Advanced Power Management - Beware!

After spending several weeks trying to figure out why my Sense went offline every afternoon at 4:30 and back online at 9:30 every night (much of time spent with close attention from Sense Technical Support - thanks guys!) I finally stumbled on the cause which is related to my power company’s implementation of what they are calling “Advanced Power Management.”

It comes down to this: when the power company replaced my old electric meter (the one with the little spinning disc) with a new web-connected electronic meter, they also re-jiggered my electric service to shut off “resistive heating loads” during times of “peak demand.” Awesome!

When I discovered this, the problem that Sense Tech Support and I had been chasing suddenly found a solution. Upon further investigation, I discovered that my electrician had connected the Sense power supply (red and black leads) to that portion of my distribution panel that shuts down my electric water heater during dinner time.

After waiting two weeks for my electrician to come back and rectify the problem, I decided to move the Sense power leads myself. Presto! My Sense is now running without taking a daily nap.

Thank you to Zach and the rest of folks at Sense who helped me figure out this perplexing problem.

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How is the distribution panel segregated between “power managed” portion and the “always on” portion ? What kind of device do they use to control ? My 2 AC compressors used to be connected to their power lines through some kind of Square D controller installed by the power company - I got a break on electricity pricing during peak by allowing them to install. But that was done near the compressors, not at the distribution box.

I’m wondering the exact same thing. I have not come across this before. It sounds cool, though maybe a bit of a pain in some instances where you might actually want those loads running for some particular reason.

Did they install something similar to load shedding relays you’d have for a generator? But where would they be if it was affecting the power to the actual breaker? A panel with a controllable backplane?