Summary: My ESS system has been trouble free for 2 years but recently decided to impose a 10KW total grid draw limit while charging the battery. I cannot find this as a setting anywhere. Can someone advise why this limit suddenly appeared, where it is hidden and how to change it?
I have a basic Victron ESS: Multiplus II 48/5000 (running UK G98 config), Cerbo GX and 16KWh Fogstar battery. I charge the battery from excess solar from a separate 4KWp AC connected system and from cheaper overnight grid electricity. The charge rate is limited to 2.5KW which is around the max I get from the solar panels and enough to almost fully charge the battery overnight from the grid. Incoming grid power is monitored using the CT feed into the Multiplus II. The grid setpoint is 0 ie no intentional export from the ESS.
I have several significant loads: EV charger 7KW, Water heater 3Kw, Hot tub 3Kw. All loads on the AC in side of the Multiplus II. Nothing on AC out 1 or 2. With all loads (and charger) on there is a theoretical 15.5KW draw. The Podpoint EV charger has its own CT on the incoming house feed and regulates its current draw to limit the grid draw to 12KW.
Recently the ESS battery is not fully charging overnight; once the total Grid draw exceeds 10KW the Multiplus II reduces the charge rate of the battery to cap at a 10KW limit. This appears to be a new behaviour but I cannot tie it to a specific update which I load soon after they are released. I updated the ESS helper on the Multiplus II in case this was the cause of the limit but it has not helped.
The Bulk Charging Grid Current Limit is set to 63A which should not cut in until around 14.5KW if I understand it correctly. I ran an experiment turning on loads until I saw the 10KW limit kick in then varied the Grid Current Limit from 10A to 100A. It operates as expected at low limits but once it exceeds the 40-45A limit (10KW equivalent) the phantom 10KW limit takes over and prevents battery charging to exceed that.
Can someone tell me what is going on please? The Venus OS documentation is not shedding any light on this for me.
And then there is this. Usually never a good idea to update a working system. Particularly if you aren’t doing the whole system and don’t need changes to be made (since it was doing what you wanted it to)
I would like it not to limit the overnight charge unless the grid current draw goes over 60A like it used to until September . It is currently limiting at around 42A whatever setting I use above that.
Peak shaving should not be active (I think?) as I don’t have a power meter on the incoming supply which I read is a requirement.
The 2.5KW limit was there to improve the battery life by limiting charge current. I agree that removing this limit will allow the battery to charge more during lower load periods of the night but it does not address my real question which is why has a 10KW grid draw limit suddenly appeared. I will remove the limit - something else about this mystery may reveal itself.
Yes, the frequent updates are the most likely cause of this new “feature”. Lesson learned. I was vainly reading through the documentation hoping that it would be obvious what part of any recent change could be responsible.
Not sure what “all these limits” means. There is one relevant limit I can find. On the remote console there is a single setting for Bulk Charging grid current limit. This seems to do what it says up to a point then some other limit kicks in.
This has been noticed recently before, it seems to be specific to CT configurations - sites that aren’t using an energy meter. The multi restricts throttles it’s output when the grid limit is reached.
Thanks. Sounds likely. It feels like peak shaving but peak shaving should not be active as there is no energy meter and I can’t find a set point to alter the limit… Weird and frustrating.
Did this get resolved? I’ve noticed the same issue. I’m running a 7Kw EV charger and a 3kw water heater, and would expect the battery on my Victron Multiplus II 5000 to charge at 4.5 kw overnight but the draw is now being throttled to 9.8 kw, meaning my batteries don’t charge fully. I have a 100A single phase supply here in UK and it can easily deliver 18 kW.
Claude has had a throrough poke around the system and has not yielded anything helpful.
I’m currently running Ver 3.85 - having downgraded from various beta versions.
Just reviewed my smart meter readings and the last time I exceeded 10KW was 21 September 2026. Not infallible, I don’t always charge the car which is the only thing which pushes overnight consumption that high, but a good indicator.
This would line it up with the Venus 3.80 release.
I quick Google suggestion Peak Shaving still works if you’re using a CT clamp. It’s definitely turned off in Settings > System Setup > ESS > Peak Shaving?
I’m sure I’ve had a similar issue before on mine and it was due to the Limit Import current setting.
Update - The problem goes away when the Cerbo GX is reverted to software version 3.79 which seems to confirm the problem is related to the 3.80 release.
I can live with 3.79 until someone at Victron takes note and finds/fixes the root cause.
Update: confirmed the 3.80+ regression, and still present in 3.90 beta 9
I ran a back-to-back test this evening on the same system with the same loads, changing only the Cerbo firmware.
System: MultiPlus-II 48/5000/70-50, Cerbo GX (large image), Pylontech battery (3 modules), CT clamp on the incoming grid supply (no energy meter), AC input current limit 80 A, 100 A main fuse.
Test: I forced a GX scheduled charge (slot 1, 100% SoC), then started the EV charger (~7.6 kW) and the immersion heater (~2.7 kW) together. Both of those are on the grid side of the Multi.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ │ v3.90-beta9 │ v3.79 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ Hub4 AC power setpoint (L1) during scheduled charge │ 9900 W │ 32766 W │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ Grid import │ pinned at 9.85–9.94 kW (~42 A) │ 13.98–14.06 kW (~61 A) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ Battery │ −0.6 kW (discharging, despite scheduled charge) │ +3.45 kW (full charge rate) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ EV / immersion │ 7.7 / 2.8 kW │ 7.6 / 2.7 kW │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
Observations:
Every night since mid-October the cap has been exactly 9,900 W, on 3.85 and 3.90 beta 9. It’s constant power, not constant current: the current moved from 41.3 to 44 A as the grid voltage drifted between 230 and 240 V, while the power stayed at 9.9 kW ±30 W.
The setpoint is the giveaway. From 3.80 onwards, the GX writes 9900 to the VE.Bus Hub4/L1/AcPowerSetpoint when scheduled charging starts. 3.79 writes 32766. None of the ESS limits are set (max charge power, max charge current, AC input limit and grid import limit are all −1), and there’s nothing in the ESS assistant. So the 9,900 looks hard-coded, or derived from something not exposed in the settings.
On beta 9 the battery discharged to hold the grid at 9.9 kW during a forced scheduled charge. Overnight, with the battery already at minimum SoC, it simply stays at 0 W. On 2 Nov it reached 73% instead of 95% because the EV and immersion used the whole 9.9 kW.
I’ve reverted to 3.79 and will stay there with auto-update off until there’s a fix. Happy to test a build if someone at Victron wants to look into it.
