Constant FIT and Grid usage through the day and night

[Lyndon-63]

Why does our smart meter indicate that our battery is feeding a small amount into the grid all night, only to take it back out at the same time, yet it's about double the amount fed in, unless it's just a monetary grab? The charges for grid usage are triple the FIT.

We have an Alpha ESS System with 26.7 kWh of Battery storage. No one seems to be able to shed any light on this issue. AGL stated that it should not be doing this, as it's a setting in the solar system. The solar installation company, however, cannot see it feeding any power in or taking any out through their monitoring app. 

However, they mentioned that the energy companies do this to ensure everything is accurate, and there is a physical meter in place.

This sounds like a BS excuse for passing the buck to me. 

The images below are just to show what is happening and reflect any day you compare the graphs 

[Lester]

Lyndon, as no one has offered anything yet . . .

From what I've heard about solar with battery, there is a little grid use all the time, and not sure if it should be happening through the night, but . . .

Where are you seeing the battery feeding into the grid on your posted screenshot ? 

Or is it just the 0.94kwh you're concerned about ?

That is normal from my knowledge gleaned on various forums and general info online.

Little delays in a battery kicking in when needed, a little comes from the grid, also all the gear there uses some power all the time.

I can see the battery level going steadily down through the night until production resumes, and you do seem to be using quite a bit in the home during that steady night time period, probably getting close to a kw usage each hour ??

That matches up to using about 14kwh of power through the night over the approx 14 hours there between full battery usage.
That's steep, 2 here with a heap of IT stuff going through the night, and about 12 cameras on the property, our steady draw through the night in 'sleep mode' is around 0.34 - 0.36 kw each hour. 

Yes, the disparity between usage charges and FITS is getting kinda bad !!

When we got solar in Nov 2023 the difference was usage about 8x FIT, through 2 major pricing shifts the difference is now 26x !!!

You should be happy with the battery, it's eliminated your bill there, if that is typical of your days data . . . but maybe look at power draw through the evening, see if you can get it down somehow so you can not drain your battery as much, and keep some more reserve for if it's ever needed.

[Lyndon-63]

Hi Lester 

Thanks for the reply,

When speaking to the solar/battery dispute supervisor at AGL, he mentioned that running the Smart meter requires a small amount of power, which is at their expense, not ours, and should not be reflected as grid usage on the Smart Meter app. Definitely, they should not have FIT through the night. He had tests done on our smart meter remotely and then had a physical visit onsite to make sure it was working as it should. And tested correctly, apparently.

Since the above screenshots from May, we have had another battery installed, bringing our total to 27 kWh of Battery storage. However, we haven't had much sun since then, sadly. 

We've added expanded screenshots of two consecutive days from our AGL Smart Meter app and our Alpha App. As you can see, it consistently draws grid power and feeds from the battery, even at night. Still, the grid amount is about double the amount or more than what was fed in from the battery. It is not much, but it's there. That's about 2.4 kWh a day over a 24-hour day, and 1.2 kWh sucked from the battery just seems odd 

Lyndon 

[Lester]

Ah, can see it much clearer in those later screenshots.

It does seem strange for sure.

Those 108kwh from the grid each quarter will add up to a heap over the years, even if your battery covers all of it, this would just be a drain (no pun intended) on the battery unnecessarily.

Not sure how this should go now you've been told by solar and AGL it's normal, or shouldn't be happening.

I guess the solar / battery company is ultimately responsible for having happy customers, so maybe a little more polite push their way and ask if they can refer you to somewhere there are other cases similar where they say it's normal.
They have seen the AGL usage graphs ?

[Lyndon-63]

They have seen the ones from May, but not the most recent ones yet. though 

I do understand they will pull a little amount from the grid, but don't understand how it suckes from the battery constantly till it reaches its empty set %, and even then it will draw under that %, and even the grid usage only stops when the battery reaches its Charge % and trickle charges and put FIT into the grid 

[Lester]

Had a quick ggogle to see if anything stood out re Alpha ESS.

Search terms > alpha ess drawing power from the grid constantly

The following came up that maybe be worth more of a read . . .

https://www.facebook.com/groups/629803784169356/posts/1939760226507032/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/629803784169356/posts/2092819287867791/ 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/629803784169356/posts/1828361460980243/ 

I think you can read these even if not on FB.

All from Alpha ESS group, so could be quite common ?

There may be more results relative if you change the search string to something closer to what you feel is better for your situation.

Be good to hear what you might discover.