Peak Time

Premium DemandGuard

A Peak Time automation manages your battery reserve during your utility’s time-of-use (TOU) peak hours — automatically raising and lowering the reserve so your battery is ready when electricity costs the most.

What it does

Peak Time automations run two actions:

At peak start: Raises battery reserve to your configured start percentage (e.g., 30%), so the battery won’t discharge below that level during peak hours. Switches your Powerwall to self-powered mode and pauses grid charging — see the note below.
At peak end: Adjusts the reserve based on your chosen end behavior — either restoring it to whatever it was before the automation ran, or setting it to a specific percentage you define. Switches the Powerwall back to autonomous mode and re-enables grid charging.

Grid Getter shows “Grid charging is paused during this window.” on every Peak Time automation card as a reminder. Self-powered mode alone isn’t quite enough: Tesla will still pull from the grid in some cases, and pausing grid charging closes that gap so you don’t pay peak rates for kWh you didn’t choose to buy.

You can also have it disable Storm Watch during the peak window, which prevents Tesla from charging your battery to 100% when you’re trying to hold capacity for peak-hour discharge.

When to use it

Peak Time is the right automation if your utility charges time-of-use rates with distinct peak periods. Common scenarios:

Your utility charges peak rates from 4–9 PM on weekdays — set a Peak Time automation to reserve 30% battery at 4 PM, then release it at 9 PM
Your summer rate schedule differs from winter — set active months accordingly
You want to prevent Storm Watch from filling up your battery right before a peak period starts

Creating a Peak Time automation

Go to Automations and click + Add Automation
Select the Peak Time tab
Give your automation a name
Set your peak window:
- Start Time: when your utility’s peak period begins
- End Time: when the peak period ends
Configure Battery Reserve (optional but recommended):
- Enable the battery reserve toggle
- Set Reserve at Start — the percentage to hold during peak hours (e.g., 30%)
- Choose what happens at peak end:
  - Restore to previous — Grid Getter snapshots your reserve just before peak starts and restores it when peak ends. Good if you don’t want to hardcode an end value.
  - Set to a specific % — Set an explicit end reserve (e.g., 0%) to release the battery after peak.
Toggle Disable Storm Watch During Peak if you want to prevent Storm Watch from charging your battery during peak hours
Set the schedule: choose days of the week and months that match your utility’s peak schedule
Click Create Automation

Settings reference

Setting	What it does	Default
Name	Label for this automation	Required
Description	Optional note	Empty
Start Time	When peak period begins	14:00 (2 PM)
End Time	When peak period ends	18:00 (6 PM)
Battery Reserve at Start	Reserve % applied when peak begins	Off
End Reserve Mode	What to do with the reserve when peak ends: Restore to previous or Set to specific %	Off
Battery Reserve at End	Reserve % applied when peak ends (only visible when End Reserve Mode is “Set to specific %“)	Off
Disable Storm Watch During Peak	Prevents Storm Watch from activating during peak hours	Off
Days of Week	Which days the automation runs	Mon–Fri
Months	Which months it’s active	All months

Example configurations

Classic evening TOU protection

Start: 16:00 (4 PM) — Set reserve to 30%
End: 21:00 (9 PM) — End Reserve Mode: Set to 0%
Days: Mon–Fri
Months: All

This keeps your battery at least 30% charged during peak hours so it can power your home through the evening, then releases the reserve at 9 PM so overnight charging and morning solar can fill it back up.

Let Grid Getter restore your reserve automatically

Start: 16:00 (4 PM) — Set reserve to 30%
End: 21:00 (9 PM) — End Reserve Mode: Restore to previous
Days: Mon–Fri
Months: All

If your reserve shifts throughout the day for other reasons, “Restore to previous” puts it back exactly where it was before peak started. No end percentage to hardcode, and nothing to keep in sync.

Summer-only peak protection

Start: 15:00 (3 PM) — Set reserve to 50%
End: 20:00 (8 PM) — End Reserve Mode: Set to 0%
Days: Mon–Sat
Months: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep

Some utilities have much higher peak rates in summer. You can run a more aggressive reserve only during those months.

Battery Threshold overlap warning

If you have a Battery Threshold automation with a custom window that overlaps this Peak Time automation, Grid Getter shows a non-blocking warning on the Peak Time form. Battery Threshold defers automatically during Peak Time 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 Peak Time automations you add, with no overlap concern.

If your Tesla goes offline during a peak window

If your Tesla connection drops while a Peak Time automation is active — and your Powerwall is left in Self Consumption mode when peak ends — Grid Getter catches this on reconnect.

When your Tesla reconnects, Grid Getter checks whether your Powerwall is stuck in Self Consumption outside of any active peak window. If it is, Grid Getter restores Autonomous mode and logs the action in your Activity Log. No manual intervention needed.

Plan requirements

Peak Time automations require a Premium or DemandGuard subscription.

If you’re on the free plan and try to save a Peak Time automation, you’ll see an option to upgrade. See Subscription Tiers.