We get a lot of questions about SmartShift's decision making and behaviour. Here are some explanations to common scenarios which can raise the question 'why':
- Why is my battery in preserve charge?
- Why are manual commands taking a long time to action?
- Why isn't SmartShift doing anything?
- Why did SmartShift charge my battery, but not at the cheapest part of the day?
- Why is Amber app usage data different to my battery app data?
- Why is my battery charging during the demand window?
Why is my battery in preserve charge?
SmartShift will sometimes direct your battery to preserve charge, meaning that your battery will maintain its current state of charge. This will prevent the battery discharging to power your home, to fill from excess solar, or to import to or from the grid.
Below are some common scenarios for when and why SmartShift may direct the battery into preserve charge:
- Battery is preserving charge during the day: During spring and summer, solar production is generally high, and export prices to the grid can go negative for large parts of the day. For customers without curtailment, SmartShift will sometimes send preserve commands for part of the day (learn more about solar curtailment here). If SmartShift expects solar production to be greater than the excess capacity in the battery, and for low (or negative) export prices, it makes sense to fill the battery during the period of the day when export prices are at their lowest. To enable this, SmartShift may direct your battery into preserve earlier in the day, in order to save battery capacity to fill when export prices are at their lowest.
- Battery is preserving charge overnight: During the winter months, solar production is generally lower, and morning price peaks are common. If your battery isn't full, overnight prices are quite low, and a morning price peak is forecast, SmartShift may direct your battery to preserve charge for part of the night. This will let you consume from the grid at the cheapest part of the day, supply your home with battery energy during the morning price peak, and then charge your battery from solar during the day.
Why are manual commands taking a long time to action?
See this page for an explanation of why manual commands can take 3-5 minutes (or sometimes longer) to result in action, and common reasons why your manual controls might not be working.
Why isn't SmartShift doing anything?
There are times when SmartShift may not direct your battery to charge or discharge very often (e.g. for a few days in a row). This generally happens when prices aren't particularly volatile, and when feed-in tariffs are generally relatively low.
As outlined in more detail in this article, SmartShift generates forecasts for your system every 5 minutes, and finds a plan which minimises your energy costs over the planning horizon. We then control the battery to follow this plan. When prices are quite flat, operating in self-consumption mode is often an optimal strategy so we won't direct the battery to discharge or charge. In these scenarios, it makes more sense to leave the battery in self-consumption rather than cycling the battery a lot to chase cents of earnings. This also helps reduce battery cycling which is good for avoiding battery degradation.
Why did SmartShift charge my battery, but not at the cheapest part of the day?
As outlined in more detail in this article, SmartShift relies on forecasts for its decision making. If high prices are predicted in the future then it might make sense to charge now. However, these future prices aren’t locked in and can change within minutes. SmartShift doesn’t have a crystal ball 🔮 so forecasts will never be 100% accurate and not all decisions will be perfect.
You might look at your 'Plan' screen and wonder why SmartShift charged your battery at 15c/kWh when the price fell to 10c/kWh an hour later. Generally when this happens, the forecast at the point of charging your battery was different from the prices that ended up eventuating.
Why is Amber app usage data different to my battery app data?
Sometimes there can be differences between three sources of data
- The data shown in the 'Usage' tab of the Amber app
- The data shown on the 'Live' and 'Plan' screen in the 'Devices' tab of the Amber app
- The data shown in your battery/solar manufacturer's app
The data shown in the 'Usage' tab of the Amber app reflects data from the grid-point electricity meter for billing. This meter data undergoes rigorous validation and is the official source of usage information — which is also why it only becomes available in the app the following day.
The data on the 'Devices' tab of the Amber app, and shown in your battery/solar manufacturer's app, comes from the system itself. It’s quite common for solar or battery systems to report slightly different data to the grid-point meter, simply because they’re measuring from different points in the system. While your inverter tracks energy behind the meter, the grid-point meter measures everything flowing to and from the grid connection point. Additionally, if you have a three-phase site or have a controlled load, these can sometimes sit outside of what's captured by your battery/solar device and that can cause differences in what's reported between the electricity meter and your battery/solar system. If you are concerned about this, your installer would be best placed to look into this — they can check the setup on-site to make sure everything is configured correctly to detect energy flows accurately.
It's common for there to be a lag between what's shown on the 'Live' and 'Plan' screen in the 'Devices' tab of the Amber app, and in your battery/solar manufacturer's app. We refresh your system's data every 5 minutes, and for some manufacturers there can be an additional delay of up to 10 minutes in what gets sent to us.
Why is my battery charging during the demand window?
SmartShift will not direct your battery to increase its charge level by importing from the grid during the demand window. If your battery is charging during a demand window, see this article for the possible reasons why and how to address these. We generally find this is caused by having time-based controls external to Amber in place.
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