Nothing in my system, which has been online for about 5 years, has changed. However, after after a brief loss of mains thing morning, even though the MultiPlus-II shows power on L1, and is exporting all of my AC-Coupled solar, it is stuck in “disconnected” and all of my AC2 loads are disconnected. I’ve tried cycling the Multi to Inverter only, to off, disconnecting the grid, and nothing fixes it. It just continues to discharge the battery to the AC1 loads, and any AC-Coupled solar (when the inverters are switched on) is exported to the grid.
Could really use some help here, as I can’t get the AC2 loads back on or the battery discharge to stop.
I updated the firmware on the Multi, and the disconnecting finally resolved itself. The downside, now my ESS Assistant is missing and I have to reconfigure.
Re-running the ESS Assistant takes me right back where I started. The system is now discharging from the battery to power all loads, even though the grid is in fact connected. With the AC Coupled solar turned on, 100% of the generated power is back-fed.
I am at an absolute loss here. The Multi continues to indicated “Active AC Input: Disconnected”. This is regardless of setting to use the ET Grid Meter (which is properly detected, and reads the correct outflow of energy that is the surplus coming from the solar).
Temporary fix… I reinstalled the current firmware to the Multi, which removed the ESS Assistant. I can now manually control the current limit, and the Multi no longer thinks AC1 is disconnected, allowing me to power the house and recharge the battery.
This is not normal behavior, and it feels like there’s a bug somewhere.
You lost grid, and after it is restored your ac coupled pv works, but not the MP - So I would at first investigate physical Issues on that, before considering firmware changes and/or a bug.
What does the Multiplus report for voltage and frequency on AC-IN? (Not the meter - the Multiplus, you can find that in VRM advanced graphs)
Are there breakers or fuses which could have dripped or be damaged during the grid loss?
When connected to the grid, it reports consistent 50Hz frequency, except when LoM occurs. Voltage fluctuates between 215 and 235.
There are breakers between the grid connection and the inverter, as well as on AC1 Out and AC2 Out. The ET112 is also protected in neutral. These were all cycled, but this probably isn’t a concern given that, as I’ve said several times, the system is not in AC1 In - Disconnected at the moment, because I’ve once again reloaded the MP’s firmware and not installed the ESS Assistant.
The MP LEDs show “Mains On” and “Bulk”.
When the problem started, and once I updated the MP’s F/W and reinstalled the ESS Assisant, it again indicated “AC1 In - Disconnected”, even though AC1 not only had power, but was recording the export of all the AC coupled solar being generated, all while the battery discharged to power AC1 Out
Currently, in order to prevent the discharge from draining the battery and effectively shutting of all power to the house circuits, I’ve left it without the ESS installed and set the current limit in order to prevent it from drawing too much power. As indicated, the Active AC Input shows “AC input 1” (as compared to indicating “disconnected” previously).
I should add, one of the times that I completely shut down the Multi, the GX, and disconnected the solar and grid connections, I also opened the battery disconnect for good measure… I also used a 3.5mm headphone jack to try to “clean” the internal CT connection (as seen in a slightly related issue someone else posted on), but that didn’t resolve the issue at all. When the system was back up, it continued to show AC1 In - Disconnected.
After doing a firmware update, all the basic settings of the Multiplus are gone.
So, chances are quite high, that - when you reconfigured the ESS-Assistant - you just overlooked something no longer in your mind, after 5 years of probably unattended Uptime.
Also new settings and / or changed settings may mess with a “quick reconfiguration”.
Best therefore would be to go through the ESS-Configuration guide with a mug of coffee or three, so you don’t miss any settings related to ESS-Operation.
I appreciate the thought, and I will go through the ESS configuration again, thoroughly.
However, I still am not sure why this would suddenly crop up. The problem did not arise after a firmware reset on the Multi, it came about earlier in the morning, without any intervention. Honestly, I think the issue started prior to the loss of mains, given that the battery was already discharged to 54%, and it seems that the GX was updated to 3.64 yesterday…
Have you tried launching 3.63 again, after installing the ESS-Assistant?
That at least would give an indication if it may be related to the cerbo update.
This morning I again reset the Multi, reinstalled the ESS Assistant, then reverted the firmware on the GX back to 3.63 before rebooting. It appears that the issue has resolved. ESS is again functioning properly, and AC1 In is being detected correctly, with the AC Coupled solar being inverted to charge the battery and power loads, or being exported, as expected.
Thanks for the help. Not sure why the Multi decided to not cooperate without being reset several times, or of the 3.64 firmware was even an issue.
