Battery System Modes - discharge times, discharge power, reserve power issues

I have tried to use Battery System Modes to help maximise my export to match Octopus Agile higher rates as well as keeping a decent reserve in case needed for Emergency Power Supply (EPS).

But there seem to be issues - 

• scheduled times ignored
• discharge power higher than set (maybe by say 25%)
• reserve power ignored completely (allowing batteries to discharge to 4%)

The app respects settings for:- Home Demand or Full Export

I usually set via the GivEnergy app on phone (android) but also tried internet on laptop.

Normally I fill the batteries from solar only (occasionally have forced fill if risk of power cuts or if export rates go exceptionally high - as they did last autumn sometimes).

My settings:

• Scheduled export- Times (say) 16:00 - 19:00
• Discharge power (say) 1000w
• Reserve power (say) 30%

Inverter: Gen1 hybrid 5kw
Batteries: 3 x 8.2kw

So I normally have to treat it as manual settings and remember to change. Somewhat frustrating! I think this has been an issue for a long time and is not new.
Anyone have any similar experience or suggestions?

I'm wondering if the "Eco Mode" setting is overriding the other settings?

AFAIK Eco Mode can only be found via: https://givenergy.cloud/dashboard and not via mobile app

https://kb.givenergy.cloud/article.php?id=7

If that is the case then I think the documentation could do with clarification as well as warnings when setting schedules to ensure the conflict does not happen

Tim Adams ECO Mode is called Dynamic Mode in the App.

cluelesscris ahh!

But that makes it even more confusing as its possible to set Eco Mode as enabled via the
givenergy.cloud/dashboard at the same time as setting Scheduled export- Times, Discharge power, Reserve power

In the mobile app it only shows the Scheduled times and does not show Dynamic Mode as enabled.

In this case I assume that Eco Mode is therefore dictating discharge so that scheduled Times, power & reserve are all overridden.

@Givenergy hopefully can add to the features to ensure the conflict is not possible by making clear if you set Eco/Dynamic it will override other settings and indeed they should be greyed out unless Eco disabled

Tim Adams Yes. A some point GE need to review settings and terminology and harmonise everything. Note, though that scheduled times override ECO, not the other way around. Currently, scheduled charge times will revert to ECO after the period ends (assuming it was enabled prior to) but schedule discharge does not. Very few users will use scheduled discharge in any case as it simply dumps the battery at full rate (yes, overriding discharge power setting). I have suggested they rename this 'Empty my battery as fast as possible'...

In my case I'm trying to simply set discharge to:

1. help minimise import from grid
2. maximise use from batteries for home use
3. power can be at max 2600w (but ideally would like adjustments to work! e.g. set 1000w and actually use at that maximum rate )
4. Scheduled times ideally would work
5. Holding a reserve power as set (for emergency use)

as far as I can see I can't make that happen even though in theory it surely should be relatively simple

I guess ECO/Dynamic would be fine if it would respect the reserve power setting (I don't need schedule or discharge power particularly)

Tim Adams Hmmm. Mostly you should be OK setting ECO and timed charge period (if you have a cheap period tariff). Timed charge works fine and is ECO enabled friendly - don't bother with any of the other timed periods as they stand. I don't bother with the reserve setting at all. Seems pointless to effectively reduce the battery capacity available for the very rare times grid goes down. I'm rural and get them about once or twice a month but only once in 10 years has it lasted longer than 20 minutes or so, usually much less - especially since they automated the local substation to auto reset. I have used discharge power setting in the past but again don't bother with it now. If I have 5kwh left in the battery and need to use 7kwh overnight which ever way you look at it you'll pull 2kwh from the grid. Messing with the discharge power seems pointless. I think you can easily over think all this. I certainly did in the early days. Just because there's a setting doesn't mean you have to use it.

The ability to schedule discharges to grid is useful for those on Octopus Agile Outgoing but with Fixed Outgoing a reasonable 15p I've switched to that - so don't need scheduled times myself.

I agree the discharge power is not very important - I have been trying that mostly because Times & Reserve Power were not working as I wanted and it seemed a potential fudge.

I would definitely like to hold Reserve Power - particularly as I am rural... having EPS setup to provide useful coverage in the house .... and having 3 batteries mean I can hold a useful reserve without too much waste of capacity.

For import i've switched to Octopus Tracker (not Agile) as that has averaged just over 23p kwh in 2023 and with an ASHP their other tariffs with cheap periods don't help enough to overcome the higher day rates

Tim Adams pretty much the same tariffs as me. I don’t think there are many of us on tracker. But it seems like great value at the moment.

17.41p for me today in W.Mids.

Hook yes, 17.55p inc vat in South - shocking!!!

Octopus are currently running a waiting list for Tracker (around 6 months when I last heard) and I guess that's because they've bought a lot of their energy under forward contracts at much higher rates. So they would be running at a loss if they allow too many people to switch before those forward contracts unwind. But I guess a lot of that will start unwinding over coming months and they will then be able to block switch a lot of the waiting list.

I have tried to keep it as simple as possible. I am on Octopus Flexible Economy 7 which costs about 16p/unit at night and 44p/unit day rate. With 2 x 9.5 gen 2 batteries, I can store or generate all I need in the day so buy almost no day rate electricity (the odd 1-1.5 units/day just when the system balances itself or I use a sudden high load for a minute or 2). I have just signed up for Octopus Fixed outgoing which should pay me 15p/unit export rate so can offset that payment against any night rate electricity I use. I set the batteries to between 25-50% charge level overnight depending on predicted solar performance from Solcast for the next day. As others say, it is a bit of a learning curve as my system was installed mid Jan 2023.

marklucey that's interesting ... so you're not bothered about selling back to the grid; you're bothered about being as self-sufficient as possible?

Decent support from Givenergy resulted in:

1. Re-calibration of batteries - divergence is now 5%
2. Firmware update - appears to have resolved Reserve issue

Anyone else with multiple batteries aware of "normal" divergence? Is 5% ok?

The Reserve issue seems to be fixed by the firmware update.

The batteries divergence is getting worse if anything. e.g.

Overnight:
aggregate 4% and now idle
Primary 29%
Batt1 0%
Batt2 0%

Yesterday evening:
aggregate 39% and
Primary 66%
Batt1 32%
Batt2 25%

yesterday morning:
aggregate 4% and therefore discharge stopped & idle
Primary 23%
Batt1 3%
Batt2 1%

previous day limited solar has included
aggregate 16%
Primary 32%
Batt1 15%
Batt2 13%

aggregate 23%
Primary 40%
Batt1 21%
Batt2 19%

aggregate 25%
Primary 42%
Batt1 23%
Batt2 20%

divergence obviously means the capacity of the batteries is not used properly and is not available for EPS etc.
Have asked Givenergy to investigate - so far they have tried recalibration without success.

Anyone else seeing similar issues? I have kicked this question into a new thread here:
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/2166-multiple-batteries-failing-to-sync-soc