Fault Current Contribution from Single-Phase PV Inverters

Conference · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/pvsc.2011.6186307· OSTI ID:1046885

Keller, J; Kroposki, B; Bravo, R; Robles, S

A significant increase in photovoltaic (PV) system installations is expected to come on line in the near future and as the penetration level of PV increases, the effect of PV may no longer be considered minimal. One of the most important attributions of additional PV is what effect this may have on protection systems. Protection engineers design protection systems to safely eliminate faults from the electric power system. One of the new technologies recently introduced into the electric power system are distributed energy resources (DER). Currently, inverter-based DER contributes very little to the power balance on all but a few utility distribution systems. As DER become prevalent in the distribution system, equipment rating capability and coordination of protection systems merit a closer investigation. A collaborative research effort between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Southern California Edison (SCE) involved laboratory short-circuit testing single-phase (240 VAC) residential type (between 1.5 and 7kW) inverters. This paper will reveal test results obtained from these short-circuit tests.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1046885
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5500-51831
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
DER
DESIGN
DISTRIBUTION
ENGINEERS
INVERTERS
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
POWER SYSTEMS
PV
TESTING
distributed energy resources
photovoltaics
protection
single phase PV inverters
solar