[RE-wrenches] Power Factor and Grid Tied PV

[Joel Davidson]

We worked on dozens of commercial PV systems in Southern California Edison 
(SCE), Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP), and San Diego Gas & 
Electric (SDG&E) territories. We installed Xantrex, SMA, and SatCon 
inverters and measured power factor on both the grid and the inverters. In 
every case, inverter power factor was 1. In almost every case LADWP's power 
factor was less than 1 and in older parts of Los Angeles power factor was 
often 0.75. SCE and SDG&E generally has pretty good power factors. In 
general, PV inverters do not worsen grid power factor. In general, newer 
sections of the grid are better designed and better managed than older grid 
sections. When utility companies or anyone says PV causes grid problems, ask 
for proof.
Joel Davidson

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Darryl Thayer" <daryl_solar at yahoo.com>
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 9:39 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Power Factor and Grid Tied PV


I recently spoke with an inverter manufacture and I left with the following 
opinion.  Normally the inverter takes the unity power factor load and leaves 
the reactive load.  making the power factor worse.  However the power factor 
could be corrected by the inverter, However this would add cost to the 
inverter and would not appear to have value to the solar industry.  There 
are variable reactance devices existing that can correct power factor, is 
there need for another device?

Darryl


> Hello Wrenches,
>
> Commercial power customers often are penalized for low
> power factors.
> Looking for other info I came across this article, which
> seems to
> cover the subject from an academic standpoint.
> http://tinyurl.com/ye5pzrw Does anyone
> have real world data which
> might shed light on the impact of a DGT PV system on power
> factor.
>
> With Regards
> Carl Adams
> SunRock Solar, LLC.
> _______________________________________________




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