Some Solar problems ahead?

Isn't that vindication of the program to install them;they can meet demand, The overloading infrastructure problem should be laid at the feet of the various state governments who ratted the infrastruture refurbishfund that all the various electrical authorities had put aside. That is why you are not going to pay 30%+ on your electricity bills.

**Care to explain how grid connected inverters are capable of feeding MORE than mains Voltage (whether it is a nominal 230VAC or 240VAC) into the grid? I have assumed that they all must meet the stringent criteria laid down by the authorities.

-- Trevor Wilson

"Trevor Wilson"

** No current would flow from the inverter UNLESS it put out more volts than were otherwise on the incoming line.

The story is mostly a beat up of something quite minor that happens only in rural locations with long supply lines and hence relatively high source impedance AC supplies. Such locations already suffer wider variations in the AC voltage.

BTW:

High AC voltages mostly affect the lifespans of ordinary, 240 volt rated incandescent lamps - which are banned from sale anyhow.

... Phil

Just to be pedantic. Not all incandescent lamps are banned from sale.......For instance.

Pity though, nothing like the old 60w pearl.

What's that supposed to mean:

'Mr Hart said the size of conductors and cables in the streets would have to be upgraded "so it can handle lots of solar, versus times when there's lots of load and no solar".'

As if our infrastructure was designed with local solar PV supply in mind. That sounds like a lot of BS to me.

The problems I see are rapid changes of insolation in areas where PV supply is dominant (e.g. clouds moving fast). It takes time for the flow from the power station to react. And that's how I imagine over and under voltages could occur. Obviously, if most of the inverters are working properly and cut out when the voltage gets to high there would be at least no over voltage.

Tony

"Tony Simpleton"

** Makes perfect sense.

If there is adequate copper, then voltage drop problems vanish.

** My god - you really are off with the fairies.

... Phil

Only last Tuesday, I spotted a shelf full of incandescent bulbs on sale at Coles in Launceston.

**There are still a large variety of IC lamps available. Fancy shapes, odd bases, halogens and others.

-- Trevor Wilson

"Jeßus"

"Phil Allison"

** What a vile, over snipping turd you are.

My original comment was:

"High AC voltages mostly affect the lifespans of ordinary, 240 volt rated incandescent lamps - which are banned from sale anyhow. "

FFS " ordinary, 240 volt rated " = GLS, non halogen.

... Phil

And what's worse, no remorse about it either.

Fortunately for turds like myself, crimes against Usenet do not fall under the ICC's jurisdiction, else I'd fully expect to be extradited to The Hague.

OK. So what is 'GLS'?

**General Lighting Service.

-- Trevor Wilson

.......snip etc.

It's a badge you see on the back of some automobiles.

Oh. 'Thanks' for that ;)

That's the question. Is there adequate copper? I think maybe not with all the upgrading going on throughout the Western Suburbs of Sydney

I was, at least someone pays attention :)

Did you miss the fact that the author of that 'The Australian' article is a complete knob, and has no idea on how the grid works? He invents terminology, quotes others out of context, and quotes installers who have equally no clue on how anything works at all.

The Internet is loaded with lots of information on how the power grid works in general, and how the different forms of solar controllers work, AND how they interact with the grid.

I would suggest reading one of those, because *this* article is NOT one of them.

--
Newsbytes - Microsoft announce EDLIN for Windows

The author also quoted "One of Australia's biggest electricity network providers, Ausgrid, yesterday warned that there was a "significant likelihood" that costs would have to rise because of the impact of the solar photovoltaic cells." All a ruse I suppose. To me what you say is most probably correct in theory. But not in practice. The condition of the network aint so good. No forethought to future needs and technology was given by the planners a few years ago and I think we are starting to pay for it now. It's not only copper but also lack of maintenance to pad mounts, pole mounts and general hardware upgrades. But then I didn't go to uni to learn all this. I just work with it!

Article and quotes by CEOs seem complete rubbish to me as a layman. Here's my take: The supply from a normal solar panel is unlikely to exceed what a home uses unless of course everything if off and the people are away. So given that usually a user of solar panels will simply be *reducing* the call on the mains supply, the net power drawn through the gird will be less, so shortcomings in copper should not be a problem.

True there wll certainly be fluctuation when there is intermittent cloud cover, but on the whole that should be 'normal demand' punctuated by reduced demand. Not normal demand punctuated by increased demand!

On 15/10/2011 12:29 PM, Dimmer wrote: [snipped]

On second thought I got a bit of an idea where the problem may come to surface. I have no experience in grid technology, so correct me if I am wrong. First of all I must say, people do try to avoid heavy usage when the sun is shining, cause they can sell their electricity for about double of what they would pay. Which means they do feed into the net as much as they can in day time.

The voltage at a transformer would always be at the higher end to cater for the copper losses to be expected farther down the line. If, however, there are a number of powerful solar supplies feeding in along that transmission line, much of the current goes the other way, and the voltage drop due to copper losses could even ADD to the grid voltage. So instead of the usual voltage drop due to copper losses we would have a gain. The only way to avoid this reversal would be to use more copper or less solar.

As far as fluctuations are concerned, I think we'd need a lot more solar power, like a double digit share, to see an impact on the grid voltage or frequency.