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pyrorider asked

[Solved] Multiplus is noteven trying to hold grid-setpoint

screenshot-2024-03-27-at-18-57-28-zuhause-vrm-port.png

My battery has enough energy to supply for the load (our oven for baking) but the multiplus isnt even trying to achieve the grid set point of 0W. it only slightly went from inverting 350W to now 450W but not the remaining 2.4kW. It also often stays at +100W from the grid even tough it could easily keep it at 0W. I acknowledged this bug multiple times now, it annoys me because I have to pay for all the power additionally pulled from the grid even tough I already have enough power in the battery. This needs to be fixed soon.

Multiplus-IIgridess grid setpoint not reached
screenshot-2024-03-27-at-18-57-28-zuhause-vrm-port.png (63.8 KiB)
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Alexandra avatar image Alexandra ♦ commented ·
@PyroRider

What else are you running program wise? ESS #6 is an interesting one to trigger.

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider Alexandra ♦ commented ·
ESS 6 is always on because I've set it to 0 because I do not want the multi to use grid power to charge the batteries.
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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ pyrorider commented ·

While in a state like #6 it cannot maintain the setpoint. ESS has to be fully operational.

If you are setting it via dvcc then it will also disable the solar chargers.

Rather set the inverters to invert only via the softswitch.

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
My system is gridtied, if I set the multi to inverter only it disconnects from the grid turning the multi into a simple low power space heater doing nothing but wasting energy.

My MPPTs are not from victron and are not being controlled or disabled.

What is the reason that a simple ac charging limitation prevents the entire system from working? This is dumb. Just dumb. Every day there i another stupid thing with the software where things do not work as they should. And why can the system easily keep the setpoint mostly when the mppts are putting power in the system? And just on battery it starts to ignore the power used on L1 but compensates L2 and L3 with no problems?


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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ pyrorider commented ·
You're using functionality designed to work in a victron only ecosystem, expecting it to work seamlessly in an unsupported configuration with third party chargers is unrealistic. This would also never be tested.

Tuning settings when the greater impact of those changes is not understood will only result in expectations coming up short.

In a tested config, ESS does not need that setting to ever be set to 0 and it works as expected in large, complex systems.

Sorry, it's not a bug in any form, it's your configuration.



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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
So if I turn it off, how do I prevent the system from using my expensive paid grid power to recharge the battery in the night? Its set to be at 15%, should go below that as I want the battery to feed the "control power" of the system to then be recharged over the 15% in the morning when the sun comes out. With the charge limit 0 turned off, the multiplus will start wasting enourmus amounts of energy to power the system and keep the battery at 15%, even when the multi takes in 200W and more to "output" those 20W for the system.
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Duivert NL avatar image Duivert NL pyrorider commented ·

Thats where you can use scheduled charging for in the ESS menu


But it will never work exactly as you would like it to do in an unsupported setup…

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider Duivert NL commented ·
No I DONT want to use any grid power to charge the battery, ONLY pv power from my mppts
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prein avatar image prein pyrorider commented ·

If you never want your multiplus to charge the battery# disable the charger in the multiplus.


If you set a limit for esss to 15%, the expected behavior is that below that SoC, the batteries will be charged from the grid. That is by design.

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
btw you didnt answer my question why it only stops compensating on L1 and only when the mppts dont provide any more power
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kevgermany avatar image kevgermany ♦♦ pyrorider commented ·
With an unsupported configuration, anything can happen. Short of setting up an equivalent system and getting an engineer to investigate, the question cannot be answered.
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Alexandra avatar image Alexandra ♦ kevgermany ♦♦ commented ·
Is the solar AC PV or DC MPPTs?
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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider Alexandra ♦ commented ·
DC MPPTs
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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider kevgermany ♦♦ commented ·
I deactivated the charge current limit and surprise, it still is not working.
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2 Answers
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pyrorider answered ·

I have identified and "solved" the problem, it is either a bug or just shitty written software.

My setup: 1 MP-II 48/5000 with ABB B23 312-100 grid meter

The problem: The multiplus is supposed to compensate all 3 phases to keep the net import/export at ~0W, but completly ignores all loads on L1, leading to all L1 loads constantly being imported from the grid instead of being powered from the battery.

What caused the problem?

As for now, I disabled the "Remote Console -> Settings -> ESS -> Inverter AC output in use" as I currently run the MP-II in grid parallel with nothing but an emergency outlet attached to the output.

With disabling this setting, the sub-setting "Self-consumption from battery" disappears which has two options: "All system loads" and "Only critical loads".

If set to "Only critical loads", the multiplus will only supply the 0 to 25W which are shown on the now enabled "Critical Loads"-Field on L1, but not the other loads on L1.

On "All system loads", it will supply everything from the battery, trying to have the grid im-/export at 0W.


Now the problematic part: If the setting is set to "Only critical loads" and the prior "Inverter AC output in use" setting is then disabled, the system will still handle the L1 loads as set in the now invisible, "disabled" setting, causing the Multiplus to compensate L2 and L3 without any problems, but not taking the L1 loads into account (the self consumption might be compensated, but I can't confirm that as the ABB meter is being refreshed very slowly).

The fact that a disabled setting is still being used in the active system is a problem and needs to be fixed. The MP-II knows how much power the self-consumption + critical loads take, so it could limit the setting to the ACout, not also to the ACin.

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hominidae avatar image hominidae commented ·
...so, in more simpler words, you are saying that the setting "all system loads" for "self consumption from battery" is not the default and also not switched back to default, when "critical loads/Inverter output in use" setting is disabled (which hides that entry/setting)


...nice find.

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider commented ·
@Matthias Lange - DE
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hominidae avatar image
hominidae answered ·

...in your screenshot above, the Power supplied by the Battery almost equals SUM L2+L3 on grid side.

I wonder, if you either:

- did set ESS to balance the SUM of all pases or each phase individually?

- connected the/your single Multi not on L1?

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider commented ·
The ESS is set to balance all 3 phases as I only have one Multi and that one Multi is defeinitly on L1, I changed my distribution panel wiring for this. I deactivated the charge current limit yesterday, and today even with 500W coming from the pv modules it ignored the L1-Load and only fed the power of L2 and L3 back via L1
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hominidae avatar image hominidae pyrorider commented ·

what battery are you using? Does it have an external/own BMS and what are the allowed Parameters / Charge/Discharge Amps reported at the time the multi does not deploy the full discharge from the battery?


..also, what value (Power) is set at grid setpoint in ESS at that time?


Edit: make a test...set grid setpoint to -2000W ... what happens?

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider hominidae commented ·
Battery is a chinese lfp batterywith an extra smartshunt as the bms only reports wrong values (the bms is not connected to my cerbo for data)

The grid setpoint is set to 0 as I am still waiting on my new electricity meter (my current one csnt count fed-in power)

I'll test with the -2kW and tell you soon


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hominidae avatar image hominidae pyrorider commented ·
without native BMS connected...what Battery Management is configured for monitoring in the GX?

My suspicion is, that the Multi does not know about capacity and max. discharge current of the battery correctly.

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider hominidae commented ·
The smartshunt is configured as battery monitor, I was told by multiple people that this is ok to have the bms just handle the cells and have the smartshunt be the "connection" to the system. The battery settings are all done in the smartshunt (including the capacity) and the max. discharge current doesnt seem to be configurable anywhere but on the other hand cant be the problem, my battery is currently at 42% SoC and I've set the gridpoint to -2500W and it easily pulled 3kW from the battery, normal loads on L1 are usually around 100W and >1kW only if I turn on my hair dryer
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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider hominidae commented ·
Gridpoint at -2000W: Only exporting ~1900W to the grid as there is roughly 100W load and self consumption of the multi (so still ignoring the power drawn on L1)
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hominidae avatar image hominidae pyrorider commented ·
I must say, I am out of my wits here.

In ESS setup, "grid metering" is set to "external meter" and the ABB is configured as "grid" meter as well?

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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider hominidae commented ·
Yes and yes, I am running out of ideas too. I will take a look in VEconfigure if there is a setting there which might could cause this but I dont really think so.

Its weird, in the Remote Console and VRM Portal you can see that the meter send the values, they get shown everywhere, just not taken into the calculation for the grid setpoint.


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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider hominidae commented ·
I found the problem, and it is definitly to blame on victron. I will post it as a new answer-tree
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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ pyrorider commented ·
set it to individual phases in ESS
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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
wouldnt that make the Multi only compensate L1 and ignore L2 and L3?
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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
I tried setting it to individual phases, led exactly to the opposite of my situation, ONLY compensating L1 and ignoring L2 and L3
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hominidae avatar image hominidae pyrorider commented ·
...what is the exact make/model of the grid meter you are using in ESS?
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pyrorider avatar image pyrorider hominidae commented ·
Its the ABB B23 312-100 (with RS485 Modbus) and a RS485 to USB from victron
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hominidae avatar image hominidae pyrorider commented ·
OK, that model should be OK to measure total of all phases correctly.
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Related Resources

MultiPlus-II Product page 

MultiPlus-II Manual

Multiplus-II GX Online Manual

MultiPlus-II 230V Datasheet 

VE.Bus Error codes

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