@madpilot Is it likely that control over automatic solar curtailment will be added to the API and thus this integration anytime soon?
My use case is that my myenergi Zappi EV charger is configured to charge on “excess solar generation”, which it detects as power being exported to the grid. If I have curtailment active, Amber prevents these exports when the price is negative, so my car doesn’t charge.
I’d like to use HomeAssistant to disable curtailment while my car is plugged in at home and with state of charge <100%, and enable curtailment at all other times.
Just in case someone else like me is trolling through these pages…
Controlling export with SolarEdge is actually very easy, the best way to do it is not to control the actual export, but change the site level export control to 0. This means the onboard control system on the SolarEdge is matching generation with import/export and not HA. It does require a CT clamp on the street side of the meter board, but I think most modern SolarEdge investors have this by default.
One other word of caution, the maximum export control (in my case 5KW) will be part of the permit by the DNSP, make sure you know what is it and don’t exceed it.
Here is my Curtailing Automation.
alias: Curtail Solar Output
description: Automatically reduce invertor output when FIT <0
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- sensor.pmq_feed_in_price
condition: []
action:
- choose:
- conditions:
- condition: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.pmq_feed_in_price
below: 0
sequence:
- device_id: 781520aa8d2a21cd0e3d212a7322dbb7
domain: number
entity_id: number.solaredge_export_control_site_limit
type: set_value
value: 50
default:
- device_id: 781520aa8d2a21cd0e3d212a7322dbb7
domain: number
entity_id: number.solaredge_export_control_site_limit
type: set_value
value: 5000
mode: single
If you set the export control mode to ‘Direct Export Limitation’ as well as setting the import limit to 0, you just need to set the export control mode back to Disabled, and the inverter will automatically revert to the right value.
I had to set my export site limit to 200+ W so my (non SolarEdge controlled) Powerwall (AC coupled) would notice excess production and switch to charging.
With a 0W export site limit my powerwall would think it needed to discharge a little bit, which the SolarEdge inverter then reduced production a little bit. Until production was 0 and the house was running off battery.
Looking for a little help with SolarEdge (modbus multi) Default storage settings. I can discharge recharge the battery by toggles and automations etc but I’m struggling to get back to a normal recharge / discharge state.
If I disable the settings it seems to be on the last known state, ie discharge to minimise grid import, and in the morning it won’t charge. What settings create a ‘normal’ battery charging ebb and flow?
Having said this, I am also waiting for smartshift to be configured, so will this take priority over modbus settings? Or should I be disabling Modbus or just the control components?
Smartshift and Modbus don’t play nice for control, so I’d pick on or the other for control. They will happily coexist if you are just using modbus monitoring though.
Unfortunately, SolarEdge will refuse to onboard you if you have modbus turned on, so it might be worthwhile disabling it while you are being onboarded to avoid delays, and then flick it back on when you are done. They usually do enrolments on Friday, so if nothing has happened by the weekend, you probably have another week to play.
I’ve just signed up to Amber and have an AlphaESS battery and hybrid inverter. Is smartshift sufficient for my setup (this includes disabling feed in during negative FIT), or would setting up HA be better?
We largely already control out household power use to suit peak/offpeak power pricing, but I’m always curious to try things that can make our lives simpler (and better informed).
If you have one inverter doing all the things (ie your system is DC coupled), you’ll have a great time with Smartshift. If the hybrid inverter is not Alpha branded, solar curtailment may not work with Amber.
That said, if you already do a bunch of these sorts of automations in HA, and you are willing to work out how EMHASS works, you will do better than Smartshift, simply because you have more information to work from, and have more levers to pull.
Firstly just a quick thank you, I’ve seen your everywhere helping people with amber, well past your job description no doubt. I hope the extra work you help with is recognised.
I currently have some python code querying, storing, controlling solar output (with neg FiT), and displaying the data running outside of HA which gives me more control/flexibility in what I see etc but as I am migrating some of this over to HA I am curious how much is possible to be moved over.
This is only if you join our automation platform: SmartShift. We need to onboard your inverter. If you have Modbus enabled SolarEdge will refuse to do it. You also won’t be able to control your inverter (monitoring is ok though)
Thanks mate, that makes a lot of sense and probably why I wasn’t signed up to smartshift when I first joined (I think I remember clicking join smartshift) but put it down to being solar only.
@markpurcell interesting, I’ll sit on it for a while as I am quite happy with how my current set up works and may struggle to replicate in YAML (due to not knowing it well no doubt).
There is an open bug - restarting the integration fixes it.
All this is managed by Home Assistant core, so I assume there is a back off that eventually gives up if there are issues fetching but I haven’t had time to investigate.
