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

[Peter Giroux]

August

  We had something similar happen a few years ago on an AC coupled application using a 5048 Sunny Island ( with transformer ) and a Sunny Boy 7000. In a grid down scenario the Sunny boy dropped off line.  After a few calls with SMA sharing the error codes it turned out the Sunny Island was not delivering 60 hertz, not even 59, so we had to reprogram the Sunny Boy to recognize and run on 57 hertz.

  SMA was gracious enough to share the "magic code " and walk me through the programming. Once the Sunny Boy was reset to operate on the lower hertz range everything worked great. You may have a similar situation, not sure if the ABB folks will help with the hertz adjustment but you should give it a try before springing for a sunny boy.

Peter Giroux
ASAE
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: August Goers 
  To: RE-wrenches 
  Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 5:48 PM
  Subject: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island grid tie battery back and backup stability issues with ABB


  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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