Amphenol connectors and SolarEdge optimizers were "quarantined" as part of Project Titan and were either reworked and put back on roofs or scrapped, a former Tesla employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
To execute Project Titan, Tesla ordered supplies including ladders and tool belts and sent crews out around the United States, according to the former employee. The replacement parts had to be ordered as well, as all of the Amphenol H4 connectors were to be replaced with MC4 connectors.
This didn't happen all at once. Standard operating procedures had to be set, crews had to be put together, according to the source. In December, 188 Tesla trucks were sent out to almost 50 US cities to change out faulty connectors and optimizers in support of Project Titan, according to Tesla documents viewed by Business Insider. Tesla declined to comment on this.
In its statement, Tesla described Project Titan as "a remediation effort to limit any impact the connector may have had, even though we are not aware of any equipment manufacturer or regulator that has determined any substantial hazard exists."
"Over the past year, less than 1% of sites with this connector have exhibited any abnormal behavior," a Tesla representative said.
As late as April 2019, Tesla was still fine-tuning the Project Titan procedures. For example, according to one internal document from early April, Tesla mandated that all repair teams use refurbished parts as their first choice to replace damaged optimizers and connectors by the end of the month.
Tesla said that this was a factory-refurbished optimizer whose connector was different from the Amphenol H4 connector and that the part met its safety standards.
Tesla told Business Insider that it thought Project Titan was successful in addressing issues with the H4 connector and its higher rate of failure.
"Based on data from the 3.6 gigawatts of solar we currently have deployed across thousands of commercial sites and hundreds of thousands of residential sites, we know that our installations are safe and responsibly installed, monitored, and maintained," a Tesla representative said.
A former Tesla employee described being unsure whether Tesla was able to find and replace all of the defective parts.
"We don't have a dedicated department to do this stuff," the person said. "Everything flows one way — make the product, sell the product, install the product."
"There is no maintenance," the person added. "The customer is just supposed to monitor these on their cellphone apps and call us if they have a problem."
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