Hi after years of perfect operation and with no adjustment or update my system has started using the grid as well as excess solar to charge the batteries. The grid set point is set to -60, optimised with or without batterie life etc as the settings have always been. The Grid meter is reading correctly as are all the readings in the VRM. Any help gratefully received.
There is no solar shown on that dashboard.
If you look at the Batterie box it’s showing it charging at 7.1 kw the solar is connected to the system with other inverters.
I can see that, but your gx and system has no clue or control over any PV. While it might have worked ESS isn’t going to function right like that.
Its an important detail to add.
I would update the post with a decent overview of the configuration and installation.
The problem with unsupported setups is while they may work there is no guarantee it will always work.
Ok when I purchased the property it had two solar systems, 6kw and 3.6kw inverters connected separately back to the consumer unit. I have installed a Multiplus GX ii with a viltron grid meter and Pylontech batteries. The batteries have for over three years now been charged by excess solar or in the winter cheap rate electricity. Yesterday I noticed that the system was drawing power from the grid as well as using the excess solar which it has never done before. Do you need any other info ? How should the system be setup ?
If ESS isn’t operating correctly that can happen.
In your case you do not have a real ess. There is an invisible, uncontrollable source of power.
There is not enough to go on, its just guessing.
You need to thoroughly Document your system - wiring diagram, settings and so on.
Ok thanks for your help
I think it’s better to set a communication between multiplus ii and pv inverter
Why ? The solar can do its own thing it doesn’t need to talk to the Victron system ? All the victron system needs and has been working for years doing is the import/export to the grid ?
For ess to work properly the system needs to know there is pv and the pv inverters must be under the inverter’s control, either via traditional frequency shifting or modbus control.
Power can’t just “do its own thing”.
Not doing so and having a unsupported and untested configuration will result in unexpected behaviour.
In the most simple terms why do you think the system has been monitoring the grid supply and charging with the electricity that would otherwise be exported while maintaining -60w to the grid and now after three years it’s not doing that even though it can clearly see the import/export on the supply cable ?
is it really like that? i think its more like a information on the Dashboard and House Loads could be calculated?
In my understanding the only thing that controls if batteries get charged / discharged is the house meter?
A friend had his MP2 running for months without any data connection to the PV, worked perfekt, but the displayed house loads were of course wrong
I know many systems set up that way including a popular YouTuber and the victron system just monitors the supply cable ? Why does it have to control the third party inverters ? The viltron system can see what’s being exported/imported through the victon grid meter
You don’t need PV for the system to operate.
The system is managed by the battery and is trying to balance charging/discharging of that battery, it does this via DVCC which controls charge sources.
Now you have a source of charging that the system does not control, nor is aware of.
If on AC out it needs to control that power for safety. It does not need comms but it needs to respond to frequency shifting.
This is why the 1:1 rule exists and the assistant asks about PV inverters.
The problem with a completely unsupported configuration is that it tends to “work just fine” until it doesn’t.
In this instance there is next to zero documented about the setup, it’s parameters and supporting data.
“it used to work” doesn’t help, unfortunately.
I would start by removing the variables from the equation, such as the additional inverters and seeing if the system starts to behave as expected.
With long-running systems it is also worth checking nothing has become loose or disconnected.
I’ve checked and all connections and readings are correct. The frequency is also 50hz the inverters for the solar are correctly setup to run on a uk grid tied system. I’ve monitored the frequency and it’s perfectly within the parameters required. ESS has been setup correctly with the correct grid code for the uk and the Pylontech batteries. I’m using a Victron Energy Meter VM-3P75CT which has up to date firmware connected to the phase/+ cable directly after the supply 100 amp fuse. The readings shown from the meter in the VRM are bang on. I have always run the system in its most basic form to maintain the grid at -60w as shown in the ESS settings which has worked perfectly. Nothing has changed or been updated for months then yesterday it stopped only charging with export. If I turn the inverters off so the property is drawing power the system works perfectly, maintaining -60w to the grid and feeding power to the properties loads. Weird
In the inverter state advanced widget, what state does it show?
Bulk, if I got you right
Can you post a widget chart from before and during the issue that shows the grid input voltage?
i understand it like “the PV inverters are On AC-in, no MPPTs”
But what kind of MP2 is it? Could he really supply 7000W to the Battery?
Did you try a reboot?
Are the values changing?