Givenergy disappointment: Proposed charge for service

[Bam Bam]

Givenergy customers have received an email today seemingly saying that they will be asked to pay for cloud server access and API usage in the near future.

This is a real disappointment since they previously promised that this would be "free forever."

There have been rumours for a while that Givenergy are in big trouble - they laid off a lot of people a few weeks ago.

Their model was to sell equipment but that led to ongoing customer service support liabilities since their products are difficult to manage without support. Perhaps the arrival of players like Signergy and AlphaESS into the market has hit them hard.

So perhaps the best outcome is that they charge for the service rather than that the service is lost.

What do others think of this?

• What other alternatives might there be?
• Could they go into administration and a phoenix company provide the services? Or would the phoenix company be absolved of all responsibility?
• Could another company like Octopus have taken over this cloud service instead and then had access to the batteries?

 

[Everest]

My 2p worth...

As far as possible I try to avoid getting tied in with proprietary systems as, invariably, the company disappears, changes their modus operandi or makes products obsolete. IIRC Givenergy have a range of non-proprietary (regular 16S, low-voltage) systems as well as newer proprietary (HV) systems. So would assume that there are more options for you if you have a nominal 48V-based system?

As for cloud servers, I wouldn't want to disseminate solar data to a cloud-based service, especially one run by a Chinese company (e.g. like Givenergy's parent company) anyway, so would look at other alternatives. A quick search suggested that there is some integration between Givenergy and HomeAssistant. If so, that is the path I'd investigate.

You say charge for API usage; assume you just mean API calls to the cloud service? If so, then presumably ModBus RTU or similar access to the inverter is still possible locally without any need for Givenergy to be still in existence?

 

[Bam Bam]

My 2p worth...

Your 2p is worth much more!

As far as possible I try to avoid getting tied in with proprietary systems as, invariably, the company disappears, changes their modus operandi or makes products obsolete. IIRC Givenergy have a range of non-proprietary (regular 16S, low-voltage) systems as well as newer proprietary (HV) systems. So would assume that there are more options for you if you have a nominal 48V-based system?

Pretty much. They started out with 48V hybrid inverters and then produced an AC Powerwall rival.

As for cloud servers, I wouldn't want to disseminate solar data to a cloud-based service, especially one run by a Chinese company (e.g. like Givenergy's parent company) anyway, so would look at other alternatives.

Didn't do my due diligence here, obviously, as I didn't know they were a Chinese-owned company.

I knew the equipment was essentially Chinese.

A quick search suggested that there is some integration between Givenergy and HomeAssistant. If so, that is the path I'd investigate.

There are indeed people who control their systems via HomeAssistant.

You say charge for API usage; assume you just mean API calls to the cloud service? If so, then presumably ModBus RTU or similar access to the inverter is still possible locally without any need for Givenergy to be still in existence?

I'm afraid I'm not up on the technical aspects.

They claim that local access is always possible, so I'm not sure if that means we could create an API locally? Sorry if that doesn't make any sense but this is beyond my expertise.

I fear I'm going to have to become an expert in this soon!

 

[Rolfe]

I've been emailing them for over a fortnight about an issue I have, with no response so far. They no longer have a functioning telephone answering service either. What are we supposed to do?