Powershare Delayed Until Mid-2026

[txtravwill]

Hopefully it's a good sign they are adding a lot of charging visuals, powerwall improvements, and PowerShare adjustments to the new 4.53.5 app version.

https://www.notateslaapp.com/tesla-app-updates/version/4.53.5/release-notes

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[Tanquen]

I just got hit with my first 72-hour recalibration on the Powerwall 3. Any chance that once PowerShare works we'd be able to draw power from the vehicle during the Powerwalls calibration?

 

[PungoteagueDave]

I just got hit with my first 72-hour recalibration on the Powerwall 3. Any chance that once PowerShare works we'd be able to draw power from the vehicle during the Powerwalls calibration?

What is that? I haven’t seen a recalibration message on my Powerwall 3 or app. It was installed in November 2025 after my July 2025 version failed due to an installation error. All warrantied but this process is new to me. I’ve read the manuals, don’t see anything. I think I recall the second installer said something about geographic calibration which would take a few days after installation.

 

[Tanquen]

What is that? I haven’t seen a recalibration message on my Powerwall 3 or app. It was installed in November 2025 after my July 2025 version failed due to an installation error. All warrantied but this process is new to me. I’ve read the manuals, don’t see anything. I think I recall the second installer said something about geographic calibration which would take a few days after installation.

This is different than whatever learning it does regarding your generation and usage. And it's new to the Powerwall 3 and its battery chemistry and no, like a lot of things they don't advertise it. They also don't send you a message or email and hide it from you. You'll only notice if you're actively looking at the app while it's doing it.

Mine was installed around the same time last year and they don't tell you that it's going to produce a lot less power in the winter, so you're going to be buying power from your utility so your ROI is not as good as they make it sound. Your utility is going to do things like, add extra fees that you have to pay, whether you buy any power from them or not, so your ROI is not as good as they make it out to be. Your utility is going to raise their internal rates on distribution and limit how and when your credits are applied, so your ROI is not as good as they make it out to be. Your utilities are also going to eventually if they haven't already change the rules so they give you $0.02 a kilowatt hour while you're producing and they're turning around and selling that for $0.60 a kilowatt hour, so you're ROI is not going to be as good as they make it out to be. I'm sure there's some other things but also your Powerwall 3 is randomly going to go offline and discharge and recharge itself during the highest rates of the day, so your ROI is not as going to be as good as they make it out to be. They also like to advertise things like virtual power plants and that their vehicles are eventually going to be able to send power to the grid while not telling you that the utilities already don't want anymore user-produced power or to pay for any of it.

At this rate. I think it's going to be like 20 years before I make my money back. If I was a multi-billionaire like some of the people involved, I'd be suing the companies involved and the utilities to purchase all my hardware back.

 

[RayzorBEV]

Yes that is an option. Also there is the option to use existing pWs and gateways prior to 3v. 2026 software release....I was just seeing if anyone actually had their Gateway 2 and Pws system wired already with Universal connector......

Gm. I do. The Powerwall 3 were added recently but the Powerwall 2s almost 2 years ago.

 

[Tanquen]

Gm. I do. The Powerwall 3 were added recently but the Powerwall 2s almost 2 years ago.

I thought they had to be like 3 ft from a window if the window is to a living space? Are you using all that battery backup everyday or is it just in case?

 

[PungoteagueDave]

This is different than whatever learning it does regarding your generation and usage. And it's new to the Powerwall 3 and its battery chemistry and no, like a lot of things they don't advertise it. They also don't send you a message or email and hide it from you. You'll only notice if you're actively looking at the app while it's doing it.

Mine was installed around the same time last year and they don't tell you that it's going to produce a lot less power in the winter, so you're going to be buying power from your utility so your ROI is not as good as they make it sound. Your utility is going to do things like, add extra fees that you have to pay, whether you buy any power from them or not, so your ROI is not as good as they make it out to be. Your utility is going to raise their internal rates on distribution and limit how and when your credits are applied, so your ROI is not as good as they make it out to be. Your utilities are also going to eventually if they haven't already change the rules so they give you $0.02 a kilowatt hour while you're producing and they're turning around and selling that for $0.60 a kilowatt hour, so you're ROI is not going to be as good as they make it out to be. I'm sure there's some other things but also your Powerwall 3 is randomly going to go offline and discharge and recharge itself during the highest rates of the day, so your ROI is not as going to be as good as they make it out to be. They also like to advertise things like virtual power plants and that their vehicles are eventually going to be able to send power to the grid while not telling you that the utilities already don't want anymore user-produced power or to pay for any of it.

At this rate. I think it's going to be like 20 years before I make my money back. If I was a multi-billionaire like some of the people involved, I'd be suing the companies involved and the utilities to purchase all my hardware back.

I have never had solar production below my usage. Yes, December production was low, but still above our usage. 21 kWh 50-panel system connected to PW 3, awaiting the software update to use the CT for added backup. My payback will be under 3 years - between selling excess production to the utility and selling SRECs, I will make about $14k/year net cash. My installed cost with two Tesla chargers, PW3, gateway, and all panels was about $57k before tax credit, or roughly $39k net. My former $600/month ($7,200/yr) average power bill is now just a $10 monthly fee, and SRECs are about $1,500/quarter. Add that to my expected annual surplus production payment in July, it was a no-brainer. I maxed out the panels based on the Powerwall input limit. It sounds like your panels may be under-speced, or you are a very heavy power user. My Powerwall receives no input from the grid.

 

[Tanquen]

I have never had solar production below my usage. Yes, December production was low, but still above our usage. 21 kWh 50-panel system connected to PW 3, awaiting the software update to use the CT for added backup. My payback will be under 3 years - between selling excess production to the utility and selling SRECs, I will make about $14k/year net cash. My installed cost with two Tesla chargers, PW3, gateway, and all panels was about $57k before tax credit, or roughly $39k net. My former $600/month ($7,200/yr) average power bill is now just a $10 monthly fee, and SRECs are about $1,500/quarter. Add that to my expected annual surplus production payment in July, it was a no-brainer. I maxed out the panels based on the Powerwall input limit. It sounds like your panels may be under-speced, or you are a very heavy power user. My Powerwall receives no input from the grid.

That's great if your utility is allowing you to make your money back but that's going to change at some point. We're starting at $24 a month to be connected to the grid and I don't think that's going to stay there, that's just going to keep rising. You're at $10 a month and it looks like they're actually paying you for the power you produce but they can change that whenever they feel like.

My understanding now, is that if you're making enough solar in the winter to cover your usage you have way too much solar for the summer. Again, that's great if your utility gives you a fair rate for it but as more folks get solar more utilities are getting rid of that in any way they can.

I maxed out my roof and it ended up being just about right. There's certain winter cloudy days where I do not make them enough to cover what the house is using and make it through the night on the battery but it's close. Even if I had more room on the roof for more panels, that would be wasted because my utility is only giving us 2 to 8 cents a kilowatt hour.

 

[Tanquen]

I'm not sure how the PowerShare with Powerwall 3 is actually gonna turn out but the hope was that you could use your EV to power the house if it's recalibrating the Powerwall or if you had a couple of cloudy days in a row. My fear is that it'll only be used power outages.

 

[HaulingAss]

Your utility is going to raise their internal rates on distribution and limit how and when your credits are applied, so your ROI is not as good as they make it out to be. Your utilities are also going to eventually if they haven't already change the rules so they give you $0.02 a kilowatt hour while you're producing and they're turning around and selling that for $0.60 a kilowatt hour, so you're ROI is not going to be as good as they make it out to be. I'm sure there's some other things but also your Powerwall 3 is randomly going to go offline and discharge and recharge itself during the highest rates of the day, so your ROI is not as going to be as good as they make it out to be. They also like to advertise things like virtual power plants and that their vehicles are eventually going to be able to send power to the grid while not telling you that the utilities already don't want anymore user-produced power or to pay for any of it.

You don't know what my utility is going to do, they aren't all as bad as your utility, every utility is different.

Beyond that, your perspective is rather uninformed. Having batteries distributed through the grid is actually very beneficial for the utilities ROI. They can sell more electricity with less investment in new generation and have more flexibility to deal with peak demand. Batteries buffer the system from shock and help them meet the reliability goals imposed on them by the regulators without requiring huge new capital investments. Having a lot of distributed batteries can also delay transmission line upgrades normally required by subscriber growth or increased demand due to EVs.

At this rate. I think it's going to be like 20 years before I make my money back. If I was a multi-billionaire like some of the people involved, I'd be suing the companies involved and the utilities to purchase all my hardware back.

You bought battery storage to make money? I bought it to increase the resiliency of my home to outside events beyond my control. Combined with rooftop solar the batteries greatly increase the usefulness of the solar panels.

The way I look at it is that I finance the system, it eventually pays for itself. In the interim I get the ability to live in my home during power disruptions without resorting to expensive, stinky generators that will never pay for themselves. As a side benefit I (and other energy storage owners) incrementally increase grid efficiency and resiliency.

 

[HaulingAss]

That's great if your utility is allowing you to make your money back but that's going to change at some point. We're starting at $24 a month to be connected to the grid and I don't think that's going to stay there, that's just going to keep rising. You're at $10 a month and it looks like they're actually paying you for the power you produce but they can change that whenever they feel like.

That's not the way it generally works. Solar and battery investments made by the homeowner are generally grand-fathered in, usually for decades, so the homeowners have ample time to pay off their investments.

My understanding now, is that if you're making enough solar in the winter to cover your usage you have way too much solar for the summer. Again, that's great if your utility gives you a fair rate for it but as more folks get solar more utilities are getting rid of that in any way they can.

I maxed out my roof and it ended up being just about right. There's certain winter cloudy days where I do not make them enough to cover what the house is using and make it through the night on the battery but it's close. Even if I had more room on the roof for more panels, that would be wasted because my utility is only giving us 2 to 8 cents a kilowatt hour.

Solar is getting cheap enough that it often makes sense to over-produce to ensure there is enough when you need it (for example on cloudy days). Especially with how high electric rates have climbed in many areas.

But even ignoring the ability of solar to offset those high rates (for your own domestic consumption), if all you did was install solar and sell all of it back to the grid at around $0.063/kWh, the system could pay for itself in 25 years. Any production used to prevent being charged for your own consumption at higher rates would just be a bonus.

 

[Tanquen]

You don't know what my utility is going to do, they aren't all as bad as your utility, every utility is different.

Beyond that, your perspective is rather uninformed. Having batteries distributed through the grid is actually very beneficial for the utilities ROI. They can sell more electricity with less investment in new generation and have more flexibility to deal with peak demand. Batteries buffer the system from shock and help them meet the reliability goals imposed on them by the regulators without requiring huge new capital investments. Having a lot of distributed batteries can also delay transmission line upgrades normally required by subscriber growth or increased demand due to EVs.



You bought battery storage to make money? I bought it to increase the resiliency of my home to outside events beyond my control. Combined with rooftop solar the batteries greatly increase the usefulness of the solar panels.

The way I look at it is that I finance the system, it eventually pays for itself. In the interim I get the ability to live in my home during power disruptions without resorting to expensive, stinky generators that will never pay for themselves. As a side benefit I (and other energy storage owners) incrementally increase grid efficiency and resiliency.

I never said I knew what your utility is going to do 100% for sure going to do but they will all at some point basically increase a base charge if they haven't added one already and they're going to decrease what they pay for customer produced power and Increase rates for distribution etc.

It's beneficial for them and they're gonna do what's beneficial for them. If they can purchase or steal power from their customers for two cents a kilowatt hour and then turn around and sell it for 60 cents a kilowatt hour they're going to try to do that. That's the direction they're headed. They can add their own battery systems or if they're in an area where a lot of their customers are adding solar they can just use that and then increase the rates they charge to be connected to the grid. And most likely make that mandatory. There's no way they're gonna let everybody add solar and not try to force people to stay connected to the grid and pay a monthly fee for the privilege. There's no way that fee is staying nonexistent or $10 a month or $25 a month or $50 a month.

"You bought battery storage to make money?" Never said that. The federal government, the state governments, the utilities, the manufacturers of battery and solar have all implied or directly said that investing in the equipment would allow you to save on your power bills or zero out your power bills or make money to recoup the cost of the hardware investment. Now the utilities are starting to push back. Saying there's too much solar production and it's not worth anything to them and paying little to nothing for its production. That has not happened everywhere yet, and in many ways this is beneficial to them. They don't have to bring new plants online as soon or invest in solar and batteries of their own.

Having battery backup during power outages is the one remaining benefit but it's at a pretty hefty cost. You may be better off doing nothing and investing that money elsewhere. In 10 to 20 years who knows what you're going to have to replace or what folks are going to have to deal with when they need to re roof etc., before the original cost of the equipment or the potential value the monies could have earned elsewhere has even happened let alone trying to turn a profit. Nothing's free, but the advertised benefit is no where near reality in some locales and going to go elsewhere and it's not going to get better.

And the blooming AI bubble aside I'm not betting on the cost of utilities going down. They are going to keep going up and that's supposed to be one of the ideas of getting solar and batteries period to cover you from that increase but then they're just going to add fees to be connected to the grid and make it mandatory to be connected to the grid. I'm not sure what they're going to do in 20 years if folks can buy enough solar and batteries to be off the grid for 20 grand. I paid about $25k for mine and would probably have to double that to be off the grid during the winter. Even so, then you're reliant the panels the batteries and the inverters continuing to work as they should if you wanted to actually disconnect from the grid if they'll even allow it in your your city or state.

Hopefully PowerShare gets enabled soon and comes with more than a few different operational options.

 

[RayzorBEV]

I thought they had to be like 3 ft from a window if the window is to a living space? Are you using all that battery backup everyday or is it just in case?

The window leads to my garage . Yes, using them daily. 2 more will be added next week for a total of 7. I have 5 Teslas to feed; 3 CBs, a MYP and a M3P

 

[Tanquen]

The window leads to my garage

With the blinds and whatnot it looked like living space. Mine's next to a window that just goes to the closed off utility room and I had to argue with Tesla to get it a little closer. The city didn't care in our particular instance.

 

[Tanquen]

That's not the way it generally works. Solar and battery investments made by the homeowner are generally grand-fathered in, usually for decades, so the homeowners have ample time to pay off their investments.

You would hope that's the way it works but in some places that's not what's happening. They're just adding fees for the privilege of being connected and those fees are just going to increase. It does it matter if you have solar or when you added it.

if all you did was install solar and sell all of it back to the grid at around $0.063/kWh, the system could pay for itself in 25 years.

Again not if they're allowed to add other fees. What will the monthly fee be in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?

I maxed out my roof and there's not much I could do about adding more solar unless I put them in the yard or something and then I believe that would also modify whatever your current standing is with the utility and I'm not even sure if the city would allow it. You do see people adding more and more of that plug in balcony solar panel type stuff but who knows where everything's going to end up for sure.

Let's say I do really well and produce 15,000 kilowatt hours but then I need around 8000 kilowatt hours to run the house and can sell back 7000 kilowatt hours a year and they give 0.063 cents per kilowatt. That's around $450 a year. So maybe repay the cost back 15 years?

It's closer to 20 years if you factor in the new $288 a year fee to be connected to the grid they added this year and it's not going to stay at $288 a year.

It's even more complicated when they add the extra games for the credits for the electricity you produced only being able to be applied to the amount of power you purchased not the fees they charge you for distribution and so on. I even heard something about not being able to roll over your credits from month to month. So if you produce a bunch of extra electricity in the summer and can't use it you can't get credit for it In winter months when you need.

So it's looking more like 20-30 years? I'm sure I may have messed up the math somewhere but you get the basic idea. And that's if you've never have to replace or pay for anything to be serviced.

But then I don't have to pay for a good amount of the electric I am using using. Who knows, it's just frustrating. We'll see what happens after the first year. But there is no way it's getting paid back in the 7 to 10 years that they advertised.

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