SW Efficiency/ PWM Angle Adjustment [RE-wrenches]

Kent Sheldon kent.sheldon at xantrex.com
Fri Sep 7 10:24:31 PDT 2001


My 2c: The load determines power factor, period. The only thing I know about
trying is to have multiple generation sources with one dedicated to VAR
support so that the rest can run at unity where they are most efficient.

Kent Sheldon
Sales and Marketing Manager
Distributed Industrial & Utilities Markets
Xantrex Technology Inc.
Direct 925 245 5463 - Fax 925 245 1022
kent.sheldon at xantrex.com  www.xantrex.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Mr. Sharkey [mailto:sharkey at eugeneweb.com]
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 10:04 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re : SW Efficiency/ PWM Angle Adjustment [RE-wrenches]



	Eric;

	At this point, there are no inverters (that I know of) that correct
for
power factor beyond what the designers would consider "normal" and
necessary for the inverter to react properly with the utility power to
backfeed the system. It's an interesting concept that a grid-tied inverter
might be capable of correcting the entire building's electrical service to
unity, therefore making the building's consumption (or production) look
like a pure resistive load (supply) to the utility. At this point, it's
only a concept. It would probably take a lot of PV's and a really big
intertied inverter to correct for the amount of reactance in a typical
utility service load. That doesn't stop me from thinking about the
possibility.

	Earlier this year, at the Oregon Country Fair, I had this discussion
with
some of the Wrenches in attendance, and we thought it was a pretty flash
idea at the time. Even just loading the AC line with capacitors would go
some way towards improving the efficiency with, *or without* an intertied
inverter in the system. I'd think utilities would be very interested in the
possibility of subscribers being able to correct for PF losses in their
distribution system. Maybe this is another tendril of the net metering vine
that can crack the wall of utility resistance to intertied systems. A
premium price paid for independently-produced, unity PF electricity! Yay!!

	Extending the concept even farther: What if, instead of
transformer-based
inverters, we could develop capacitor-driven inverters? They would, by the
laws of physics, be on the right side of the PF correction fence. This
might be a better topic for HP's "The Wizard Speaks" column. Again, thought
process need have no boundaries. Generally, it's been proven, if we as
humans can think it up, (eventually) it becomes reality.

	-S

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