PGE/Smartmeter Connect Problem

Questions
#1

I have a PGE smartmeter and up until today I have had two devices connected to it. One is a Rainforest Eagle 200 and the other is an Emporia Utility Connect. Both have been functioning perfectly for a long time (the Eagle for over 4 years). Today, at exactly 8am local BOTH devices lost their connection to my Smartmeter. I gave it about 30 minutes and then power cycled both devices. Nothing. No connect to the smartmeter. So I called PGE and asked them to check my setup on their end. After about 20 minutes of fiddling on their end they came to the conclusion their system is functioning normally and that it must be MY devices and that I need to contact the manufacturer. I protested because I can understand ONE device malfunctioning, but not TWO at the EXACT SAME TIME. They insisted it’s not their equipment. I asked them if it was possible for them to “reboot” the radio in the smartmeter, but they kept insisting their equipment shows “green” and there is no reason to do that (which pissed me off). Anyone else run into this kind of situation before with PGE smartmeter communications? Anyone else experiencing any similar issues at the moment.

So at this point I am not sure what to do. I’ve lost my two main ways of monitoring my usage, although I still have the readings from an Emporia Vue 2 to fall back on. For certain information I do prefer the data gathered from my Smartmeter, though. If I could I would power cycle the smartmeter, but there is no way, short of a PGE power failure, for me to do that.

#2

My Emporia Vue Utility Connect still works as expected;-)
Not sure, if it’s time to drastic measures yet: Forget the devices from the PG&E web site (would take some time to push to the meter) and then try to reconnect it?!
Not sure, if that would help, but I guess, that’s the only way for you.

Good luck;-)

#3

As a follow up to my initial post, I decided to submit a written trouble ticket to PGE because of what happened when I was working with their online support line (i.e. blame the customer’s equipment). I outlined what happened and how unlikely it is that TWO devices failed at the same time. So I just received a reply and they have scheduled a tech to come out on May 7th and check the HAN radio in my smart meter, which is basically what I asked them to do. I’m a little disappointed that it’s going to take two weeks to get a technician to check it, but at least they are doing something. So unless the radio fixes itself in the meantime, I will be without the Smart Meter data for at least 2 weeks. So for the time being I will be relying exclusively on the data reported by my Vue2.

I’m curious if my usage reported to PGE is affected at this time. I don’t know if the usage data PGE gets is supplied by the same radio or not. I checked online and yesterday’s usage is not posted yet, but that’s not unusual. Sometimes there is a 2-3 day delay when they post the usage figures online in my PGE account.

#4

I don’t have a solution, but I was wondering if you verified your Eagle wasn’t connected by checking pvoutput data and logs, or by looking at the Rainforest cloud realtime data?

Only asking as I had routed Eagle data through Wattvision for literally 10 years to pvoutput seamlessly, until Wattvision removed their free service. So I have a separate thread here recently as I can’t get the Eagle push service to successfully send the data to pvoutput - but I know the Eagle is reading the data by seeing the realtime data uploaded to Rainforest’s cloud.

FWIW though, each of my Eagle’s lasted 5 years then would start locking up, then not reading the smartmeter til reset. Eagle 1.0, then Eagle 200. So for the past year I’m on a Eagle 3.

#5

I have several issues with my Rainforest Automation Eagle 200 device. RA is actively making the older legacy devices not work with the system and trying to force you to upgrade. I have had to get RA remotely configure the device multiple times now when the firmware gets scrambled by their forced updates causing device to be unable to communicate with the PVO servers.

You can always reset the Eagle-200 making it unpair from the Smart Meter and then that would force PGE StreamMyData office to re-pair the Eagle-200 with the meter.

#6

The problem isn’t with the Eagle, there is simply no data to push since it can’t connect to my Smart Meter. If the problem was only with the Eagle then I might consider the possibility it’s radio died, but I have two devices connected to my Smart Meter (Rainforest Eagle and Emporia’s Utility Connect) and BOTH stopped communicating with my Smart Meter at the exact same time. This suggests to me the Zigbee radio in my Smart Meter has died, or the control circuitry is locked up.

Since my last posting I have learned the PGE Smart Meters have TWO radios in them. One is for PGE to use to collect my usage information through their mesh network and the other is for use with approved consumer devices through the Home Area Network (HAN). My usage is still being reported to PGE so I believe my Smart Meter’s HAN radio has died. However, as mentioned in my previous posting, PGE is taking two week to schedule someone to come out here and check it out. I assume at that point they will confirm the radio is bad and change out my Smart Meter. If they do that then I will have to call into PGE and have them move my devices to the new meter number. In the meantime, I have no data other than what is being produced by my Emporia Vue 2.

#7

kemyers95963, PGE already tried to re-pair both of my devices and that did not work. I’m pretty confident the problem is with a defective radio in my Smart Meter. I have talked to Rainforest Automation and they told me my Eagle 2 is still supported and will be supported in the foreseeable future. However, they are building a new “cloud” infrastructure and I moved my Eagle 2 to the new cloud back in January. This disabled my ability to edit the “push” configuration page in the Eagle, but if you contact their tech support they will make any changes for you, which is what I did in January. I had them change my Eagle to push to both Wattvision and PVoutput. Formally I was only pushing to Wattvision, but they are charging now so I may or may not keep them in the future.

#8

Re-pairing your Eagle with a replacement Smartmeter is generally no problem, just have to call PG&E’s Stream My Data dept. I have PG&E’s BPTM (backup power transfer meter), a meter socket device that you can plug a gas generator in behind the meter - I’ve had it replaced twice and PG&E always swaps the BPTM and meter as a pair, so each time, it’s a new meter that I have to re-pair with my Eagle.

And then I’ve had to replace my Eagle twice with new units

Only once was re-pairing difficult. Some backend data on Rainforest’s side I believe, that their support had to wipe or reset.