[RE-wrenches] PV harvest in grid-tied systems

David Katz dkatz at aeesolar.com
Wed Apr 18 02:01:08 PDT 2012


William
I have a grid tie system with a Outback Radian and Xantrex 600 volt charge controller with 4kw of modules and it sells back flawlessly.  I have revenue-grade monitoring on the system and I am very happy with the output.
David Katz

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 16, 2012, at 6:51 AM, "William Miller" <william at millersolar.com> wrote:

> Friends:
> 
> There has been recent discussion on this forum about PV production in 
> grid-tied with battery systems.  I have been faced with this same problem 
> in a 3 XW system installed in 2009.
> 
> The customer's power bill never went down.  PV harvest was abysmal.  The 
> system would create great short circuit current but would not harvest into 
> the batteries.
> 
> It is starting to appear the XW firmware was at fault.  The inverters would 
> charge the batteries too high so the charge controllers would back 
> off.  Upgraded firmware seems to be helping, but the data set is still limited.
> 
> Remember this:  just because a PV system can produce does not mean it 
> will.  The charge controller knows only one thing:  battery voltage.  If it 
> is high, production is curtailed.
> 
> Off-grid production will also be reduced is consumption is curtailed.
> 
> Charge controllers that can be set for grid-tied applications help, but 
> only if the inverter(s) do not keep the battery voltage too high.
> 
> William Miller
> 
> 
> Miller Solar
> Voice :805-438-5600
> email: william at millersolar.com
> http://millersolar.com
> License No. C-10-773985
> 
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