[RE-wrenches] Power Factor and Grid Tied PV

[boB Gudgel]

swingjunkie at gmail.com wrote:
> Thanks to all who responded,
>
> The article Marco references, is the one referenced in the tinyurl in 
> my original post. I did not find anything of significance in the 
> previous Solar Pro issues. Based on the responses it seems there is no 
> good data out there to answer the question posted. This may be due to
>
> 1) the fact that PV systems are not being installed in commercial 
> facilities with large reactive loads
> 2) those facilities are not penalized for PF therefor the question is 
> irrelevant to those system owners
> 3) the PV systems installed in such facilities are small with respect 
> to the overall facilities load and any negative impact on PF is 
> insignificant
>
> Cheers
> Carl
>   

I don't think there is anything to be concerned about if the PF goes 
down because a grid tie inverter is helping
to support the real power loads.  The I-squared-R losses won't get any 
larger for the utility.  I think it's just
because the Numerator of   Watts / VAR goes down, and the denominator 
staying the same that is
making the measure Power Factor measurement go down.

Also, I believe that this is only for "current source" inverters, which 
accounts for most GT inverters today...
 An older SW inverter,  say, (voltage source) would actually supply VARs 
to the system and probably
wouldn't change the measured PF to the utility very much, if at all.

My 2 cents for today.
boB








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