Dynamic ESS

[JM_NL]

hello all,

First of all, I am not an expert on this, but I have been working with Victron hardware and software for about 2 years now. So I might be overseeing an very easy step

Yesterday I was at a friend’s location, And within an hour or so we had Dynamic ESS (DESS) configured and running. Yet I can’t get it to work (whe way I would expect) at my own place.
So I hope one of you spots my mistake

For refference, this is my setup:

I have had this setup for a while now. In the past I created a Node-RED flow to do the following:
Read the Grid-meter, combine the power usage of my house for the 3 phases an compensate that with the MultiRS Setpoint (for example, if my use uses 1000w, set the MultiRS Setpoit -1000)
Then re-calculate that every 1 seccond and update the value acordingly. This way I would keep my energy usage next to nothing from the grid. (I call this Grid-0)

Sumer mode
This worked fine in the sumer, more then enough Solar power to keep my house at Grid-0

Winter mode
There is not enough solar power available, so I try a different route;
Calculate the ‘cheapest’ hour of the day. Then try to top off the battery with the cheapest power.
Then calculate (or guess a little) when to ‘spend’ battery power, for example I used to wait for the 8-most-expensive hours (Mostly morning 06:00-09:00 & evening 17:00-22:00).
Then when prices are high I started my Node-RED flow again to keep Grid-0 again.

Although this was far from perfect, it worked most of the time.
So whith the latest firmware for the Multi RS it started supporting DESS. And I think DESS would do a better job than my Node-RED flows. But somehow I can’t ged it to work the way I would expect. (Or maybe, I just don’t understand it correct;))

So yesterday for example I would have kind of expetec this;
Charge the battery at arrounc 03:00 when it’s cheap, and atleast save me some money by pushing back to the grid when power is the most expensive, right?

What actually ended up happening was this, nothing.
The battery was not used to ‘push back’ against the Grid at all.
Only a bit of usage on the battery for my server rack (via AC-Out1) and a bit of Solar charge, but nothing being done by DESS…

So what do you guys think; Have I not understand the software? Or might I have a configuration error somewhere down the road.

For refference, my DESS Configuration:

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in adavnce!

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Misschien te simpel gedacht maar staat bij de ess settings self consumption op all system loads
en multiphase op total of all phases?

[JM_NL]

zo dat is snel!

Bij de Multi RS → ESS settings heb ik die opties helemaal niet

@guich27 heb jij een gridmeter met VE CAN aangesloten of TCP?

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Te simpel gedacht dus, ik dacht dat je de zelfde instellingen had op de multi rs.
ik heb MP ll. en een em24 via tcp.
Ik had na de installatie het zelfde probleem en had deze instellingen niet goed staan.
Geen idee waarom je deze instellingen niet hebt.

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Multi RS Solar Firmware version v1.17 - VM-3P75CT

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the support for the VM-3P75CT is on the new 1.17 firmware? I can enable it in the settings but I’m not going to do this until there are some details of the consequences. Does it allow for loads between the RS and the VM-3P75CT to be powered without importing energy into the grid?

[JM_NL]

just to confirm, i’m running v.1.19 for the multi RS and 1.08 for the grid-meter

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Multi RS Inverter RS and MPPT RS firmware changelog (2).docx (50,6 KB)

[JM_NL]

I’ve read the doc, do you think I need to upgrade v1.20 instead of v1.19?

I did the firmware upgrade to v1.20. The system started to charge automatically, so that is a change!

I still do not have the same options as you have

maybe I need to reboot the Cerbo:) will let you know

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

I don’t think you connected the meter via can.
have you done all these steps?

Regulating sum of all phases to zero works for a three phase system with a single RS, but not yet for a three phase system with three phase RS system

Installation Steps:

• The Multi RS and the energy meter must both be connected to the same VE.Can bus (ethernet isn’t supported yet).
• Make sure the current transformers are installed with the correct polarity; energy consumption from the utility should show as a positive number.
• Check the Multi RS system instance is set to the default value of 0.
• The energy meter type should be set to ‘Grid meter’ in the VictronConnect app.
• Enable energy meter support on the Multi RS using the VictronConnect app.

[JM_NL]

Okee I need to confirm a few things, my grid meter is Ethernet connected at the moment, not veCan… so that’s not good now….

Any idea when this will get supported?

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

it also appears that the multi RS is on phase 2.
If you have one, it must be connected to phase 1.

[JM_NL]

Must it be connected to phase 1 or should it be configured as if it’s connected to phase 1? Because I really can’t connect it to phase 1 now​:rofl:

[JM_NL]

@guich27

‘Grid meter’ in the Vi

Thanks again for your detailed info.

Steps took to make it work:

• I pulled an ethernet cable directly from the Grid meter to the Cerbo, and connected it via CAN.
• Checked the polarity for the grid meter
• Checked the grid meter config as grid meter
• checked the multi RS as default 0
• Enabled the energy meter support on the multi RS.

And now it works! amazing! Thanks for your help.

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Nice that it works,
just connect the RS to phase 1.
you see that critical loads say L1.
now the calculations are wrong.
By default, RS thinks it is at L1

[JM_NL]

Im not able to change the Multi RS to phase 1 at the momment. Only thing I can do is switch Phase 1 and Phase 2 on the Grid-meter side (Swap the connections) and make it think its connected to Phase 1. But in reallity it would still be phase 2.

Would that be any good?

thanks again for your help!

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Yes I think that works.
In any case you can try it out.

[JM_NL]

So this is the first day of DESS running, maybe it needs to learn an bit over time… but I find this surprising

It charging at a very expensive time of day

Any that whilst it was far from empty

Although maybe DESS realises that it can’t push back to the grid if the voltage is below 43volt ? Just a wild guess…

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Yes, that’s strange, Dess still has something to learn.
Did you manage to reverse L1 and L2?

[JM_NL]

I tried to switch the L1 and L2 grid-meter, but that resultated in very strange behaviour, so I returned them back as they ware.

now last night I left DESS on, but this is suprising me more and more.

it kept charing last night, that was fine…

but then started to dump energy to the grid, just before the prices starting to rise…

I Would expect that DESS would keep the “cheap” energy in green-mode and use that for internal usage only. not to dump it back to the grid within the same hour as it charged… I’m confused

I wil update again at the end of the day to see what has happend

[guich27 (Esteban Guichard)]

Heb je alleen de ct klemmen omgedraaid of ook de L1 en L2 stroom aansluiting onder de meter?

@JM_NL

image1038×772 38.6 KB

hij registreert nu minder verbruik L2 loads en grid zou 220w moeten zijn.