VRM Portal and VRM API solar forecast returns only 0 values since a few days

Been having a weird one with my setup over the past week or so and wondering if anyone else has hit the same wall.

Running a Victron Cerbo GX on my tiny house build — 4.8kWh of Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 and a 600W array feeding into a Multiplus-II. Got Node-RED ticking away on the Cerbo pulling solar forecast data from the VRM API as part of an automation I put together to manage overnight charging from the grid.

The API calls are still going through fine — getting success: true back — but every single forecast value is returning 0. Watts for every interval, all zeros, like it thinks I've got no panels at all. This started about a week ago, maybe slightly longer, and nothing has changed on my end. Same Node-RED flow, same API credentials, same installation ID.

A few things I've checked already:

• VRM portal still shows my system correctly
• Location and panel config look fine in the portal settings
• Bearer token is valid and refreshing properly
• Other API endpoints (battery state, grid status, etc.) are returning normal data

Has anyone else seen this recently? Wondering whether it's a Victron backend issue with the forecast service specifically — perhaps something changed on their end with the solar irradiance data provider. It's made my overnight charging logic fairly useless because it's just defaulting to full grid charge every night regardless of what tomorrow's weather looks like.

Any insight appreciated — or even just confirmation that others are seeing the same so I know it's not something daft I've broken.

@RayPowell this is a known Victron backend issue that's been hitting VRM Portal's solar forecast feature globally — nothing wrong with your Cerbo or Fogstar setup, the API endpoint that pulls irradiance data from the third-party weather service has been returning nulls/zeros server-side.

Worth checking:

• VRM Community (community.victronenergy.com) — there's already a thread on this
• Your VRM installation settings → confirm GPS coordinates are saved correctly, as sometimes these drop out after firmware updates
• Raise a ticket via your Victron dealer if it persists beyond another week

The actual MPPT charging and battery management are completely unaffected — it's purely the forecast overlay being decorative nonsense right now, which for a tiny house build matters less than if you're away remotely monitoring consumption.

@MarineGeoff good shout flagging that — worth adding that the forecast feature pulls from a third-party irradiance API on Victron's backend, so when it breaks it tends to break for everyone simultaneously rather than being an individual config issue.

@RayPowell in the meantime, Solcast does free hobbyist accounts (up to 10 API calls/day) and gives decent UK-specific irradiance forecasts. Not integrated into VRM obviously but I've been using it alongside my Cerbo setup to cross-reference manually. Worth having as a fallback regardless.

Keep an eye on the Victron Community forum — they're usually pretty transparent about backend outages and post ETAs there before it shows up anywhere else.

@RayPowell yeah same boat here (literally — narrowboat). VRM forecast has been showing flat zeros for about a week on my setup too.

Not much you can do while Victron sort their backend out tbh. In the meantime I just cross-reference with forecast.solar manually — plug your panel specs and coords in, does a decent job. Not as slick as having it baked into VRM but it works.

Your actual charging/SOC data will still be logging fine, it's purely the forecast overlay that's borked. Don't go reconfiguring anything on the Cerbo trying to fix it — waste of your Sunday.

Same issue here on my off-grid cabin setup — glad @MarineGeoff flagged it as a known backend problem, saves me pulling my hair out checking cables and inverter configs!

@RayPowell one thing worth doing in the meantime is keeping a manual eye on your actual SOC trends through the day and cross-referencing with something like Solcast or even the Met Office UV index if you need rough generation estimates for planning purposes. Not as slick as the VRM forecast obviously, but it'll tide you over until Victron sort themselves out.

@GrumpySparky narrowboat installs are tricky enough without phantom data issues on top — hope yours clears up sharpish too.

I'd suggest logging a ticket with Victron support directly if you haven't already @RayPowell, just so they've got more user reports to work from. The more noise we make, the faster it tends to get prioritised.

Same here — both my boat and garden office installs showing flat zeros on the forecast.

Worth noting that if you're relying on the VRM forecast to drive any automation logic (ESS schedules, generator start thresholds etc.) you'll want to manually override those for now rather than letting them run blind on zero data. Caught me out on the boat last week when the generator didn't kick in as expected overnight.

@GrumpySparky narrowboat solidarity — it's a pain when you can't plan around the forecast properly, especially this time of year when every kWh counts.

Just keep an eye on the Victron Community forum directly — they tend to post updates there faster than it filters through here.