Forecast.Solar Timezone issue

[RangeyRover]

Describe the bug
Using the forecast solar method in apps.yaml PV production time alignment does not match the local timezone or solar day for lat/long

Expected behaviour
Given this input, I expected the solar forecast to align to the local Adelaide time ACDT, which the planning portion does, but is showing PV production for nighttime hours

pred_bat:
  module: predbat
  class: PredBat

  prefix: predbat
  timezone: Australia/Adelaide
  run_every: 5

  #ha_url: "http://homeassistant"
  #ha_key: "secret_ha_key.replaceme"

  # Replace this with the total PV energy generated today from your inverter
  pv_today:
    - sensor.my_home_solar_generated

  # Currency, symbol for main currency second symbol for 1/100s e.g. $ c or £ p or e c
  currency_symbols:
    - "$"
    - "c"

  # Misc
  charge_control_immediate: False
  num_cars: 0 # I don't have an EV :(

  inverter_type: TESLA
  inverter:
    name: "Tesla Powerwall via Teslemetry"
    has_rest_api: False
    has_mqtt_api: False
    output_charge_control: "none"
    has_charge_enable_time: False
    has_discharge_enable_time: False
    has_target_soc: False
    # While the Powerwall does have a reserve SoC, we don't need to
    # leverage it for controlling charge/discharge
    has_reserve_soc: False
    charge_time_format: "S"
    charge_time_entity_is_option: False
    soc_units: "%"
    num_load_entities: 1
    time_button_press: False
    clock_time_format: "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
    write_and_poll_sleep: 2
    has_time_window: False
    support_charge_freeze: False
    support_discharge_freeze: False
    has_idle_time: False

  # ---- Live power ----
  battery_power:
    - sensor.my_home_battery_power
  battery_power_invert:
    - False

  pv_power:
    - sensor.my_home_solar_power

  load_power:
    - sensor.my_home_load_power

  grid_power:
    - sensor.my_home_grid_power

  grid_power_invert:
    - True

  inverter_reserve_max: 80 #Anything between 80-100 will always be treated as 100

  # ---- Daily energy (kWh, cumulative today) ----
  load_today:
    - sensor.my_home_home_usage
  import_today:
    - sensor.my_home_grid_imported
  export_today:
    - sensor.my_home_grid_exported

  # ---- State of charge ----
  soc_percent:
    - sensor.my_home_percentage_charged
  soc_max:
    - "27" # ensure this matches your usable kWh

  # ---- Powerwall controls via Teslemetry (must be writable) ----
  allow_charge_from_grid:
    - switch.my_home_allow_charging_from_grid
  allow_export:
    - select.my_home_allow_export

  # ---- Solar forecast (Solcast) ----
  #pv_forecast_today: sensor.energy_production_today
  #pv_forecast_tomorrow: sensor.energy_production_tomorrow

  forecast_solar:
   - latitude: -34.0
     longitude: 138.0
     kwp: 4.3
     azimuth: 6
     declination: 23
     efficiency: 0.95
  forecast_solar_max_age: 4

  # ---- Tariff sensors (Octopus) ----
  metric_octopus_import: "re:(sensor.(octopus_energy_|)electricity_[0-9a-z]+_[0-9a-z]+_current_rate)"
  metric_octopus_export: "re:(sensor.(octopus_energy_|)electricity_[0-9a-z]+_[0-9a-z]+_export_current_rate)"
  metric_standing_charge: "re:(sensor.(octopus_energy_|)electricity_[0-9a-z]+_[0-9a-z]+_current_standing_charge)"
  octopus_free_session: "re:(event.octopus_energy_([0-9a-z_]+|)_octoplus_free_electricity_session_events)"
  threads: auto
  forecast_hours: 48

  # --- Predbat service hooks (Tesla / Teslemetry) ---
  # These hooks are called when Predbat wants to change the current
  # state of charge/discharge. They can tie-in to other HA entities.
  #
  # Tesla PW Operation modes can be one of:
  # ['self_consumption','autonomous','backup']
  #
  # grid-charging=on, mode=backup: Powerwall will charge
  # grid-charging=off, mode=backup: Powerwall will hold
  # mode=self_consumption: Powerwall will discharge

  charge_start_service:
    - service: switch.turn_on
      entity_id: switch.my_home_allow_charging_from_grid
      repeat: True
    - service: select.select_option
      entity_id: select.my_home_operation_mode
      option: "backup"
      repeat: True

  charge_hold_service:
    - service: switch.turn_off
      entity_id: switch.my_home_allow_charging_from_grid
      repeat: True
    - service: select.select_option
      entity_id: select.my_home_operation_mode
      option: "backup"
      repeat: True

  charge_freeze_service:
    - service: switch.turn_off
      entity_id: switch.my_home_allow_charging_from_grid
      repeat: True
    - service: select.select_option
      entity_id: select.my_home_operation_mode
      option: "backup"
      repeat: True

  charge_stop_service:
    - service: switch.turn_off
      entity_id: switch.my_home_allow_charging_from_grid
    - service: select.select_option
      entity_id: select.my_home_operation_mode
      option: "self_consumption"

Predbat version

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem. The most useful ones can be your battery chart, the Predbat HTML plan and your current settings in HA.

Log file
predbat.log

Predbat debug yaml file

predbat_debug.yaml

[gcoan]

The forecast_solar YAML isn't quite indented correctly. This might be the cause of your problem.

Instead of:

  forecast_solar:
   - latitude: -34.0
     longitude: 138.0
     kwp: 4.3
     azimuth: 6
     declination: 23
     efficiency: 0.95
  forecast_solar_max_age: 4

it should be

  forecast_solar:
    - latitude: -34.0
      longitude: 138.0
      kwp: 4.3
      azimuth: 6
      declination: 23
      efficiency: 0.95
  forecast_solar_max_age: 4

[RangeyRover]

@gcoan Thanks
Made the change to this style
forecast_solar: - latitude: -34.58347505599178 longitude: 138.75183105468753 kwp: 4.3 azimuth: 6 declination: 23 efficiency: 0.95 forecast_solar_max_age: 4
on this screen it shows indented above the o
on the editor screen it seems indented correctly as you showed

Anyway the end result is it parses and plans ok, but the solar production is still centered on GMT

[gcoan]

Ok thanks. It was worth a try

Will probably need enhancement to convert GMT to local time.

As an alternative, you could try the Solcast forecast, either Predbat direct or via the solcast integration. I know that the integration definitely handles time zone properly

[springfall2008]

Looks like a bug for sure

[snarfattack]

I just upgraded to the latest Predbat, looks like this impacted me too. I'm using the solcast sensor names, and I'm on United States CST.

[gcoan]

I just upgraded to the latest Predbat, looks like this impacted me too. I'm using the solcast sensor names, and I'm on United States CST.

If you are using the Solcast integration that it should be OK as the Solcast integration handles local/UTC properly

[RangeyRover]

I switched to solcast as a result of the forecast solar timezone issue. I could only use solcast in direct mode, it wouldn't appear when trying to access via the sensors. I can report direct solcast works fine with timezones.

[snarfattack]

Solcast shows data perfectly fine in the energy window

Predbat has it starting 6 hours later now after upgrading.

[gcoan]

Predbat has it starting 6 hours later now after upgrading.

thanks

I assume you have timezone set correctly in apps.yaml and solar forecast used to be correctly time aligned in Predbat?
Could you try reverting to an older Predbat version to confirm when this behaviour broke?

[snarfattack]

It was planning correctly earlier today, once I upgraded from 1.2.9 to 1.3.2 in the past hour, it got mis-aligned.

  # Timezone to work in
  timezone: America/Chicago


  pv_forecast_today: re:(sensor.(solcast_|)(pv_forecast_|)forecast_today)
  pv_forecast_tomorrow: re:(sensor.(solcast_|)(pv_forecast_|)forecast_tomorrow)
  pv_forecast_d3: re:(sensor.(solcast_|)(pv_forecast_|)forecast_(day_3|d3))
  pv_forecast_d4: re:(sensor.(solcast_|)(pv_forecast_|)forecast_(day_4|d4))

I've reverted to 1.2.9 that was taken in the backup last night, works as expected now:

Predbat is on v1.2.9, and Predbat Core is on v8.26.4

[gcoan]

It was planning correctly earlier today, once I upgraded from 1.2.9 to 1.3.2 in the past hour, it got mis-aligned.

that is interesting, from the version number you upgraded the Predbat add-on and the timezone problem appeared, it was NOT the predbat app that you changed?

this is a different issue then with the predbat addon, can you raise it as a new issue please, presumably the addon is picking up the GMT time zone not your local machine TZ

[snarfattack]

Confirmed, I upgraded 1.2.9 to 1.3.2, kept on core v8.26.4, and the problem re-appeared.