Power Quality - Issues after a big storm

[matthieu.vincenot]

We had a big storm maybe a month ago and lights have been flickering in the evenings on some nights. The UPS for the PC kicks in on occasion and we also seemed to switch to the powerwall reguarly for very short period of time (99 times over a month, for a few seconds each time)…
Neighbors didn’t have any comparable issues.

A quick checkat the main breaker, something is wrong

Breaker

Turns out the phase on the left is not in the connector on the breaker, it’s just resting against.

No oxy-guard either, the arcing actually vaporized the metal and deposited on the set screw (among other things) which is now fused in place on that side.

The cable on this phase is actually too short to reach inside the connector! Obviously heated, deposited aluminum on the tip.

Left connector obviously heated up significantly, the twist in the connector is my doing, trying to force it open, but the set screw is fused to the connector, had to replace the unit.

Replaced the wire and the breaker yesterday (I’m EE by trade, did electro-tech at uni) all good now, but feel like that was a close call. Assumed it was a supplier (PGE) issue for a long time…

We had solar installed 2 years ago, and powerwalls 1 year ago, so not sure who’s shaddy work caused this, and I’m surprised we were fine for so long considering the state of the setup…
We were inspoected multiple time too for each of these installs (3 times for the battery install, so I’ve got my idea of where this is coming from). Criminal negligence asfar as I’m concerned…

Glad to have it all resolved! Power quality monitoring was very helpful, and I’ll keep an eye on it to confirm everything is resolved going forward!

[qrnef]

Was this related to the storm at all? It seems like this should have been a problem both before and after the storm.

[matthieu.vincenot]

Yes, the root cause of the problem was there before… Somehow, it wasn’t as noticeable before, both in the house and in the power quality tab of sense…

I can see that there are traces of condensation inside the box, I’m wondering if corrosion could have played a part on the aluminum connectors, making them more resistive over time.

[JustinAtSense]

@matthieu.vincenot

Somehow, it wasn’t as noticeable before, both in the house and in the power quality tab of sense…

On our end, this will only become noticeable in the Power Quality project once the incoming power is impacted. With the limited cases I’ve seen, I wouldn’t be surprised if this issue grew in severity over time before it finally became an issue.

Either way, I’d love to hear where you net out here in terms of responsible parties (although, it sounds like multiple parties are culpable.)

[matthieu.vincenot]

Not sure if I’m up for the protracted battle… The installers were already relatively unhelpful when everything was going fairly well, so I can’t imagine what it would be like now… Pretty sure it would end being them blaming each others (or me). In my younger years maybe, but I guess I’m somewhat wiser now and know when to move on to more productive activities…

[matthieu.vincenot]

A month later, everything is back to normal! Super happy!