Growatt 5000ES inverters unexpectedly switching to grid power with batteries @ 85% SOC

[3fordasho]

System is 2 - 5000es inverters operating in parallel, 11 lifepower 4 batteries and one lifepowerLL that is operating as a dumb battery (no comm connection)
All the Lifepower4 batteries are connected for battery communication to the master inverter.

System working as expected for a while now. This morning at 2:20 am with the batteries at 85% SOC the inverters started importing from the grid and stopped using battery power for some reason. This should not happen until the batteries reach 25% SOC (setting in inverter).

As I'm writing this the PV arrays are starting to come up and they are contributing to the load but why did it switch to grid power in the first place with batteries at 85%?

Inverter priority is SBU or solar, then battery, then utility. No errors on the inverters. No alarms on the batteries. Inverters are reading battery voltage and have the LI indicator on meaning battery communication is present.

 

[3fordasho]

Update - as PV power is coming up the inverters are charging the batteries, all loads are imported from the grid.
Do I need to restart the system?

 

[timselectric]

I would restart.
Sounds like a fluke occurrence.
With no alarms or warnings, it's hard to say what happened.
It evidently didn't see the battery for some reason.
But, I would expect it to switch back, after seeing the battery, again.

 

[3fordasho]

I would restart.
Sounds like a fluke occurrence.
With no alarms or warnings, it's hard to say what happened.
It evidently didn't see the battery for some reason.
But, I would expect it to switch back, after seeing the battery, again.

I think I need to do a restart of the system, currently it has almost completely recharged the batteries using PV power but the inverters are still in grid bypass mode and house loads are coming from the grid.
I am wondering if I should just trip the breakers on the AC grid input to the inverters since I never run my batteries much below 65% anyway.

 

[3fordasho]

Batteries just hit 100% SOC and now the inverters stopped importing from the grid. PV supplying house loads. Weird.

 

[timselectric]

That is strange.
I'm guessing that you have already checked all of the settings, to make sure that nothing has changed.

 

[3fordasho]

That is strange.
I'm guessing that you have already checked all of the settings, to make sure that nothing has changed.

Yes, inverter settings are correct, nothing changed in the settings.

 

[timselectric]

Weird, indeed.

 

[Solar Guy Richard]

There are settings where you can manually change the charge % or voltage on where it will stop using batteries or start using them. Post your growatt settings for us to verify if you'd like.

 

[3fordasho]

There are settings where you can manually change the charge % or voltage on where it will stop using batteries or start using them. Post your growatt settings for us to verify if you'd like.

Sure, here they are just checked on the master inverter:
001 SBU
002 18A
003 UPS
004 DIS
005 LI
036 L01
006 DIS
007 DIS
008 240V
009 60
010 4
011 30A
012 25%
013 30%
014 050
015 ON
016 ON
017 ON
018 ENA
019 58.0V
020 58.0V
021 15%
023 PAL

 

[timselectric]

Sure, here they are just checked on the master inverter:
001 SBU
002 18A
003 UPS
004 DIS
005 LI
036 L01
006 DIS
007 DIS
008 240V
009 60
010 4
011 30A
012 25%
013 30%
014 050
015 ON
016 ON
017 ON
018 ENA
019 58.0V
020 58.0V
021 15%
023 PAL

Same as my settings, except that I'm not paralleling.
(Only have one inverter, at the moment)

 

[Bud Martin]

May I ask as to what '003 UPS' is?
Is it UPS mode, meaning the output will be from utility and switch to battery mode when utility is lost?

 

[timselectric]

May I ask as to what '003 UPS' is?
Is it UPS mode, meaning the output will be from utility and switch to battery mode when utility is lost?

No
It's the quality of input power.
Wouldn't use this setting, for a generator.

 

[timselectric]

May I ask as to what '003 UPS' is?
Is it UPS mode, meaning the output will be from utility and switch to battery mode when utility is lost?

 

[Bud Martin]

No
It's the quality of input power.
Wouldn't use this setting, for a generator.

So it talking about the Voltage range, so what will happen if it is out off that range?
On my MPP Solar I left it at default of 'APL'.

 

[timselectric]

So it talking about the Voltage range, so what will happen if it is out off that range?

Switches to battery mode.

 

[Bud Martin]

Switches to battery mode.

If that is the case it means if the utility is within the range ( for APL, or for UPS), the power from the utility will be supplied to the AC output terminals then, and if it goes out off range then it will run from battery?
Looks like I need to do some experiment.

 

[timselectric]

If that is the case it means if the utility is within the range ( for APL, or for UPS), the power from the utility will be supplied to the AC output terminals then, and if it goes out off range then it will run from battery?
Looks like I need to do some experiment.

Correct

 

[3fordasho]

Inverters functioning normally ever since the batteries hit 100% yesterday around noon. Seems to have corrected itself, I never restarted the system.

I assume these inverters can function with just PV and battery inputs? If this happens again I think I will shut off grid AC input to the inverters.

 

[timselectric]

Inverters functioning normally ever since the batteries hit 100% yesterday around noon. Seems to have corrected itself, I never restarted the system.

I assume these inverters can function with just PV and battery inputs? If this happens again I think I will shut off grid AC input to the inverters.

Glad to hear that it's working, even if you don't know what happened.
I have tested mine with only one of the three, two of the three, and all three. It ran in all situations. I would not recommend Solar only, unless there's a good amount of sunlight. Too much fluctuation, to handle much more than a small load.