DemandGuard

DemandGuard Plan

DemandGuard is Grid Getter’s most powerful automation type. It watches your live grid draw every minute during demand periods and automatically discharges your battery to keep you under your target demand threshold — protecting you from the expensive demand charges that utilities bill based on your peak usage.

What is a demand charge?

Some utility rate plans include a demand charge — a fee based on the highest 15- or 30-minute average power draw recorded during your billing period. A single afternoon of high usage (air conditioning + EV charging + appliances running simultaneously) can spike your bill for the entire month.

DemandGuard prevents those spikes by acting in real time: the moment your grid draw approaches your target, it switches your home to battery power.

How DemandGuard works

DemandGuard runs continuously during your configured peak window. Each check:

Reads your current live power data from Tesla
Calculates your grid draw relative to your target threshold
If you’re approaching or exceeding the threshold, switches to battery power
Continues monitoring until the demand interval resets or the window closes

DemandGuard optimizes battery discharge across the entire demand window — not just in the moment — so your battery lasts as long as possible through the period.

Grid charging is paused during the window

When the demand window opens, Grid Getter does two things at the same time: switches your Powerwall to self-powered mode and tells Tesla to stop charging the battery from the grid. When the window closes, both are reversed — autonomous mode comes back on and grid charging is re-enabled. You’ll see “Grid charging is paused during this window.” on the DemandGuard automation card as a reminder.

Self-powered mode alone isn’t quite enough: Tesla will still pull from the grid in some cases, and a single grid pull during a demand interval can set your demand bill for the whole month.

24-hour DemandGuard

Some utilities — most often commercial rate plans — measure demand at any time of day, with no peak/off-peak split. On those plans a fixed 4–9 PM monitoring window leaves you exposed for the other 19 hours, and a single morning grid spike can set your bill for the whole month.

For example, Colorado’s CORE Cooperative commercial rate structure bills demand based on the highest 15-minute draw recorded at any point in the billing period.

To switch DemandGuard to 24-hour mode, toggle 24 hours a day under the Start/End time fields on the DemandGuard form. The Start and End time inputs grey out, and DemandGuard runs continuously for the full day on whichever days and months you’ve selected.

One thing to expect on the Live Dashboard: the “Measurement Intervals” counter that normally tracks your progress through a peak period is hidden in 24-hour mode. Without a bounded peak window there’s no fixed number of intervals to count down from, so the dashboard just shows the current Demand Usage ring on its own.

Create a DemandGuard automation

Go to Automations and click + Add Automation
Select the DemandGuard tab
Give your automation a name
Set your Target Demand — the maximum kW grid draw you want to maintain (e.g., 8 kW)
Set the Demand Interval — how often your utility measures demand (usually 15 or 30 minutes — check your bill)
Set the monitoring window:
- Start Time: when demand monitoring begins
- End Time: when it stops
- Or toggle 24 hours a day if your utility doesn’t have a peak window (see 24-hour DemandGuard above)
Configure optional settings:
- Battery Reserve: set a reserve to apply at the start of the demand window and choose what happens at the end — either restore it to what it was before DemandGuard started, or set it to a specific percentage.
- Respect Tesla’s Storm Watch: if on, DemandGuard pauses when Storm Watch is active and leaves grid charging unrestricted so Storm Watch can pre-charge for emergencies (recommended for storm-prone areas)
- Surplus Generation: what to do with excess solar during demand management
Set the schedule — days of week and months that match your utility’s demand period schedule
Click Create Automation

Settings reference

Setting	What it does	Default
Name	Label for this automation	Required
Description	Optional note	Empty
Target Demand (kW)	Maximum grid draw to maintain	10 kW
Demand Interval	How often your utility measures demand	30 min
Start Time	When monitoring begins	16:00 (4 PM)
End Time	When monitoring ends	21:00 (9 PM)
24 hours a day	Replaces Start/End with a 24-hour window. For utilities that measure demand at any time of day.	Off
Battery Reserve at Start	Reserve % applied when the demand window begins	Off
End Reserve Mode	What to do with the reserve at window end: Restore to previous or Set to specific %	Off
Battery Reserve at End	Reserve % applied when the window ends (only visible when End Reserve Mode is “Set to specific %“)	Off
Respect Tesla’s Storm Watch	Pause DemandGuard if Storm Watch activates and leave grid charging unrestricted so Storm Watch can pre-charge for emergencies	On
Surplus Generation	Where excess solar goes during demand management	Send to Grid
Days of Week	Which days it runs	Mon–Fri
Months	Which months it’s active	All months

Choosing the right Target Demand

Your target demand should be set below the threshold that would trigger a demand charge tier change on your utility bill.

Check your bill for the demand tier thresholds (e.g., “0–10 kW: $X/kW, 10+ kW: $Y/kW”)
Set your target 1–2 kW below the tier boundary to give DemandGuard room to act before you breach it
For most residential customers with a Powerwall, a target of 6–10 kW works well as a starting point

Demand Interval setting

The demand interval tells DemandGuard how your utility measures peak demand. This should match your actual utility billing:

15 minutes — most common for commercial accounts in the US
30 minutes — common for some residential TOU plans
60 minutes — less common, used by some utilities

Getting this right matters: DemandGuard uses the interval to optimize how aggressively it discharges your battery across the demand window.

Surplus Generation options

During demand management, your solar panels may still be producing more power than your home needs. You have three options for where that surplus goes:

Option	What happens
Send to Grid (default)	Surplus solar exports to the grid. You may earn net metering credits.
Store in Battery	Surplus charges your battery instead of exporting. Useful if grid export rates are low or zero.
No Action	Grid Getter doesn’t control surplus — Tesla handles it according to its own logic.

Battery Reserve during demand windows

DemandGuard can optionally manage your Tesla backup reserve at the start and end of each demand window.

Reserve at Start sets a floor on the battery when the window opens. If you set 20%, DemandGuard won’t begin the window with a near-empty battery — it’ll have something to work with.

At window end, you pick what happens to the reserve:

Restore to previous — Grid Getter records your reserve just before the window starts and puts it back when the window closes. Use this if your reserve changes for other reasons throughout the day and you don’t want DemandGuard leaving it at a fixed value.
Set to a specific % — Explicitly define what the reserve should be after the window ends.

If you leave Battery Reserve off, DemandGuard doesn’t touch it at all; it only manages battery discharge in response to grid draw.

Storm Watch interaction

When Respect Tesla’s Storm Watch is enabled (the default), DemandGuard pauses automatically if Tesla’s Storm Watch feature activates. Storm Watch charges your battery to 100% for emergency preparedness — if DemandGuard tried to discharge it at the same time, they’d conflict.

The grid-charging pause has a second effect that’s worth understanding. Tesla doesn’t notify Grid Getter when Storm Watch turns on, so if we hard-blocked grid charging at the start of every DemandGuard window, Storm Watch wouldn’t be able to top off your battery for an incoming storm. The toggle splits the difference:

Respect Tesla’s Storm Watch ON (default) — Grid Getter does NOT touch Tesla’s grid-charge setting during the demand window. DemandGuard still discharges the battery to keep you under your target, and Storm Watch can still grid-charge to 100% if a storm is forecast. The tradeoff: a Storm-Watch grid pull may briefly raise your demand reading.
Respect Tesla’s Storm Watch OFF — Grid Getter strictly disables grid charging at the start of the window and re-enables it at the end. You get tighter demand-charge protection, but Storm Watch can’t pre-charge from the grid for emergencies during the window.

Pick the side of the tradeoff that fits your area. In a low-storm-risk area, turning Respect Storm Watch off gets you the strictest demand-charge protection. In a high-storm-risk or wildfire area, leaving it on keeps Storm Watch usable for outages.

DemandGuard performance log

Every decision DemandGuard makes is logged. Go to Activity Log → DemandGuard Decisions to review:

When DemandGuard activated during demand periods
What your grid draw was at each check
What action was taken
Whether your target was maintained

This is the best way to verify DemandGuard is working and to tune your Target Demand setting.

Battery Threshold overlap warning

If you have a Battery Threshold automation with a custom window that overlaps this DemandGuard window, Grid Getter shows a non-blocking warning on the DemandGuard form. Battery Threshold defers automatically during DemandGuard windows — the warning is informational only and doesn’t prevent saving.

If your Battery Threshold automation uses Outside Peak Time and DemandGuard windows mode, it automatically adapts to any DemandGuard automations you add, with no overlap concern.

If your Tesla goes offline during a demand window

If your Tesla connection drops while DemandGuard is active and your Powerwall is left in Self Consumption mode when the window ends, Grid Getter catches this on reconnect.

When your Tesla comes back online, Grid Getter checks whether your Powerwall is stuck in Self Consumption outside of any active demand window. If it is, Grid Getter restores Autonomous mode and logs it in your Activity Log.

Plan requirements

DemandGuard automations require a DemandGuard subscription tier. This is separate from (and in addition to) Premium.

See Subscription Tiers for pricing.