RE and Regulations, both UL and IEEE [RE-wrenches]

Wed May 1 18:49:13 PDT 2002

I'm with you on this one, Bill.  The guerilla solar approach, while
feeding the anti-establishment yearnings of anti-government,
anti-utility RE advocates, is not the way to achieve RE systems and
applications on a more widescale, consumer friendly basis.  The UL, NEC
and IEEE hoops the industry has to go through are necessary to gain
entrance and acceptance into the dominant paradigm of electric industry
regs and requirements.  And, just to contrast the hurdles that exist in
some states that have recently passed NEM laws, here in Hawai'i the
utilities have been very cooperative in allowing NEM systems to be
interconnected since the law was signed last June.  And it's not because
we all sit around drinking Mai Tais or Pina Coladas under swaying palm
trees watching the sunset with a booze buzz.

As that great philosopher Rodney King said in response to the LA riots
ten years ago: "Can't we all just get along?"

marco
ProVision Technologies, Inc.
Hilo, Hawai'i

Richard and Christopher,

While I agree that competition is good when it comes to NRTLs to keep
costs
lower for everyone, I want to point out that listing of PV products has
had
a huge beneficial impact on the PV industry. We have had over 2000 PV
installations permitted and inspected in California and most of those
systems would never have happened if listed equip did not exist. This is
just the beginning of a whole new market for solar products that cannot
be
ignored. I can think of things I would like to see different at both UL
and
ETL so I am not going to get drawn into a discussion of who's good and
bad.

A conspiracy theory surrounding UL in cahoots with IEEE in developing a
standard that cannot be met is utter hogwash to put it mildly.
Questioning
the IEEE standards on a state-by-state basis would have absolutely no
benefit to the PV industry. Complaining about IEEE standards will have
the
undesirable effect of classifying our PV industry as a bunch of whiners.
We
have already achieved that status with several states and it has made
progress more difficult rather than easier. If you want to keep PV
offgrid,
what is being suggested in the article below will help toward that end.

The problem is not IEEE 929 as so many folks so fondly think, the
problem is
that the manufacturers have had a tough time making their existing
products
work with the standards. Now the problem is either that the standard
sucks
or its time to go back and do a little more homework on the inverter
design
(the latter if your stuck on which one is right). Operating connected to
a
utility system is a very difficult task, and most manufacturers don't
get it
right the first time or two. The utility grid does have some problems in
many rural areas and our equipment shows some of those problems.
However,
most problems I have run across that was blaimed on the grid was
actually an
inverter malfunction or miscalibration. That makes it tougher to put the
pressure on when the utility actually is at fault.

The utility industry lives and dies on standards. We have IEEE 929 that
virtually every utility that has seriously looked at it has adopted. Did
they adopt it to squash PV--heck no. The utilities that have used
standards
to squash PV are the ones that refuse to adopt it.

I can easily say without exaggeration that I have had more experience
working with utility engineers on these issues than most other folks on
this
wrenches list, and this reactionary approach smokes my tail feathers. I
will
also be the first to admit that many utilities can and have been
obstructing
PV installations. I can also say that many of the utilities that used to
obstruct systems, are now allowing them. What changed? a lot of
education
and pioneering groundwork by several people.

Pioneering is never fun and games, its hard work. Have we arrived,
absolutely not. We have a long way to go in developing better products
that
are easier to permit, easier to install, and easier to keep running for
25
years. Do we quit now because its still hard--from reading responses to
this
list there is now way that represents most wrenches viewpoint.

Don't wimp out at being a pioneer and succumb to the dark side of being
a
solar guerilla. Stick with being a pioneer and make PV easy for your
children and grandchildren. Guerillas are not moving this industry
forward.
They are either hurting by being a bad example or having absolutely no
positive impact because they don't exist in the real world.

When we run into opposition, we must first ask ourselves if the
opposition
is because someone has it out for the technology, or because they don't
understand it. Nine out of 10 folks that I run into that initially
oppose
the technology are doing it to be vindictive, but because they don't
understand it yet. We have to market this disruptive technology
effectively
showing that it can provide so many benefits that existing utility power
cannot. Enough said for now. (Richard if you would like to publish this
as a
counterpoint--feel free--thanks for the opportunity to vent and no hard
feelings

Bill.

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Perez, Home Power magazine
[mailto:richard.perez at homepower.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 2:34 PM
To: RE Wrenches
Subject: RE and Regulations, both UL and IEEE [RE-wrenches]

Hello Wrenches

I want to agree with Christopher Freitas on UL being a roadblock in
the way of RE progress. I have no bones to pick with safety and the
necessary function of certifying gear which is safe, I just think
that UL has become reactionary.

And these sort of regulatory problems don't stop with UL. We've also
got specs for grid-tied inverters that are bogus, essentially written
by utilities and rubber stamped by the IEEE.

Here's a preview of a short article which will appear in the
June/July issue of Home Power. I am hoping that Wrenches will lead
the way in getting the standards for utility intertied inverters on
some reasonable and realistic standard.

Get Organized!

Utah just became the 35th state to pass a net metering law. Is our
struggle to bring homemade renewable energy on-grid just about done?
No such luck. As with many legal issues, the devil is in the
details....

At a recent solar business seminar held by Energy Outfitters, more
than 35 RE dealers heard presentations by industry representatives,
including three grid-intertie inverter manufacturers. One of the
major grid-intertie problems discussed was the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 519 and 929 standards.
These standards set power quality and anti-islanding requirements for
grid-intertie inverters, and are included in most state net metering
laws.

Many dealers and manufacturers are finding that grid-intertie
inverters jump off-grid, or even refuse to connect to the grid at
all. When utility grids are undervoltage, overvoltage, or have too
much distortion, inverters programmed to IEEE standards will not
connect.

This isn't a safety issue. Safety is taken care of by other
grid-intertie inverter standards (UL 1741). This is an issue of the
grid's power quality. What we are discovering is that in many areas,
the grid is far too funky to allow inverter intertie. The utilities
are holding our RE inverters to standards that they cannot maintain
themselves!

I view these IEEE standards as just another in a long series of
roadblocks that utilities have put in the way of grid-intertied, RE.
Having a state net metering law is irrelevant if the inverter is held
to standards that will not allow it to connect to the grid. The
further irony is that our grid-connected RE could help the utilities
clean up their grid power quality problems!

It's time to get organized again. The only way to effectively change
this situation is for us, state by state, to question the IEEE
standards. We need to go to our state PUCs and governments, and lobby
for change. I'm sorry that our work didn't end with passing net
metering laws. Now we have to go for the devil in the details.

If you want to help, e-mail me. I'll act as an information
clearinghouse until individual state groups get organized. We've got
some work to do.

Access
Richard Perez, Home Power
mailto:richard.perez at homepower.com
http://www.homepower.com

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