capable to cover.

Anyone saw this issue please?

[solarix]

Even though you have enough energy (kWh) in your battery, your inverter may not have enough power (kW) to run a big appliance like an oven and supplementing from the grid is needed.
Just because you "gotst lectricity", doesn't mean you can run a whole house.

[user121]

Fortunately that is not the case. I have a 6kw inverter and produce in average 10kwh a day even in November.
Regardless this is happening even if I just run basic appliances. As mentioned above in that case is only 0.01kwh but still very strange why it does it.

[SunEagle]

Fortunately that is not the case. I have a 6kw inverter and produce in average 10kwh a day even in November.
Regardless this is happening even if I just run basic appliances. As mentioned above in that case is only 0.01kwh but still very strange why it does it.

You must have a load somewhere that is not connected to the battery so it pulls from the grid. Maybe your inverter is the culprit.

[user121]

It is all connected to one main line where the clamp is hooked on.
Perhaps it is the inverter. I read somewhere that it might be to do with the difference between the meter that reads average levels and the clamp that does real time. And it's the lag between them. Not sure if it makes sense. If it is not happening to others then definitely something wrong.

[simonspt]

Hello! I have a friend with the same problem.

I have the Solaredge Inline meter in the import/export mode. 10Kwh Soleredge battery and 5Kwp total power installed with SE5000H inverter.

I've noticed exactly the same thing only when the inverter is not exporting to the grid, so basically when charing the battery and producing, there are some occasional 0.01Kw/0.03Kw pulled from the grid.


here is a schematic that my friend sent me.

the inverter is SE5000H there's a mistake in the drawing
se.png

Here in Italy, the energy supplier installs two meter/breakers: first (ENEL) it's the main breaker, to measure the consumption from the grid, and for solar powered houses, a second meter (GSE) to measure the exported energy to the grid (revenue).




Here's the exact moment:
se1.png

Also from the chart view:

se2.png


Any suggestion? What could be causing this?

[user121]

I have found this is by design. The inverter needs to know there is power available from the grid. You could say something like a heartbeat check. As you might know they just stop working if there is a power cut or no power from grid. For me it is like a couple of cents a day which just gets lost on the export return.

[simonspt]

I have found this is by design. The inverter needs to know there is power available from the grid. You could say something like a heartbeat check. As you might know they just stop working if there is a power cut or no power from grid. For me it is like a couple of cents a day which just gets lost on the export return.

How did you find out?

It could make sense if the inverter pulls always the same amount (say 0.01Kw) from the grid, but I can see spikes up to 0.05 or even 0.1 sometimes. And I have barely no load (see picture). After I took that screenshot, the pulled power oscillated from 0.01 to 0.04 very quickly.

I've tried cutting power from the grid and the inverter correctly stopped working (as you states), because it's not a StorEdge, so it cannot work as backup in case of grid outage.


As a side note, I notice a little discrepancy between the imported energy reported by the inline meter and the imported energy reported by power company (from last month's electricity bill).
Did you notice this as well?

[azdave]

As a side note, I notice a little discrepancy between the imported energy reported by the inline meter and the imported energy reported by power company (from last month's electricity bill).

Welcome to the forum!

A little discrepancy is not unusual when different devices measure the same thing. The power company meter is always right of course unless you can prove otherwise. The two readings should always be close but may have some reasonable amount of error.

It's like Segals Law, “A man with one watch always knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.”