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Battery - Tesla
Tesla works well - good to have paid the extra for blackout protection. However Tesla batteries are not fully compatible with Amber Electric as supply to the grid cannot be curtailed when Fit rates are negative. Even with a 27kWh battery size this is insufficient to soak up all energy generated by 6.6kW solar panels and then you are exporting at a negative fit with Amber - but not with say AGL.
Virtual Power Plant - Amber
I was with Amber Electric for just over two months. There is currently zero customer service – calls are not taken and emails sent over a month with no reply – a common Amber complaint. The Smartshift program is a complete joke and rarely sells electricity from the battery, leaving you with a full battery (if you do not manually discharge), which will then result in solar power going straight to the grid at a negative Fit rate. Alternatively Smartshift will sell when the battery is almost empty and then need to top up automatically at a higher buy rate. The Smartshift minimum sell rate is 15c (identified by my monitoring), regardless of whether a 27kWh battery is almost full and the sun will be shining the next day. The sign up estimates are absolute fantasy land, 33c average estimate but my reality was probably below 8c, and the fixed charges reality was 30% over the estimate. Basically the $25 monthly fee makes it so even after better Fit rates you are barely above water for the day compared to a simple 3c Fit, which do no require monitoring an app. With Amber you are always monitoring the app just to make a couple of dollars a day less 85c in membership fees – madness. Stay away from the hype - go with a company with up actual advertised rates. See the numerous 1 star reviews on various websites and run away from Amber. I moved to AGL for a massively better plan without multiple daily monitoring required with Amber. Got my time back and so much better off financially - and they answer your calls within 5 minutes.
Not reviewing
Not reviewing.
Battery - Sigenergy
Not happy that SigEnergy derated inverter with no communication. Then recall noticed issued on inverter. Inverter derating from 10kw to 8kW is reducing my arbitrage gross margin. I.e it is costing me money
Virtual Power Plant - Amber
The SmartShift algorithm is terrible as well as being too conservative to generate material arbitrage revenue. It often curtails solar rather than using excess solar to charge the battery, requiring manual intervention. The algorithm is too conservative and requires manual intervention to charge the battery from the grid, even when charging prices may be 1-2c/kwh after network and other variable charges and forecast prices in the evening are very high. Thus without going through the API to program own price rules, which takes a lot of effort, the payback on the battery will be much worse than expected.
Waited 3 months to installation as I eve...
Waited 3 months to installation as I everyone was rushing to get their batteries installed when the federal rebate started. The economics of battery ownership suddenly changed with cheaper and larger capacity. Installers arrived promptly, was cleaning up as they go with a trash bin beside them all the time. They finished before the sun sets hence I was able to see the inverter working with solar charging. Everything okay. I didn’t let them go until I was happy with the app. I think the installer knew this and he got some help from someone who just finished a job to come and make it work right. I had some post installation issues which I documented and raised promptly to them. They came a week later and fixed it. Whoever said you can’t fully charge 30kWh battery with 5 kWh inverter is wrong. Sure it too a few days to full charge but once charged I always at 40-50% SOC in the morning. Zero grid consumption and exporting to the grid by 2pm. I’m sure I’ll be well off energy wise come winter.
Battery - Alpha ESS
Installed battery looks good. Installer did a good and neat job with the cabling. App is great as well, providing solar, grid, house load and battery statistics. Counter checked with my solar inverter and energy provider stats and they’re within acceptable accuracy. Opened support tickets in the app when reporting wasn’t working as I would expect it, followed up with a call and issue resolved promptly. I was able to integrate with my home assistant both using Open Api and Modbus. Great to have them available with lots of knowledge in the internet to help you get started. Alpha ESS is supported with known VPPs. Went with Globird as they allow me to control my batteries.
Virtual Power Plant - Globird ZEROHERO
Great VPP model. They give you free 3 hours to charge you battery for $0. They incentivize you to export 2 hrs during peak time. In effect giving you 1 hour of free charging or in my case up to 5kWh net. I just treat my battery as 20kWh available to my house load and 10kWh to VPP
Installation Photos
Review left 5 years after system installed
Battery - Alpha ESS
Had the Alpha ECO 10 - SMILE-BAT-10.3P for 4 years now. Want to add another 30 kwh to my setup but told the battery is no longer supported and will need to be replaced if I want to add another battery! So a 10 year warranty may not mean much. Performance is ok but the whole procedure of monitoring to balance the best cost with Amber is difficult.
Virtual Power Plant - Amber
Used 788 kwh for a cost of $271.15 Exported via VPP 588 kwh and received a credit of $3.31 Should have kept it instead of letting the grid take it!!!
