Batteries

Batteries shows every battery connected to your account and what each one is doing right now. A battery that serves a site can hold that site's grid import under a target you set.

At a glance

Site status: what the site is doing right now, in one word and one sentence. Here the battery covers a peak.
Grid limit: the switch that turns the grid limit mode on or off for the site.
Grid import: what the site draws from the grid now, against the target and the hard limit.
Chargers: the most power the chargers at the site may draw right now.

Battery: how full the battery is and what it delivers now, here discharging to hold the target.
Platform in control: the platform drives the battery, with the power it asked for and what the battery gave.
Grid limits: the values the site is held to, with Edit to change them.

Activity: a summary of the last 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days.
Grid import chart: what the site drew from the grid, with the target and the hard limit.

Open a battery

Click Energy in the menu.
Open the Batteries tab.
Click the battery's name to open its page.

Each row is one battery. The live readings refresh every ten seconds.

Column	What it shows
Battery	The battery's name, with its technical number under it.
Location	The location the battery serves, with the company under it.
State	Whether the battery is connected and its readings are current.
Charge	How full the battery is.
Power	The battery's power now, and whether it is charging, discharging or idle.
Control	Platform when the grid limit mode drives the battery, On site when it follows its own settings.
Last seen	When the battery last sent a reading.
Grid limit	Whether the grid limit mode is On or Off, and the site status under it.
Grid import	What the site draws from the grid, against its target.

The State column tells you whether you can rely on the battery right now:

State	What it means for you
Online	The battery is connected and its readings are current.
Readings not current	The battery is connected, but its latest readings are older than they should be.
Alarm	The battery reports an open alarm. Its page shows the alarm under Open alarms.
Stopped for safety	The connection dropped while the platform was driving the battery, so the battery went to 0 kW. The platform drives it again once the connection is back.
Offline	The battery is not connected.
Connecting	The battery is back, for example after a restart, and is finishing its connection.

Switch the grid limit mode on

While the mode is on, the platform uses the battery to keep the site's grid import under the target.

Open the battery's page.
Click the Grid limit switch in the Site status card.
Read the dialog and click Switch it on.

The switch shows On, and Control on the battery changes to Platform in control.

To switch it off, click the switch again and confirm with Switch it off. The battery goes back to its own control, and any cap on the chargers is taken off.

While the mode is on, the site behaves like this:

When the import rises over the target, the battery discharges to cover the difference.
Inside a recharge window, the battery charges from the grid up to the level you chose, staying within the target.
Outside a recharge window, the battery does not charge on purpose.
When the battery has nothing more to give, the chargers are turned down to hold the target.
When the import reaches the hard limit, the chargers are turned down at once.

Read the site status

The Site status card says what the site is doing in one word, with one sentence under it. Grid import shows the import now on a bar, with marks for the target and the hard limit.

Chargers shows the most the chargers may draw right now. Cap set, chargers not held back means a cap exists, but the chargers are below it.

Site status	What it means for you
Watching	The import is under the target. Nothing to do.
Battery covering	The battery supplies power so the import stays at or under the target. Nothing to do.
Recharging	The battery charges from the grid inside a recharge window. Nothing to do.
Chargers limited	The battery cannot cover the peak on its own, so the chargers are turned down to hold the target.
Over the hard limit	The import is over the hard limit, and the chargers are cut to bring it back down.
Gateway offline	No reading has arrived from the site meter for a while. The chargers may be held down to protect the target.
Battery not available	The battery cannot be used right now. Check its State in the battery list.
Off	The grid limit mode is switched off, and the platform is not managing this site.

Read the battery card

The Battery card shows how full the battery is and what it does now.

State of charge: how full the battery is. The bar marks the protection level, the level to charge to, and the highest level.
Power now: what the battery delivers or takes in now, with Discharging, Charging or Idle under it.
Can charge and Can discharge: how much power the battery can take in or give out right now.

Under the figures, Platform in control means the grid limit mode drives the battery. Setpoint is what the platform asked for, and Delivered is what the battery gives. Answer reads Accepted when the battery follows the request.

On site means the battery follows its own settings. The line under it reads The platform is not driving the battery.

Set the grid limits

The Grid limits card shows the values the site is held to.

Click Edit on the Grid limits card.
Change the values you need.
Click Save.

The card shows the new values, and Events records who changed them.

Setting	What it does
Target	The import the platform holds the site at. It must be lower than the hard limit.
Hard limit	The import the site never crosses. Set it below the fuse rating.
Cap mode	Held within the target keeps the chargers inside the target at all times. Only when the battery is exhausted leaves them free until the battery runs out.
Charge to	The charge the battery should reach by the end of a recharge window.
Operating window	The lowest and highest charge the platform ever drives the battery to.
Max charge power	The most power the battery may recharge with. Empty means full power.
Step size	How much the battery changes power at a time. Empty means a single step.
Recharge window	When the battery may charge from the grid, with From and To in site time.

Click Add a window for a second window, or Remove to take one away. A window may run past midnight, for example 23:00 to 06:00. It uses the site's own time zone, shown under the window on the card.

The platform never drives the battery below the lowest charge of the operating window. When the battery gets there, the chargers hold the target instead.

Changing the grid limits needs load balancing access on your admin account. Without it, the card reads Only an admin with the load balancing permission can change these.

Advanced settings holds three more values:

Deadband: how far the import may drift from the target before the platform acts.
Lowest charger cap: the lowest the chargers may be turned down to.
Zone capacity: the most the chargers in the load balancing zone can draw together.

Look back at what happened

Activity sums up a period and shows it on two charts. Pick 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days at the top right.

Figure	What it shows
Time above target	How long the import was over the target in the period.
Peak import	The highest import in the period, and when it happened.
Chargers reduced	How long the chargers were turned down in the period.
Energy from battery	How much energy the battery supplied to the site.

The Grid import chart shows the import with the target and the hard limit as dashed lines. The Battery chart shows the battery's power above zero when it supplies the site, and below zero when it recharges. Under it, the line shows the state of charge over the same period.

Events lists everything the site and the battery went through, newest first, in site time.

Two rows tell you what happened to the chargers:

Row	What it means for you
Cap set	A cap was put on the chargers, but it holds nothing back. The chargers may draw up to that figure, and cars keep charging at full speed.
Charging reduced	The chargers were turned down to hold the target. Drivers at the site get less power while it lasts.

A State changed row can also name these short states:

State	What it means for you
Chargers capped	A cap is set on the chargers, shown as a Cap set row. It only holds them back when the battery has nothing more to give.
Battery at its limit	The battery is empty or at its limit, so the chargers hold the import.
Cap easing	The cap on the chargers is being raised step by step.

The filters All, Alarms, Grid limit, Control and Connection narrow the list. Details on a row explains what the platform saw at that moment. Show all readings lists every reading the battery reports.

How a battery gets onto your account

Your account manager assigns each battery to a location and can give it a name. After that, the admins who can see that location see the battery.

Common questions

What does Battery covering mean? The chargers ask for more power than the target allows. The battery supplies the difference, so the import stays at the target and every car keeps charging.

Why does the site say Chargers limited? The battery could not cover the peak on its own, so the chargers were turned down to hold the target. Drivers at the site get less power while it lasts. If it happens often, look at the target, the recharge window or the cap mode.

Why does the battery not charge during the day? The battery only charges on purpose inside a recharge window. Check the window on the Grid limits card. With no window set, the battery never charges on purpose.

What happens if I switch the grid limit mode off? The battery goes back to its own control, and any cap on the chargers is taken off. The site's grid import is no longer held under the target.

A battery is missing from the list. What do I do? A battery is only shown to admins who can see the location it serves. Ask your account manager to assign it to the right location.

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Availability
Batteries are shown when batteries are connected to your account.