question

geomz avatar image
geomz asked

ESS stuck in Passthru

I have 2 100/30 Smartsolar MPPTs integrated with a Quattro 5000 into an ESS, running on 24V lithium batteries.

Everything had been working fine for weeks, but sometime this afternoon the system suddenly and inexplicably went into passthru. At the same time, the solar input dropped to zero.

There seems to be no way to take it out of that mode.

I tried disabling and reenabling the MPPT chargers

Restarting the CCGX

Changing the grid set point, and ESS mode, and Min SOC percentage

Updating the firmware on the MPPTs to the latest

All to no avail.

Ive already gone through the ESS manual (and the appropriate section in it often mentioned in this situation). But none of the presented situations seem to apply here. I do not have a grid tied inverter, do not feed power back to the grid, have the batteries at around 75% SOC and ESS is optimized without battery life. The batteries are managed by their own BMS and are perfectly able to take and deliver a charge.

If I kill the breaker for shore power the system will invert but if I reapply power, it quickly flows from discharging back to passthru.


Any help on this issue is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

MPPT ControllersESS
2 comments
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Murray van Graan avatar image Murray van Graan commented ·

Do you have an energy meter installed, ET112 or 340?

0 Likes 0 ·
geomz avatar image geomz Murray van Graan commented ·

Negative. It’s a very simple setup with no additional equipment in play other than the Victron stuff listed above.

0 Likes 0 ·
2 Answers
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi @Geomz

What grid-code are you using?

And what kind of bms communication / what assistants are you using?

4 comments
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

geomz avatar image geomz commented ·

Hi @Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff)

I’m using none/other for grid-code as no existing code matched my location with LOM B on both lines.

There is no direct communication to BMS, as they are onboard the batteries (LiFeBlue) and managed by typical system using voltage.

The assistants I have are the ESS assistant and a charge current assistant.

The latter is used to set charge current to a low rate (slightly higher than 0) to keep the batteries from being always at a constant 100% SOC.

A physical switch to aux1 controls it and it has been working OK for months (proceeding even the ESS assistant). Presently, flipping the switch as no effect as the passthru mode has disabled the charger all together.

0 Likes 0 ·
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ geomz commented ·

Ok, did you try to reset the multi? (devices - multi - advanced)

0 Likes 0 ·
geomz avatar image geomz Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hello,

I did, and that appears to have resolved it. On reboot it initially went back to pass-thru then directly into discharge (no incoming solar at the time). The next morning the solar recharge cycle resumed as normal.

While I appreciate the help and the fact that it's working now, I am a bit concerned that there appears to be no cause/effect that I can use to keep this from happening again?


0 Likes 0 ·
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ geomz commented ·

Hi @Geomz

Probably:

Low voltage on startup of inverter: when you let the battery run empty, and the inverter starts again, the inverter waits with the relay tests it has to do before it is allowed to feed-in until the battery voltage is high enough.


With older firmware, this is 14/28/56 volts. Some lithium batteries never reach this voltage, so in newer firmware this is changed to a percentage of SOC, but this is only when you have a CANbus connected BMS.

You said you read the manual, but did you read Q9 of the faq?
https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/6292-ESS_design_and_installation_manual-html5/en/faq.html

As it is unusual to run down the battery to empty in an ESS system, this issue is not not an issue in 99% of systems.

0 Likes 0 ·
djdemond avatar image
djdemond answered ·
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.