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<DIV>Michael, Bill:</DIV>
<DIV>Our most troublesome areas are in older parts of So Cal (i.e. Pomona) with
higher AC loads. The ancient and undersized transformers just can't
compensate for the sag, especially at the end of the line. Edison WILL
replace the transformer after the DG customer and all of his fiends and
neighbors harass customer service for about two years... or when it
blows. </DIV>
<DIV>The dream wrench org..... when we finally wake up and put one together I
hope I'm still around. Right now CalSeia is just about the only game in CA town,
as far as Big Tent SOLAR is concerned and I gotta believe herding
cats would be a good deal easier.</DIV>
<DIV>Pat Redgate</DIV>
<DIV>Ameco Solar</DIV>
<DIV>PS Yes, I think it is time to find an attorney.... and there's a whole
bunch of 'em in Sacramento. But I also think it's a legitimate idea to
rethink voltage bandwidth at the PUC and PA forums. I believe all of Michael's
assumptions are low.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 8/16/2009 10:42:54 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
michael.welch@re-wrenches.org writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>Please
check my math, I did it pretty quickly.<BR><BR>CA has over 450 MW of
distributed PV systems. At around, say, 4.5 average daily sun hours (it is
probably more, averaged over the state's systems), that would be 540,000 MWh
each year.<BR><BR>If the utilities are dropping out of spec, say, 1% of the
time, that's 5,400 MWh of loss each year. At 15 cents a kWh (the average is
probably more) that turns out to be $81,000 worth of losses to us.<BR><BR>That
does not seem like a whole lot , but the number will grow as fast as PV
installations are.<BR><BR>Maybe it is time for a class-action lawsuit against
the utilities. Or time for the dream Wrench organization to file with the CPUC
for relief in the form of stricter utility specs, or petition UL for looser
inverter specs.<BR><BR>One question, why are inverters required to drop out
for out of spec voltage and frequency? It seems to me that the UL requirements
are overly limiting in that regard. I mean, if the utility can do it with
their huge plants, why can't we with our little ones?<BR><BR>William Korthof
wrote at 10:06 AM 8/16/2009:<BR><BR>>I'm beginning to wonder if the allowed
voltage range for grid-tie inverters (+/-10%) is too sensitive in some
networks and contributes more harm than benefit. This is close to
home.<BR>><BR>>We actually have a significant number of customers who've
had trouble with grid voltage causing their systems to go offline at various
times. I think most or all are SCE
customers.<BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="c23266eeeb99ffb621c211b85ac7ade4"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/></font></DIV></BODY></HTML>