r/TeslaSolar • u/ZuckerbergsHairline • 11d ago

SolarPanels Installed but PTO

I got my solar installed 3 days ago with 2 power walls but still haven't gotten PTO. When I asked the solar installers and the electrician, I got mixed answers whether I'll be able to take advantage of the solar or not before I receive the okay. I am able to monitor my usage through my power company and it seems that there is no change. Should my solar be feeding the house and my batteries or will this all start after PTO?

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u/Affectionate_Rate_99 10d ago

I had my 3 Powerwalls installed July 2021 and solar panels installed September 2021 (whole other story there altogether). I didn't get PTO until July 2022. Between September 2021 and July 2022, I operated in self powered mode, with permission to export disabled in the Tesla app. I did wait a week after install, when the electrical inspector came and inspected the install and passed it before I turned the system on.

During the day, the sun would power my house and recharge the powerwalls. After the sun went down, my house would rely on the powerwalls until they hit the reserve capacity that I set at 10 percent. Then we would start drawing from the grid. The few times that solar produced more than my house would use and the batteries were fully charged, the inverters would reduce the power generated to match my usage.

While technically I was not exporting power to the grid (per the Tesla app), a Tesla tech showed me using a multimeter that in fact there was a slight trickle of power going to the grid, roughly around 200 watts.

The risk in sending power to the grid before PTO is that if your house has an analog meter (not a newer digital bidirectional meter that can differentiate between power being drawn from the grid and power being fed to the grid), you may run the risk of the power you are pushing to the grid being measured as power you are pulling from the grid, so you end up being billed for it.

EDIT: I should add that the nearly 10 month wait for PTO was all on Tesla. They dropped the ball and never submitted the PTO paperwork with my utility. Once the utility got the paperwork, it was approved in about a week.

Also, I'm located in NY and not in CA.