[RE-wrenches] Sunny Island grid tie battery back and backup stability issues with ABB

[August Goers]

Hi Wrenches -

We have an ~3 year old grid tied battery backup system with a SMA Sunny
Island 4548 and Power-One (now ABB) PVI-5000 inverter. There is also an
Outback PSX-240 to boost the Sunny Island voltage to 240 volts.

We recently returned to the site for an annual service call and tested the
system by simulating a power outage. The Sunny Island kicked in just fine
and provided stable voltage for the backup loads. However, the ABB tries to
connect and immediately we see that voltage and frequency of the Sunny
Island grid start to rapidly fluctuate. I have a feeling that my Fluke
meter is not capturing the fluctuations properly, but I was seeing voltage
fluctuate in the 238 to 242 volt range and frequency rapidly fluctuate
between 59 and 61 Hz.

The ABB connects for a minute or two and then gives us a grid out of range
error. This occurs when we have lots of irradiance and also under
relatively low light conditions. I've already been on the phone with SMA
tech support several times and verified that all the Sunny Island settings
are good.

Has anyone else seen this type of instability issue and did you find a fix?
We might need to install a Sunny Boy.


Thanks,

August

*August Goers*

Luminalt
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