Put down your weapons.3. If your solar company provides you with the Solar pre-approval (SPA) number for your pre-approval, we can check specifically what was decided on with regards to exporting. Can I share my power excess with me neighbour? Single-phase properties can have up to 5 kilowatts of inverter capacity, and 3 phase properties can have up to 30 kilowatts. 0000037380 00000 n To give you example, you will probably find the profile you mention is probably throttling from a very low 250v and will ramp down to 20% at 265v. The new inverter standard AS/NZS 4777.2:2020 has new inclusions to address grid stability issues - a new feature that is necessary to further enhance the hosting capacity to accommodate more solar and renewable energy systems. Is this perhaps one of the well-kept secrets about the reality of residential solar production in Western Australia, one that neither the solar installers or inverter manufacturers, let alone Synergy or Western Power want to be publicly known? For example, I can see several Energex profiles that do things like limit export to differing amounts, turns on Volt-var without Volt-watt, or sets the power factor to 0.9. No unfortunately. If they want a big solar system with an inverter larger than 5 kW, they must export limit the inverter. Now, that would help protect electricity grids, especially, the fragile, decrepit SWIS grid, for the present. Definitely, thats an inverter that is export limited to zero. Aside from that, when you have high resistance lines, there is a voltage drop over their length. I had applications rejected, and when I asked there was NO course for negotiation or discussion its the RULES is s synopsis of the responses. Of course, if you are planning to get an electric car, that has the potential to make a huge difference to your self consumption of solar power. Swearing revenge, he began his lifelong quest to reduce the harm the environment could cause. 0000008043 00000 n Providing the export limiting is done on the meter current as described above ( not on the inverter output current), you can generate more than the export limit if you are consuming enough power to make up the difference between generation and export limit. Some say so you want to replace your system? 0000022631 00000 n Solar customers who currently have a limit on the amount they can export are invited to contact Powercor to reapply for an export agreement based on the greater capacity now available on the network. But there will often be times when the solar system will produce more power than can be exported, so some energy will be lost3. It would definitely be better if we didnt need to limit the amount of power solar systems sent into the grid. Weve got a system that can be left alone in my opinion, so adding say 6.6kw and a 10kw battery makes good sense but what a task. 5kW times the number of hours is the total production over that time. Its the same with kW and hours of solar electricity production. The majority of customers are approved for the export level they request. To add to this, in the installer section of the Envoys web server control panel, you can set the profile by which all microinverters operate. Thanks Ronald! Households and small businesses that generate electricity using solar panels, wind turbines, or other small-scale generators, can feed back any unused electricity into the electricity grid for other customers to use. But whether or not extra solar capacity will pay for itself is another matter. 0000011077 00000 n Only residential homes with inverters of 5 kilowatts or less can receive the states. 0000037419 00000 n Activities part of Powercors Solar Hotspots program carried out over three months included upgrading infrastructure, adjusting tap settings on street-level transformers, balancing voltage levels on powerlines and various tweakery at zone substations. 0 0000001260 00000 n My solar installer applied to Powercor to install a 5.4kw system at my Point Cook address. essential enrgy in central west nsw (Orange) are generally restricting to max 5kw export limit regardless of 1ph or 3ph: 2 x 3ph residential applications approvals cutnpaste below only difference was one specifically stated APPROVAL/SITE SPECIFIC CONDITION(s): Total Site to be export limited to 5kW 3 phase 1.66kW/per phase (and the padmount sub for the subdivision in on the property boundary) Your dedicated meter will inform the inverter, and it will immediately reduce the power, so it doesnt exceed 5 kilowatts1. STCs can be received for panel capacity up to one-third greater than the inverter capacity. Normally it makes more sense to buy a second, separate system, than to expand an existing one. VAr (var % rated VA) If that doesnt worry you then you can get a battery and just hope it mostly pays for itself. My guess is that when the Envoy-S sees it needs to throttle due to export limits, it does this by sending the same instruction to all micros to throttle the same amount (but dont know for sure). While the Envoy is an important part of the system, the micros largely operate independently of the Envoy, and in a lot of cases can work without the Envoy at all. This 80% could translate to an estimated 50,000 current or potential solar customers able to export more solar to the grid. The solar installer or customer must have sought and received pre-approval from us for the requested capacity of the generator. So yeah, the Envoy is essentially all you need to configure export limiting or anything else if you have an Enphase microinverter set-up. The inverter reduces the amount of electrical energy supplied by the solar panels. This means you tend to see panels at the end of strings shutdown soonest on voltage risk conditions, as they have the highest voltage rise being at the end of the string. An Update: I just had system installed 4 days ago in the Energex DNSP and suggest the above is perhaps not quite correct. 11kW panels with 10kW 3-phase inverter (Fronius Symo + Fronius 3-phase meter). Put down your weapons.3. On the main grid, single-phase properties can have 5 kilowatts of solar inverter capacity, and three-phase properties can have 15 kilowatts. The whole system of domestic rooftop photovoltaic systems, needs to be reviewed; by both the legislatures and regulators, and, by the components (especially the inverters) manufacturers. given that we are working from home all the time these days. Please confirm the maximum export limit in the relevant section of this application.. Most systems have mostly N facing panels, so really only generate peak power for a few hours a day (often 10am>2pm approx) And yes 5kW export limit applies May I suggest an extra fact check to polish the valuable story above? is it 10kW AC or DC?? But just note, not everyone Envoy has required bits to do export limiting. If you are interested you can read about this here: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/inverters/mppt/. There may well be a tipping point in battery prices where a drought of mid day solar will be followed by very little evening use and possibly large numbers of households abandoning the grid altogether. When a home is exported limited, all the power the solar inverter can produce is available for the home to use. 0000004736 00000 n While losses increase as the solar power system size goes up, even with 10 kilowatts of panels which is twice the export limit, only 13% of generation is lost. Why my Power Limit is set to ON with the % whereas her Power Limit is set to OFF and she has been exporting. Queenslands Ergon network area: All of Queensland on the main grid outside of South East Queensland. 0000000016 00000 n Do you know the situation here? It is critical that you install an approved smart inverter and set it correctly. So while the article suggests 10kW inverter ( 13.33kW DC) in fact the limit seemed to be 10kW DC ( hmmm what does 10kW generation mean exactly ?.) trailer The standard relating to solar inverters is about to change. The fact is that Powercor does not set an upper limit on the size solar panel system you can install, up to 30kW. When a home is exported limited, all the power the solar inverter can produce is available for the home to use. 0000039018 00000 n I was told that as there is an export limit of 5kW and I already have 3.5kW system, my new system will be export limited to 1.5kW. 0000005986 00000 n The solar PV system is connected to the network via an inverter. Does anyone know how the limiter works in this scenario with 2 inverters? AS4777.2:2015 has some rather low default recommendations, which can be tweaked up as no doubt my profile has allowed. Here at SolarQuotes, we had been hearing quite a few complaints about Powercors zero export limits. Quotes vary and the deal has to be value/advantage logical or whats the point. The good news is, if you had a total of 6.6 kilowatts of solar youd probably loose very little due to export limiting if you consume half the output of a 3 kilowatt system and can export 3 kilowatts. Great article and content on this website Its becoming common for solar inverters to be export limited, so the maximum amount of power they send into the grid is less than theyre capable of providing. Or is the energy produced by the panels but dissipated somehow? 220 Have I been conned into believing I could produce up to 6.6kW myself, but in fact the maximum my inverter will ever allow through to the meter (and to my house) is only 5kW? But, if you are really keen, I suppose you could use a site such as PV Institutes Live PV Map to see how other solar systems in your general area are performing: Note that patchy cloud can produce a lot of variation in output. If the transformer capacity is limited, you could install solar initially with a low export limit (eg 1 kW) and then have your export limit increased when the transformer was . 0000037497 00000 n Fronius Wattpilot: A Smart EV Charger With A Short Warranty, You Wont Believe How Dumb The NSW Governments New Battery Calculator Is. By the time he was eight, he was already focused on using the power of the sun to stop fossil fuel emissions destabilizing the climate. 0000001916 00000 n I wouldnt drive anything else. (Image from Finns Tesla App). The data has 5KW flat lining confirming more is being generated. Because people have been refused any STCs for being just a few watts over, no installer will go over the limit for a normal installation. Origin offers 8 cents per kWh until a daily export limit of 14 kWh is reached. Below is the email response I received from Powercor. Definition A low voltage embedded generation connection in CitiPower and Powercor is defined as "an LV EG system with a total system capacity greater than 30kVA for a three-phase IES or non-IES (excluding ESS) network connection that is: Our Solar & Battery Calculator can give an idea of if its likely to pay: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/solar-calculator/. I think is is utter madness that the VIC government is handing out generous rebates of $1850.00 and 4 year interest free loans of up to $1850.00 and Powercor has zero feed in capacity for excess solar power. We are on a zero limited export. How is export limited for micro-inverters? Any ideas of how I can get a system that is actually going to generate enough power to charge a battery? I installed 6.6kw solar panels and have Goodwe 5kw inverter and applied for export limit of 5kw. About 50%. As far as I know, only solar installers can apply for export capacity in the Powercor area. A condition of this basic connection offer is that all inverter energy systems must have the volt-watt and volt-var response modes enabled with the following settings: If at any moment in time you are generating more solar electricity than you need, the excess is exported to the grid. First read the section How Export Limiting Works at the top of this thread. Technically, what will happen is the inverter will reduce the solar systems output so the generation will be forgone, but I dont want to go into too much detail in this article. Larger inverters that are export limited are allowed on a case by case basis. As a side issue for you, if you (like lots of people) have high voltages issue causing shutdown / throttling, I am not a big fan of the Volt-watt modes, as often these modes will also lower the voltages at which the throttling kicks in. What inverter do you have? Unfortunately, the meter companies and inverter manufacturers cant get their shit together, and the utility meters refuse to talk to the inverters. We want to add a battery and it seems logical to add more cells also to another inverter/battery setup. Im surprised this hasnt hit the mainstream media yet. More information about the program and how customers can get the most out of their rooftop solar is available at www.powercor.com.au/solar-energy Up until quite recently, Powercor had been informing a large proportion of households looking to install new solar systems they will have to cop a zero export limit due to high congestion created by exports from existing systems. There are profiles that still conform the microinverters to AS4777.2:2015, but can disable Volt-Var/Volt-Watt, change the power factor to 0.9 (some grid operators require this), turn off export altogether or set specific maximum export levels like 1kW, 3kW etc., or configure to satisfy specific grid network requirements. I could not convince him that I knew what I was talking about! South Australian solar panel owners can currently export 5 kilowatts of electricity to the grid but under Flexible Exports, they could export double that amount 10kW. reliable export limit control function as per AS4777.2 to limit the export output where the . 0000007057 00000 n When an inverter is export limited, it has to know how much solar energy is being sent into the grid so it can immediately reduce output if its about to go over the limit. at night or not enough at day time ? You could buy a battery, charge it on the weekend and export during week nights. Victorias Powercor area: Western Victoria, including a large portion of West Melbourne. So having a powerwall is way less useful for helping with an export limit than you would think. Would the gateway signal the micro inverters to shut down one at a time, or to all reduce output equally? That said, provided the Installer included your details and phone number in the customer section when the SPA was lodged, the solar team intends to follow up with customers if capacity becomes available to export into the grid through upgrades to the network.. There are two options: 1. While I dont know where you are a 4 kilowatt solar system should produce an average of around 18 kilowatt-hours a day in WA. The loss figures above are for Sydney and are affected by the climate. Now, such a hybrid inverter, as I previously submitted as a post, as being needed, would have the capability of providing for up to 10kW of panels generating capacity, and, of power conversion of up to 10kW, to provide for up to 5kW to provide for charging a battery system, and, the other 5kW to provide for the household load and with surplus (to the household load, out of the 5kW provision) being exported to the grid. Also, given that export limited inverters (supposedly) work the same, regardless of the grid to which they are connected, why is it so, that states have different rules whereby some allow export limited inverters, and, some do not? As per current standards, a single phase premises is limited to 10kW generation and 5kW export. And, depending on the circumstances of each individual household, 10-15 kW of total panels generating capacity, with limiting export to the grid, to 5kW, could provide better for the months with less available solar radiation, to lessen the demand for grid electricity, peaking on a seasonal basis. But if you suddenly switch off everything, there is more surplus solar power than youre allowed to export. My sister has the same type of inverter (Goodwe) but she lives in the Estern suburbs of Victoria and she has been exporting but her Power Limit was set OFF. It appears the wire from the inverter is directly connected to my main fuse for the house circuits. Long term benefits would be a more energy efficient system. The following is a list of the areas in case youve been missed. Means that it caps the amount you can reduce your bills for power used outside of daylight hours? Assume positive intention.4. 0000029011 00000 n I think I was partially wrong about how my PV is connected to the home and the meter. So really apart from the requirement that the initial startup can only happy on voltages below 253v, I have no throttling until at least 285v and probably even higher. And, no matter how powerful, the members of the legislatures imagine themselves to be, and, no matter how trump-like, they are, they can not stop the future. I do NOT have a device in my meter box that could tell the inverter anything about consumption and feed in energy. 0% Can one have micro-inverter panels without a gateway, and how would that be limited? I have previously posted (or, submitted for posting), the proposition that what is needed, is a hybrid (not meaning in this instance, a hybrid inverter as is commonly used) inverter that is like a cross/combination, of the Goodwe GW5000-MS inverter (or, kind of, the GW10K-MS, in terms of power conversion), and the Goodwe GW5048D-ES; three GW5000-MS provides for up to 10kW of panels generating capacity, across three MPPTs (strings? We installed 4.5kw with a 5kw inverter in 2014. Plus a Tesla Powerwall 2. I was lucky to have an early approval, so limited to 10Kw (or due to bad calculation by the approver, 8.6Kw, where he said ALL the Neutral current went down the common Neutral wire, where in fact only the difference between the phases goes down the Neutral (2 phase, 180 degree). Phone, email, give us feedback or make a claim.