.

There is no expectation of financial payback for this project.

Rgds

Damon

PS. Yes, I'd like to get our consumption down a bit again.

Yes, I know Powervault reasonably well, and it was a candidate for my system.

Also, we are working with EDF and you can now buy our Radbot (smart rad valves) via them:

https://trv.edfenergy.com/product/radbot-edfe/

Radbot is based on the OpenTRV open source work.

Rgds

Damon

I may have missed it but I could not see any provision for recieving payment for energy sent back to the grid in support of EDF balancing the grid.
Energy that came either from your PV panels or from the grid presumably through your smart meter for which you would I assume be charged .

it appears that EDF have the benifit of this feature with no cap on the percentage of discharge at any one time and apparently no contribution for the cell life that will be depleated by this action .

looks like win win for EDF.
Maybe I am just a cynic or simply failed to find answers in the published T&C

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: bxman</cite>I may have missed it but I could not see any provision for recieving payment for energy sent back to the grid in support of EDF balancing the grid.
Energy that came either from your PV panels or from the grid presumably through your smart meter for which you would I assume be charged .

it appears that EDF have the benifit of this feature with no cap on the percentage of discharge at any one time and apparently no contribution for the cell life that will be depleated by this action .

looks like win win for EDF.
Maybe I am just a cynic or simply failed to find answers in the published T&C</blockquote>

I may have mis read it but I dont think they use your battery to feed the grid. I read it that they will charge your battery when theres surplus generation, but when theres a peak in demand you have to use only the battery and cant draw off the grid.

EDF have kindly provided me with some more information ..
namely

"The Powervault 3 system is designed to charge from your solar system during the day, before discharging to meet the loads in your home during the evening. It is also designed to charge from low-cost, off-peak electricity during the night (e.g. Economy 7) so you can use that cheap electricity when you wake up the following day. EDF Energy, as part of the "grid services" offer, will occasionally want to adjust the charge and discharge rates of your Powervault 3 system to respond to sub-second changes in grid frequency (which are caused by spikes in demand or supply of electricity nationally). This means your Powervault 3 system may suddenly increase or decrease its charge or discharge rate to help smooth out the spikes. In practice, these sub-second adjustments are minute and so you will be hard-pushed to see any significant change to the normal charge and discharge cycle of the Powervault 3 described above. The 'grid service' control is designed to maximise benefit to the grid and minimise cost to the customer. For example, if, in the height of Summer, the grid has too much electricity on the network, the control will ensure that your Powervault 3 system is charging from solar at its maximum rate to minimise the amount being exported to the grid. Conversely, in Winter, if there is a peak in demand, the control might increase the Powervault 3's inverter output to meet more loads in the home (which effectively means you reduce your demand from the grid).

. By taking up EDF Energy's 'grid services' offer, you are benefiting from a large, up-front discount (> £1,500 - £2,000, depending on the battery capacity chosen) on the cost of a new Powervault 3 home battery system. This discount is designed to more than cover the cost of any electricity used to support the grid that you could otherwise have used in your home (for the lifetime of the contract). "

I believe there are some schemes where you do get remunerated at a premium rate for the energy you supply at these times of peek demand .

@WillinAberdeen
if you remove or terminate you have to re-inburse the discount on a monthly pro-rata basis .

I imagine if the new owner was willing to continue the arrangement all would be fine
I do not know but I suspect it is like the feed-in arrangement and that it is not linked to the supply of electricity to the property .

Further clarification from EDF

In summer will charging only be done at it's maximum rate only when there is a surfeit on the grid; so on other occasions some of the domestic PV surplus will feed back to the grid .even though the battery has capacity to accept charge .?

Sorry, I may have used a bad example here. The Powervault 3 is designed to minimise your export of solar to the grid so, if your panels are generating at peak capacity, the Powervault 3 will be charging at its highest rate in order to capture all of it. However, occasionally the Powervault 3 may be charging at a lower rate than it could be, in which case the grid balancing control will override the system and accelerate the charging rate. A better example would have been charging during Economy 7 times; if the grid had too much supply on the system and its frequency was peaking, the grid balancing control would override the Powervault 3's Economy 7 charging regime and increase its charge rate. I hope this makes better sense.

Will the individual battery be manged so as to reduce the customers import to the minimum possible based on the established household history Or follow a standard procedure for all participants of the scheme ?

Powervault 3 is designed to minimise customers' import from the grid and maximise consumption of on-site solar generation; this is it's modus operandi. However, by opting into EDF Energy's "grid services" offer, the system will occasionally by called upon to respond to peaks in either demand or supply of electricity, which will override the standard, default operation of the Powervault 3 system.

And in winter the system will charge from E7 and reduce domestic demand from the grid giving priority to this reduction at times of peek national demand or to minimise the customers import of full priced power?

The answer to this is the same as above - just for Economy 7 charging rather than solar.


Are there battery voltage triggers that will determine when charging and discharging periods occur ?

The minimum loads and/or generation required to discharge or charge the Powervault 3 are ~200W - 250W.



It does look as though it is initially being manged by a Manger who is on the ball.

Honest answers by return what a pleasent surprise . Thank you Charlie