Hey Amber/HA brains trust. Has anyone figured out how to control Amber Smartshift through their APIs or from within HA? I think my own algorithms would be better than SmartShift and I’m confident I know when to dump my battery and when to load it up.
For example, I often have periods where the general price is $0.05 but Smartshift doesn’t start loading up the battery… when it should.
That API doesn’t exist yet. Working on it, but don’t have an ETA.
I’m going to assume you have a Powerwall, which is why you can’t just control it via HA?
BTW: Smart shift will beat threshold based rules most of the time. Charging at 5c doesn’t make sense if there is free solar to charge your battery, or if you are unable to dump at a higher price because your predicted load will be close to the battery max discharge (and thus will never hit the grid).
Yes I have a power wall. Why does that change things? If I had a different battery I could control it via API?
When you say “not yet working on it”, am I to assume you’re working on the official integration?
I guess whether smart shift would be better than my implementation is up for debate, because I can’t control it at the moment.
There’s an interesting add-on to Home Assistant that will use more sophisticated methods to not only manage your battery but also your household loads all in the one calculation. But I understand powerwall is very difficult to manage directly. Other batteries have API that allow direct control and are more suited to local management. Have a look at this thread:
There are people managing powerwalls with this system but I think its not easy. I have a sonnen which is easy to control locally but not easy for amber to control because sonnen won’t open their VPP API up to amber.
If I had a different battery I could control it via API?
Many other battery manuafacturers can be controlled locally via Home Assistant - SolarEdge for example.
When you say “not yet working on it”, am I to assume you’re working on the official integration?
First step it to get the actual API built, which requires a few internal architectural changes, then after that is done, I’ll add functionality to the Home Assistant integration.
Re: SolarEdge Curtailment - Help please!
@madpilot @markpurcell
I gave up on Amber after waiting 6 weeks for Amber to enroll my inverters, and re-enabled Modbus. Since, I have been trying to get curtailment working. I would really appreciate some help with the correct code and Inverter settings.
When I curtail with a FULL battery, production falls to zero (not mirroring consumption. Note the active power slider.
This is the automation I used for solar curtailment when I was waiting to onboard.
You want to set site_limit to 0, and the i1_limit_control_mode to Export Control
alias: Solar Curtailment
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- sensor.amber_feed_in_price
condition: []
action:
- choose:
- conditions:
- condition: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.amber_feed_in_price
below: 0
sequence:
- service: select.select_option
data:
option: Export Control (Export/Import Meter)
target:
entity_id: select.solaredge_i1_limit_control_mode
- service: number.set_value
data:
value: "0"
target:
entity_id: number.solaredge_i1_site_limit
default:
- service: select.select_option
data:
option: Disabled
target:
entity_id: select.solaredge_i1_limit_control_mode
mode: single
Any word on the progress of this please? This is huge for my setup - while SmartShift is good, there’s a few instances where I’d like to be able to tailor it to my usage where SmartShift hasn’t quite got it figured out yet.
I’ll post here when it’s ready to go.
@madpilot Hi Myles, I too have an automation like yours for curtailment, and the automation works fine. However, as per my post here, when I curtail, production drops to zero. It is not mirroring consumption.
I saw somewhere you mentioned older HD Wave inverters. Mine are SE5000H-AU000BWU4’s. Are they the problem?
FYI @markpurcell
Batts
@batts I posted the settings I used, that worked for me on a Home Hub. If you are using the same settings, I’m not sure. Maybe someone else has experience with that specific inverter? I never tried curtailing on the HD wave when I had one.
I have had differing results with different firmware.
My theory is the Export Control functionality isn’t as well utilised/ tested across the fleet.
I’m running 4.16.23 which is getting quite old now, but I find it stable.
I spoke to my installer and had an online chat to Solar Edge agent in India a couple of days ago.
Someone has tweaked something (don’t know what) and it is working, provided I add a delay of several seconds before setting the site limit parameter.
If I don’t add the delay, there is no curtailment at all despite the site limit setting of zero.
NEW PROBLEM:
Battery at 100%. Curtailment active.
Production is curtailed to solar edge perceived consumption (solar edge cannot see/incorporate a non-solar edge battery). If battery happens to drift into discharge ( i.e. supplying load) , then solar edge sees that as a reduction in consumption and curtails further. I watched it drift slowly to a point where production was close to zero and battery was supplying most of the load. Surely there must be a way to position CTs to account for presence of a non-solar edge battery?
Or should I just onboard control to Amber?
@markpurcell @madpilot I apologise for still being baffled.
Solar curtailment with multiple devices is probably my biggest headache in Smartshift.
Surely there must be a way to position CTs to account for presence of a non-solar edge battery?
Yep, you totally can, though you’ll need to install an external production meter - this will tell your SolarEdge inverter about the other inverter, and allow it to take into account the other system. Though if the other system is also trying to limit exports you’ll have a bad time. Does the other battery have solar on it too?
I had this issue with my Powerwall, with SolarEdge export limit set to 0W, the Powerwall would end up running the household load and solar production would go to 0W.
I set SolarEdge export limit to 200W, which means a little bit leaks during negative feedIn, but that is enough to stop the Powerwall from taking over.
I also found different results with different values, very responsive at 500 W, too slow at 50W so do some experiments.
My installation is smpler than that @madpilot . Three single phase SolarEdge inverters with 1 leader and 2 followers. Two Powerwall 2’s on phases 1 and 2.
Recent email from Amber suggests you can provide load control curtailment on SE only when a consumption meter is installed. My CTs are set up as an import/export meter, so i am guessing they need to be repositioned and set up to measure site load only, and configured as a consumption meter before you could possibly onboard? I also noticed you are looking for testers where an export meter is installed but it is suggested that will only be on/off curtailment, so not ideal. Nevertheless, i enrolled today for the testing using email t**h@b****n.net.au if you want to look me up.
@markpurcell thankyou for your suggestion, i will experiment further. I have also observed that my site limit in HA appears to default to zero, but until i change this value, the site limit on SetApp Status remains at maximum, ie not limited. For this reason alone i have already commenced setting a non zero value in my curtailment automation. So i am happy to try larger values as you suggest.
I have also observed that the HA commands dont always reach the inverters with a small warning message displayed. Would it be worth repeating the commands after a small time delay in the automation?
EDIT. I am uncertain of the CT setup. I think there is a single CT on each phase which, on phases 1 and 2, are measuring site load less battery input. These are summed to provide SE’s version of import/export. ??? I then derive site load for phases 1 and 2 by subtracting the associated battery load.
I just found this post from last year. Exactly what happened to me. I’ll try to get the battery to 100% today and experiment with the limit.
UPDATE:
@markpurcell Thank you Mark, I seem to have it working now. Tried 500W first, then 200W. Production follows site load well and battery stays in the remain-at-full-charge mode. I have settled on 250W as a site limit for now. I have left an 8 second delay in the automation before setting the limit.
My curtailment has been working well with one exception:
[Reminder that my system has 3 single phase inverters with ‘i1’ as the leader.]
Each time FIT changes from a negative value, and automation ends curtailment by setting Limit Control Mode to ‘disabled’, inverters 2 and 3 instantly reduce production to zero; then all 3 steadily ramp up to 100%. The ideal behavior is that 2 and 3 DO NOT reduce production at all, and that all 3 simply ramp up from present value.
I have solved this by keeping the Limit Control Mode enabled and varying the Site Limit instead. The important features of my automation now are as follows:
alias: My Solar Curtailment
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- sensor.amber_feed_in_price
action:
- choose:
- conditions:
- condition: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.amber_feed_in_price
below: 0
- condition: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.useable_percentage_remaining
above: 95
sequence:
- metadata: {}
data:
option: Export Control (Export/Import Meter)
target:
entity_id: select.solaredge_i1_limit_control_mode
action: select.select_option
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 0
seconds: 5
milliseconds: 0
- metadata: {}
data:
value: "250"
target:
entity_id: number.solaredge_i1_site_limit
action: number.set_value
default:
- metadata: {}
data:
option: Export Control (Export/Import Meter)
target:
entity_id: select.solaredge_i1_limit_control_mode
action: select.select_option
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 0
seconds: 5
milliseconds: 0
- metadata: {}
data:
value: "15000"
target:
entity_id: number.solaredge_i1_site_limit
action: number.set_value
mode: single
Thankyou guys - I seem to have a similar setup to @batts, and I’ve been having trouble with Load-Following Curtailment using Amber. I have 3x SE Inverters and 2x SE Batteries enrolled in SmartShift and have so far been letting them control things… but getting frustrated lately with the On/Off curtailment they seem to be doing. I’ll now experiment with bringing control back locally and see if I can get the Load-Following working.