question

mendok avatar image
mendok asked

Fine tuning - Grid connected system still importing power from the grid

20210614-145225.jpgHi all

I have 2x MultiPlus-II 48-5000 in parallel.

I have set to my grid feed in to -70w.

My batteries are never below 50% Lithium.

But i keep or should i say, victron keeps sucking from grid about 2KW per day

Has any one else got this problem or more so how to fix this ??

I just dont understand, spent good monies and still sucking from grid especially when i dont need to, it just frustrating


Cheers all

ess grid setpoint not reached
2 comments
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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·
Have you done the maths on that?
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mendok avatar image mendok klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·
Not sure i am fully understanding your statement... math on what?


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7 Answers
shaneyake avatar image
shaneyake answered ·

There is always going to be some push and some pull from the grid. You have 2 inverters so that makes things a little worse.


I have found that a lot off other inverter manufactures average the data so you don't see the push and pull but it happens with all grid-tie systems.

Why, because the inverter is having to track the grid voltage. When you turn on a load of 1.5kw, the power will first come from the grid. The inverter will see the load and then ramp up to meet that load. Now how does the inverter control how much power it is pushing out onto the grid? It adjusts it's output voltage, increase voltage, more power flows from the inverter, lowers voltage, less power flows from the inverter. This is great but the grid voltage is always changing so the inverter is having to adjust the voltage all the time. This will show up as that push and pull. You will see 0W, then -70W and then 70W, etc. Over time this should average out to 0Wh from grid.

The next thing to keep in mind is that the inverter/CT are not accurate! I have seen 1kWh per day of difference between the inverter and the grid meter. Can you confirm these readings from the utility? Also on paralleled systems it isn't a great idea to use inverter metering, you should use a meter. Does your installer have experience with paralleled systems?

If you wouldn't mind, you can share a public link to your VRM dashboard, I and others would like to see the data for ourselves.

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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·
Hello Shaneyake

Thank you for the reply and sorry for my very late response !

Yes the pull and push logic, i understand and do accept fully and has been explained to me by my supplier/installer.

The problem i am seeing is very different , say i have a load on already @1.5kw for 15 minutes and is drawing from the batteries, working as it should.

Then for no reason at all, the inverters like go into a spasm, you can actually hear them, they ramp up, suck from the grid 1.8kw, power the same, still load @ 1.5kw and charge the batteries 300w. All this spasm for about 45 seconds. This could happen 4x in an hour !

This spasm thing is were i believe the problem sits and the spasm thing is what i cant accept logically !!

Thank you Mendo


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shaneyake avatar image shaneyake mendok commented ·
What firmware version is your multiplus? Have you tired updating it to the latest?


I have had problems with older versions that wouldn't track the grid voltage as well. Especially if I had LOM on, it could be that the inverter is losing tracking and then taking sometime to resync. It could also be that you have a pretty bad grid connection.
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mendok avatar image mendok shaneyake commented ·

i have the latest firmware installed, 487

i finally caught the spasm fit on camera, 2 whole minutes to find itself ?? now you can see and defiantly hear its spasm, surely this cant be, as i have been previously told less then 8 sec to stabilise itself??

please see attached video, the video is large and will be available for 7 days only !

VICTRON vid file too big to upload

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shaneyake avatar image shaneyake mendok commented ·

This seems consistent with it losing grid sync. Can you contact your installer? To push this up the food chain?


You can try disabling LOM but that comes with whole list of regulatory problems.
What does the voltage look like in VRM? You can can add VE.BUS input voltage on the advanced tab on VRM. Is there lots of voltage fluctuation?

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mendok avatar image mendok shaneyake commented ·

Looks good to me ??screenshot-20210925-130656-samsung-internet.jpgImage Caption

screenshot-20210925-130604-samsung-internet.jpg

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mendok avatar image mendok shaneyake commented ·

Hello Shaneyake

You were right on the money!!!

My voltage was sitting above 243v , and going all over the place , was even topping 255v.

Lucky i had 2 phases , swapped to other phase, now working a lot better, even though the other phase is on the other end, 221v and rising to 243V

Thank you Mendo


I would like to retract my last statement....

The over voltage problem only helped with the overload problem by stopping the victron inverters from overloading and then this causing the inverters to restart/rebooting.

It has in no way helped witscreenshot-20211017-121416-samsung-internet.jpgh the problem of the inverters sucking frim the grid for absolutely no bloody reason!!!!!!!

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mendok avatar image mendok mendok commented ·

screenshot-20211017-075609-samsung-internet.jpg

1.7kwh in 12 hours??

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mendok avatar image mendok mendok commented ·

Good sunny day, solar thumping. But victron MultiPlus-II inverters, still want to suck from the grid, just amazing, still costing me monies screenshot-20211017-132726-samsung-internet.jpg

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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·

screenshot-20210924-074158-samsung-internet.jpg

Yesterday's, fantastic results, except one??

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Mike Dorsett avatar image
Mike Dorsett answered ·

if you're set for a minimum grid power of 70W, x 24hr this is 1.68kWh. If you want to reduce this, set min grid power to 0 if possible. So wit the 70W min setting, 2kWh / day is reasonable...

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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·
Hi miked

Grid feed in is set to minus - 70w

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered ·

Hi @Mendok,

Are you using an external energy meter?

Please check to see what setting is selected for the "Grid metering" option in the ESS menu of your GX device, and that it reflects how the system has been installed.


cleanshot-2021-06-15-at-130407.jpg


It also appears from your screenshot that the PV inverter is incorrectly configured (both discharging the battery 589W, plus PV inverter production +590W, plus import from the grid +2900W) = 4079 W of energy supplied to a load of only 3344 W.

So double check the AC PV inverter position in the PV Inverters menu of the GX matches the physical wiring of your system (or just chance to to the opposite and see if the numbers all add up correctly then).


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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·

Hi guy

Thanks for your reply.

Grid metering set to inverter/ charger screenshot-20210615-135651-samsung-internet.jpg

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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·

Also those figures you mentioned, yes they dont add up. That might have been just when pic taken, in-between figure adjustment by inverter..

Please see pic, this morning, no pv, batteries at 70%

screenshot-20210615-065939-samsung-internet.jpg


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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·

Has any one else have this problem??

Is it a problem?

all i know is that my grid feed in is set to minus -70w. Even though i believe that amount is set to high....

screenshot-20210621-191955-samsung-internet.jpg


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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·

Sucking from grid WHY??
screenshot-20210622-070119-samsung-internet.jpg

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mendok avatar image
mendok answered ·

Anyone got any comments on last pic??

Surely i couldn't be the only one in the world with this problem??

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shaneyake avatar image
shaneyake answered ·

@Mendok Can you post a screen shot of your grid power on from the advanced tab?
This is very strange. Mine is set to 0W and I will use around 0.1kWh per day from grid.

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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·

screenshot-20210627-171558-samsung-internet.jpgHi mate,

Thanks for your reply and sorry for the late reply.

Ok wow , well yours is amazing. Thats how all should be !

I spent a small fortune on this system and i just dont believe mine is working accordingly

screenshot-20210627-170454-samsung-internet.jpgImage Caption

screenshot-20210627-171527-samsung-internet.jpg

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mendok avatar image mendok commented ·

Thats the one you requested?

20210627-185211.jpg

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mendok avatar image
mendok answered ·

screenshot-20210627-145150-samsung-internet.jpg

This could have been a really good day today.

PV produced 18kwh, consumed 7.6kwh


Why in this world would i have sucked 0.8kwh???


Come on victron????

Its a program and the inverter is told what to doooo

Is the unit faulty??


please


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shaneyake avatar image shaneyake commented ·
This looks like you ran low on battery around 8am and it used grid. As you said your target was 50%.
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allen-dengler avatar image
allen-dengler answered ·

As long as you are connected to the grid, the inverter will always use some power, around 50watt, this is to run the controls and keep the grid frequency tied in and synchronized. There is definitely a problem with a setting in your system that it is using over 2000watts of external power. When you set up your parallel system did you program the inverters separately (although they remained connected) you must set up the settings in Remote Configure, save them, then send the settings to each inverter separately. Also it's always best to have your batteries ( Optimized With Battery Life) unfortunately its not easy to spot the problem without actually having access to your VRM portal

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