Is the Solar Optimizer usable with no allowed export power?

[InToSSH]

Hi,
our power distribution company doesn't allow for any export back to grid, so exports are disabled in the Solax inverter. This means that the Net power consumption will never be negative and the MPPT just lowers the solar production when the battery is charged and demand is low.

Would this integration be somehow usable without the grid exports? I know there is no way of telling how much surplus there is when the MPPT lowers the production and battery is charged, but what if we could say for example when the home battery is charged > 90% and there is still power flowing into the battery?
We could consider this as the surplus and use it for the calculations and turn on devices before the battery reaches 100% and before MPPTs lower the production so that we know huch much surplus there is?

I was thinking about maybe creating a helper template sensor for the Net power consumption, that would fake the negative values if the battery SoC>90% and battery_charge_power > 0. Do you think it would work?

Thank you

[jmcollin78]

Hello, yes, just set the sell cost to a high value (compared to the buy cost), because you don't want to sell the production (which is lost).

See: https://github.com/jmcollin78/solar_optimizer/blob/main/README.md#setting-purchase-and-resale-costs

[InToSSH]

Thank you, but otherwise for the integration to know the net power going in and out I would need use the power going in and out of the battery above 90% as I mentioned above, to get how much excess of PV power there is, right? If I let the battery charge to 100%, the MPPTs lower the power and we have no way of knowing how much excess there is.

[jmcollin78]

The battery power flow is already taken into account in the algorithm if you have provided one in the configuration.
Follow this guide: https://github.com/jmcollin78/solar_optimizer/blob/main/README.md#configure-the-integration-for-the-first-time
and set the battery information.

If the battery is charging that means SO can starts some devices (the available power is sufficient).

[InToSSH]

Oh I see, I thought that only the net power going to the grid is counted as an excess. Now it makes sense. Thank you very much.