Post Main Point of Connection [RE-wrenches]

[Jeff Clearwater]

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Hi William,

When you say "we are not allowed the 20% bus over rating allowed on a 
residence.  Therefore, we must connect prior to the service 
disconnecting means"  - are you sure that the bus on the main panel 
is not either rated at higher than the main breaker or perhaps 
replaceable?    It's not often the case but it's an assumption worth 
checking out!

On  800 and 1200 amp boxes the main busses are sometimes rated higher 
than the main breaker (and sometimes on smaller panels for that 
matter)  .  On one job where we installed the  1200 Amp service 
equipment we were able to order special overrated busses - rated 
higher than the main breaker rating thus accomodating our solar 
breakers.

Or the other easy out is to see if you can downsize the size of the 
main breaker.  If the panel is not approaching it's load limit, you 
may be able to rerun the calcs and show the inspector that a smaller 
main would still work - thereby giving yourself the room you need. 
30 KW is about 125 Amps at 240 or 150 Amps at 208. So you'ld have to 
downsize the main that much - sometimes doable on 800 Amp or 1200 Amp 
services.

Again these are somewhat long shots -but sometimes worth a little research.

Hope that helps!

Best

Jeff C.
Village Power Design


>Colleagues:
>
>We are installing a 30 KW system in California.  Being a commercial 
>property, we are not allowed the 20% bus over rating allowed on a 
>residence.  Therefore, we must connect prior to the service 
>disconnecting means as allowed in NEC 690.64(A).
>
>The utility (PG&E) is allowing this but has disallowed us from 
>connecting in the same cabinet as the metering current transformers. 
>The next cabinet downstream is the service disconnect.  The switch 
>has arc chutes in this section of the cabinet occupy the entire 
>cabinet, not giving us room to attach to the bus bars.
>
>Has anyone else experienced this scenario?  IF so, how have you dealt with it?
>
>Thanks,
>
>William Miller
>
>
>
>__________________________________________________________________
>William Miller
>Miller Power and Communications
>Voice :805-438-5600     Fax: 805-438-4607
>email: wrmiller at mpandc.com
>http://mpandc.com
>License No. C-10-773985
>_____________________________________________________________
>Check out our latest project at 
>http://mpandc.com/case_studies/pv_school/pv_school.html 
>
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Village Power Design
Sustainable Energy & Water Solutions for Home & Village
http://www.villagepower.com
gosolar at villagepower.com
NABCEP (tm) Certified Solar PV Installer

530-470-9166
877-SOLARVillage
877-765-2784
72 Baker Rd.
Shutesbury, MA 01072
425 Nimrod St.
Nevada City, CA 95959
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`~


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