Smart Grid tied invererters?

[Photowhit]

Well, I've been following the problems with heavy reliance on alt power that Germany is having and I suspect if we have any intelligence left in congress that soon we will require grid tied inverters to be smart grid compliant. Allowing the power company to shut them down for short periods to power up/down generation to keep things running smoothly.

I think SMA has something like this, and the new Heart inverter claims to do this, suspect we will need more in the future.

Also we will need a contraption to place between micro inverters' stream and the grid to allow micro inverters to be pulled off line, suspect that would be easy?

Like to get an opinion of the new Heart transverter/inverter( http://www.transverter.com/ )as well, I put a question in the Off topic section. I kinda like the design, in that it can be used with any battery voltage 12-48v (though doesn't appear to support a 48v battery bank).

[mike90045]

If I was on grid, I'd be happy to let the power company store a mobile storage unit (EV) that could load or backfeed as needed. When I wasn't driving it 

[boB]

Fine just as long as the power company leaves my refrigerator and TV on !

[Photowhit]

? I don't understand what your saying?

It would only be able to limit the feed into the grid, not the power coming into the home. This should allow for load balancing which should take minimal time. You guys are the inverter guys. I suspect that's what we need in a solar grid tied inverter so we don't face the problem Germany is having...

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/07/german-utilities-paid-to-stabilize-grid-due-to-increased-wind-and-solar?cmpid=rss

Perhaps I don't understand how it works, my utility charges such a high 'user fee' that off grid makes sense rather than grid tied.

boB, I hope to hear an opinion of the Transverter thing Heart is doing, I can see it as being interesting even as an off grid inverter that can grow with systems, starting out with a 12v and being able to add units and switch battery banks, though I can't conceive of it not supporting 48v...

[boB]

boB, I hope to hear an opinion of the Transverter thing Heart is doing, I can see it as being interesting even as an off grid inverter that can grow with systems, starting out with a 12v and being able to add units and switch battery banks, though I can't conceive of it not supporting 48v...

I saw that early on when we went up to Heart and his wife's (Sunny ?) hotel room in Las Vegas many years ago when I was still at Outback.

I thought it was a pretty neat concept but the PV input only going up to around 55 VDC or so was a not so good idea to me.
I think that Robin designed the battery terminals for this unit ?  That was what we went up to talk to him about as I remember.

No 48V battery support there.  BUT, the idea that everything is tied together was fine.  The same thing can pretty much be done now with separate bi-directional charge controllers and inverters.  Not sure if his charge controller was bi-directional or not but that isn't all that necessary unless maybe it goes up to 400 or 500 volts and can feed into a PV grid tie inverter input kinda like the newer Solar-Edge unit does (Europe only ?).

I also hear that the Transverter is not very reliable but have not played with one recently myself.

[Photowhit]

Thanks boB!

Westbranch posted a link to a test in Boulder, CO,

http://blog.homerenergy.com/using-homer-model-advanced-inverter-technology-solar-plus-storage-boulder-colorado/

and I read something about a test install in Hawaii... I guess a what and see for now.

I was thinking about your response, I didn't think of this as any challenge (and likely it's not) to your charge controller or even if it could charge batteries directly and not through the grid. It was just interesting technology, and I actually saw it's advantages as building blocks for new to solar people who always ask about growing or buying a system a little at a time. My Classic lite's have been chugging along fine! Thanks for the great product! Need to add a little Whiz Bang to my system, it's getting dusty on the shelf!

[sparkskard]

i think a  smart inverter that , can eighter use pv  or  battery just  switch modes ,, i thought some of the older sunny boy would do that mppt or conv mode or i'm  i  wrong ??

   making  sparks

[niel]

to me this is a bad idea because those utility companies, like one in arizona, will purposely stop or limit those on solar from banking their excess power deliberately and will defeat net metering.

[russ_drinkwater]

Much better to put your hard earned cash into something that benfits just yourself and is beyond the control of the power
barons!
Panels, reg, batteries and standalone inverter!

[TomW]

Much better to put your hard earned cash into something that benfits just yourself and is beyond the control of the power
barons!
Panels, reg, batteries and standalone inverter!

I tend to agree on this.

Before we left the farm and moved to town our electric Co-op regularly had "stories" in their newsletter thingy that demonized grid tie and claimed it made everyone's power costs increase.

Pure Bull Ship. But they make nearly impossible to go grid interactive there.  You can force it but they show you a mountain of hoops to jump through and have to "inspect and approve at your cost" every piece of the system. Probably including the wire nuts on the cable.

Supposedly our current location is a bit less of a pain to deal with. Time will tell as we will not get to where we can actually afford a replacement system until we sell the farm.

It is all a scam to keep the coal burners running, I guess?

Anyway, my point is. They should be aggressively encouraging grid tie at every opportunity but the old saying "follow the money" quickly shows the cause of the silliness.

Sorry, I rant.

Tom

[keithwhare]

To be fair to power companies, they pay for power based on peak usage but sell it to homes based on actual usage.

There is still a lot of work to be done to be able to take advantage of a large number of intermittent small power sources and still be able to reliably supply peaks when all of the small power sources drop out.

This should be easier for areas where days are consistently sunny and the peak usage is for air conditioning during the sunny days. It is going to be harder in areas where peak usage occurs when clouds & rain is moving through or at night.

It is going to be particularly hard for electrical co-ops that serve a relatively small number of customers in a small area where all customers are affected by the same weather.

Keith