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

[Howie Michaelson]

To follow up on Jerry's note,if the SI is shifting to regulate the incoming
charge from the AC coupled inverter, and you don't want this to happen, I
believe there is a software switch that will turn this feature off.
And Jerry, have you seen the SI replacement you referred to? Can you say
anything else about it?
Howie

Howie Michaelson
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™
Sun Catcher, LLC
Solar Energy Systems Sales and Service
VT Solar Electric Incentive Partner
802-272-0004

On Sep 18, 2017 10:14 PM, "Jerry Shafer" <jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com> wrote:

Luminalt
As l recall the SI will move the freq around to regulate the SMA inverter,
not having a SMA it may be attempting to force the inverter down. You can
widen the freq programming on the ABB inverter to prevent the shut down but
this will not prevent the volts from bouncing around, you may want to
adjust the inverter AC volts to get past the wave.. FYI, SMA will shortly
have a replacement for the SI thats 240 vac and alot smarter too.
Jerry

On Sep 18, 2017 1:26 PM, "Peter Giroux" <pgiroux at mindspring.com> wrote:

> 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 <august at luminalt.com>
> *To:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> *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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