GridMind Optimize Pro

GridMind Optimize is an intelligent battery management strategy that automatically controls your Powerwall around your utility’s peak pricing hours — ensuring your battery is full when peak begins and discharged at exactly the right rate to last the entire peak window without running dry or wasting export potential.

Optimize has two strategies and runs the one your plan rewards. On plans that pay or credit dollars for exports it runs the peak-export strategy described next. On plans that bank kilowatt-hours — where exporting at peak does not grow the bank — it runs a bank strategy instead (see The Bank Strategy below). You turn Optimize on; GridMind derives the strategy from your energy-credits plan.

How It Works

Optimize follows a precise 5-step cycle every peak period:

Step 1: Pre-Peak Charging

Starting a configurable number of minutes before peak (the “buffer time”), GridMind calculates the optimal target SOC needed to power your home through the entire peak window plus a safety margin.

The target is calculated as:

target_soc = (home_avg_load × peak_duration_hours × 1.15) / battery_capacity

The battery is commanded to charge to this calculated target. If your battery is already at or above the target SOC, no pre-charging occurs and Optimize waits for peak to begin. The 1.15 multiplier adds a 15% safety margin above the estimated home load requirement, protecting against load spikes during the peak window.

Step 2: Peak Window Starts

When peak hours begin, GridMind:

• Locks the battery into Time-Based Control (export) mode
• Sets the backup reserve to your configured minimum (e.g., 5%)
• Records the starting SOC and begins managing the discharge rate toward the end of the window

Step 3: Intelligent Discharge

GridMind continuously calculates the ideal discharge rate to consume exactly the available charge evenly over the remaining peak window:

discharge_rate = (current_soc - min_reserve) / (hours_remaining_in_peak)

This pacing ensures you’re exporting energy consistently throughout peak rather than exporting all stored energy at the start and running dry hours before peak ends. Consistent export across the entire window maximizes earnings at the high peak rate.

If home load spikes above the calculated discharge rate, GridMind temporarily prioritizes satisfying home consumption to prevent any grid import during peak hours. Once the spike passes, it recalculates the discharge rate for the remaining window.

Solar Forecast & Rate-Aware Reserve

Before each peak cycle, GridMind automatically adjusts the effective reserve floor based on two factors: tomorrow’s solar forecast and your TOU rate spread.

When your rate spread justifies overnight grid recharge (peak rate minus off-peak rate ≥ $0.10/kWh, and grid charging is enabled): GridMind exports all available capacity down to your configured minimum. The economics are clear — earning the peak rate on every kWh and refilling overnight at the cheap off-peak rate is more profitable than holding battery back for solar.

When grid charging is disabled or your rates are flat: solar is your only free recharge source, so GridMind holds extra reserve on cloudy days to ensure the battery isn’t depleted before tomorrow’s solar can refill it:

The reasoning behind the reserve decision is shown in the detailed reasoning panel on the dashboard each cycle.

Step 4: Peak Window Ends

When the peak period ends, GridMind automatically:

• Restores your original backup reserve setting
• Restores your original operation mode (Self-Powered by default)
• Logs the completed peak session with kWh exported and estimated earnings

Step 5: Next Cycle

Optimize resets and begins monitoring for the next peak period. On days with multiple peaks, it runs the same cycle for each one. Between cycles it operates passively, allowing normal self-powered behavior.

Configuration

To configure GridMind Optimize, go to Settings → GridMind Optimize.

On the bank strategy only Minimum reserve applies: peak hours come from your tariff, and the strategy decides the rest.

Example configuration for PG&E EV2-A summer peak (4–9 PM):

Peak start: 4:00 PM
Peak end: 9:00 PM
Buffer time: 90 minutes (pre-charging begins at 2:30 PM)
Min reserve: 10%

The Bank Strategy

On a plan that banks kilowatt-hours, exporting the battery at peak earns nothing extra: the utility nets your whole cycle before it banks a single kilowatt-hour, so a battery cycled for exports only loses energy to round trips. GridMind runs the battery for the bank instead.

• Time-Based Control with your real prices — GridMind writes your tariff into the Powerwall as its rate plan, with your TOU buy prices and sell prices of zero so the Powerwall never chases exports, and keeps energy exports to solar only.
• Surplus cycles: the battery is parked — when the billing cycle is heading for a surplus, the reserve goes to 100 % and grid charging is off. Every kilowatt-hour of solar goes to your bank and the battery stays full as backup.
• Deficit cycles: the battery covers your peaks — the reserve drops to your minimum and grid charging is allowed, so the battery fills off-peak and carries the peak. If three peaks in a row still import, GridMind raises the reserve after each peak and lowers it again just before the next one, until the imports stop.
• Spend-down — when your banked credits would be forfeited at the true-up, the battery parks as well, so you draw the bank down before it resets.
• Cars charge off-peak only — every connected vehicle’s schedule is set to off-peak while Optimize is on.
• The decision — each evening at 9 pm GridMind reads the cycle so far and the solar forecast and decides the next day’s cycle status. It changes its mind only after three days pointing the same way, so one cloudy day does not flip the battery. You get one notification when Optimize switches to the bank strategy and one whenever the cycle status changes.

The Optimize card names the strategy, today’s cycle status — Surplus cycle — battery parked as backup, solar exports to your bank — and what Optimize manages: operation mode, rate plan, energy exports, backup reserve, grid charging and EV charge schedules. Advanced settings reduce to the minimum reserve.

Optimize Status Card

When Optimize is enabled, the dashboard shows a dedicated status card with real-time information about the current cycle:

• Current phase — One of: Idle, Pre-charging, Peak active, or Complete
• Time until next action — For example, “Peak starts in 2h 15m” or “Pre-charging begins in 45m”
• Current SOC vs. target SOC — How close the battery is to the pre-peak target
• Today’s Optimize earnings — Running total of estimated Optimize-attributed savings for today

On the bank strategy the card shows the strategy, today’s cycle status and what Optimize manages instead of a peak countdown — see The Bank Strategy above.

Click the card to expand a detailed reasoning panel showing exactly what Optimize is doing and why:

“Battery at 73%. Target was 78% — pre-charging complete. Peak starts in 45 minutes. Will discharge at 2.1 kW average to reach 10% by 9:00 PM.”

This transparency helps you understand and trust what Optimize is doing with your battery.

Savings Tracking

The Value page shows a dedicated Optimization Savings section (visible to Pro subscribers) with:

• Today’s estimated Optimize savings — Dollar value of Optimize’s contribution today
• Last 30 days total savings — Monthly Optimize earnings
• Lifetime savings since Optimize was enabled — Cumulative earnings since you first turned it on
• Average $/day — A simple average that shows what Optimize is worth on a typical day

Multiple Peak Periods

If your utility has two peak periods per day — for example, a morning peak from 7–9 AM and an evening peak from 4–9 PM — GridMind Optimize handles both. Contact support to configure split peak schedules, as this requires a custom configuration that is not yet available through the standard settings UI.

EV Charging Management

When Pause EV charging during peak is enabled, GridMind Optimize automatically detects if your EV is actively charging during peak hours and pauses it. This ensures that solar production and battery discharge are directed to grid export at peak rates — rather than being consumed by your vehicle’s charger at a time when every kilowatt-hour is worth the most.

• Automatic detection — GridMind monitors your wall connector in real time and detects active charging sessions
• Immediate pause — Charging is stopped as soon as peak hours begin (or if you plug in during peak)
• Automatic resume — Charging resumes automatically when peak hours end, with no manual intervention needed
• Push notification — You’ll receive a notification when charging is paused so you’re always informed

This setting is enabled by default when you activate GridMind Optimize. You can disable it in Optimize settings if you prefer to let your EV charge uninterrupted during peak hours.

On plans that bank kilowatt-hours, Optimize goes further and sets every connected car to charge off-peak only while it is on. Off-peak-only charging, wherever you turn it on, follows the cheapest rate class of your tariff, whatever its periods are called — a period named “shoulder” or “evening” still counts as peak when it is priced above the cheapest one — and a flat tariff has no peak, so nothing is restricted.

VPP Override

Virtual Power Plant events take priority over Optimize. When a VPP event is active, Optimize is automatically paused and the battery follows VPP discharge instructions for the duration of the event. After the VPP event ends, Optimize resumes normally and picks up the next scheduled peak cycle.

On the bank strategy Optimize stays in charge during the event: it lets the battery export as the event asks and drops the reserve to your minimum, then puts its own settings back when the event ends.

See VPP Events for more detail on how the two features interact.