SmartShift is a fantastic tool for minimising your solar exporting to the grid when the feed-in tariff price goes negative. SmartShift has two types of curtailment, with different systems being compatible with the two curtailment types:
Because SmartShift is assessing your solar production against the wholesale prices and will then either ramp down production or switch off the panels, there may be times when curtailment doesn't kick in straight away. If you have noticed that your system is still exporting up to 10 minutes after the feed-in price goes negative, there are a couple of steps to take to ensure curtailment will work correctly:
Do you have an additional inverter that is not enrolled with SmartShift?
If you have an additional inverter that is not eligible for curtailment, you have what is called a hybrid system. This means we can only curtail the inverter that is currently enrolled on SmartShift, and you will still see some exports occurring during periods of the feed-in tariff being negative. This is normal behaviour and we expect there to be exports going back at the rate of your additional system. E.g. An additional 5kW inverter will be exporting a maximum of 5kW at a time. To check if your additional inverter is able to be enrolled on SmartShift, please find the list of compatible systems over at our curtailment FAQ.
Is the inverter's firmware up to date?
Much like phones and computers, inverters will often need to be updated to the latest firmware version for curtailment to function correctly; otherwise, the curtailment instructions we try to send to the inverter may not work. To check and update your inverter's firmware (instructions linked on each heading):
- Log in to your iSolarCloud account.
- Select the plant requiring the update.
- Navigate to the "Firmware Update" section.
- Choose the device(s) to update and initiate the process.
- Log in to the SolarEdge Monitoring Platform.
- Access your site and switch to the Admin view.
- Go to "Remote Settings" > "Firmware Update."
- Select the inverter and commence the update.
- Log in to your Solar.web account.
- Navigate to "Settings" > "Components."
- Select the component and click "Update."
For any other inverter brand (such as AlphaESS, Redback or Sigenergy), it is recommended you reach out to the manufacturer's support team to help complete this as no remote updates are possible.
Is your Smart Meter set up with a flexible export control?
Some states, such as South Australia, Victoria and parts of NSW, are introducing a mechanism called 'flexible export control'. We recommend checking your distributor's guidelines to determine if this is applicable to you, but the distributor's controls will take priority over SmartShift. For example, while we're sending a command for the site exports to be set to 0 during negative feed-in tariff events to stop exports to the grid, the distributor will send a command to set the site exports to match your flexible export limit (e.g. 4.5kW). Because this takes priority over the Amber control, the site exports will revert to the flexible export limit and lead to spill overs to the grid. Amber and each of the inverter manufacturers are working closely together to ensure we can limit feed-ins to the grid as much as possible during these times.
If your firmware is up to date and the additional inverter or flexible export does not apply to you, email us at info@amber.com.au and we can help take a closer look!
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