Off grid Islanding [RE-wrenches]

[Hugh]

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At 7:24 PM +0000 15/4/05, Christopher Freitas --- OutBack Power wrote:
>
>The SMA Sunny Island is very similar to an OutBack FX or the old Trace
>SW series inverter/charger.  It is a battery-type inverter which is
>Bi-directional.  It is not able to "sell" power back to the utility grid
>though - it can be used to "create" a local grid which then you can
>connect SMA Sunny Boy grid-tie inverters to create an "islanded" power
>system - i.e. an off-grid system with AC-coupled power sources. 
>
>I think what your considering is putting the PV array near the pool and
>maybe using regular grid-tie type SMA Sunny Boy inverters to allow long
>distance transmission of the power to the main SW based system.  This
>can work - in fact it has been done with using SW's as the "utility
>grid" by a few with some success.  I know it works with the OutBack FX
>series as well.

I am intrigued by the differences between bidirectional inverters.  I 
know they are entirely different from the old mod-sine inverters 
which convert themselves into transformer/rectifier battery chargers 
when there is an AC input.  Clearly the latter cannot work both ways 
seamlessly, and the AC input terminal is never connected to the 
output of the inverter as such, only to the loads.

In the case of the SW I get the impression that the AC input is only 
different from the AC output in that it has a relay for synching up 
to the output and also probably a current sensor, so that the 
inverter can gauge how much it can draw off that source.

The FX is different again in some ways I believe, but I have not yet 
got my head around that.  Chris told me that it cannot do 'generator 
support' yet, but I am not clear why not.  If it can inverter and 
charge seamlessly then why can it not share the load with another 
source?  I guess I ought to go to the web page and download some 
manuals and find out as best I can what is going on.
-- 
Hugh

Scoraig Wind Electric
http://www.scoraigwind.co.uk/

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