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Darryl,<br>
<br>
The inverter is reducing the real power used by the customer but not
the reactive power. So it does make the power factor worse when you
are looking at from the utility meter. Since most customers don't pay
for reactive power it doesn't matter to them. But some customers do
pay for reactive power and the solar system doesn't help on the
reactive side of the bill. Variable reactor devices are made to
improve power factor by providing leading or lagging reactive power.
The solar powered inverter doesn't reduce or increase the need for a
variable reactive device. If you are dealing with an industrial
customer that is billed for reactive power, or VAR-hrs, it is important
to make sure they are aware that the solar system won't help with that
portion of the bill.<br>
<br>
>From the utility's perspective the fact that the solar inverter only
provides real power is bad, except when they are billing customers for
reactive power. Take a look at a "Net Zero" possibility for the
house. The kWhs used is net zero, but reactive power was still
provided by the utility company: a service they weren't paid for yet
did have an impact on equipment in their system. When solar starts
having a 5%, 10%, 15% impact on the total residential load, you'll see
the utilities screaming for tariffs that allow them to bill residential
customers (or at least grid interactive customers) for reactive power,
or for higher monthly base fees. The greedy-guts will probably ask for
both and an allowance for lost kWh sales too.<br>
<br>
Kent Osterberg<br>
Blue Mountain Solar, Inc.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Darryl Thayer wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:284592.76121.qm@web51908.mail.re2.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I recently spoke with an inverter manufacture and I left with the following opinion. Normally the inverter takes the unity power factor load and leaves the reactive load. making the power factor worse. However the power factor could be corrected by the inverter, However this would add cost to the inverter and would not appear to have value to the solar industry. There are variable reactance devices existing that can correct power factor, is there need for another device?
Darryl
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hello Wrenches,
Commercial power customers often are penalized for low
power factors.
Looking for other info I came across this article, which
seems to
cover the subject from an academic standpoint.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tinyurl.com/ye5pzrw">http://tinyurl.com/ye5pzrw</a> Does anyone
have real world data which
might shed light on the impact of a DGT PV system on power
factor.
With Regards
Carl Adams
SunRock Solar, LLC.
_______________________________________________
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