[RE-wrenches] Utility Dis-connect

Peter Parrish peter.parrish at calsolareng.com
Sun Oct 5 09:49:49 PDT 2008


Wrenches who toil in LADWP-land. Why can't we bring our collective intellect
and force to bear on this redundant, unnecessary and costly requirement?

I believe that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Solar Incentive
office has at least five years of data on anti-islanding: every PV system
that applies for a rebate at LADWP undergoes an anti-islanding test. I can
describe the test for anyone who wants to know the details, but in summary
the inverter is verified to turn OFF when the grid is disconnected (but a
load is still provided to the inverter) and verified to turn back ON after
300 secs when the grid is re-connected. I spoke to a field engineer back in
2006 and he commented that not a single inverter ever failed this test to
his knowledge. Could this data set be used to support the removal of this
requirement? What would be the venue to engage the Department on this?

- Peter

Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D., President
California Solar Engineering, Inc.
820 Cynthia Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065
Ph 323-258-8883, Mobile 323-839-6108, Fax 323-258-8885
CA Lic. 854779, NABCEP Cert. 031806-26
peter.parrish at calsolareng.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Glenn Burt
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2008 3:25 PM
To: jryago at netscape.com; 'RE-wrenches'
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Utility Dis-connect

Here in NY, the State Public Service Commission is proposing the lockable AC
disconnect requirement be removed for systems below 15kW.
This from a recently circulated New York State Standard Interconnection
Requirements proposal:

4.	The use of external disconnect switch has proven to be redundant and
unnecessary in small residential systems using inverters that meet relevant
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) standards.  Therefore, Staff proposes to eliminate the
external disconnect switch requirements for systems 15 kW or less that meet
UL 1741 (November 2005 revision).


There may be hope yet! 

-Glenn Burt

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Yago
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2008 9:25 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Utility Dis-connect

I know installing the totally useless exterior lock-able dis-connect has
been a bone of contention for us all, but was a necessary evil to get many
utilities to sign onto net metering in their state back in the late 90's.
However, now that we have had a few years of showing these are never used,
are not needed, linemen would not know if there were in their work area, and
are a waste of money, has there been any states or utilities that are giving
up on this requirement?

If not, any interest in trying to make this requirement go away?

Jeff Yago


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