Technical Information

Reactive Power and Grid Integration

with SUNNY MINI CENTRAL and SUNNY TRIPOWER

Contents
Inverters from the SMA product lines Sunny Mini Central and Sunny Tripower are suitable for the implementation of large-scale PV plants. Special requirements may apply for the grid connection of these PV plants, particularly when they are feeding in on the medium-voltage level. This technical information is directed towards planners of large-scale plants. It describes the possibilities provided by the inverters of the SMA product lines Sunny Mini Central and Sunny Tripower, crucial points to be observed when designing and implementing large-scale projects and which inverters are suitable to meet the requirements of the grid operators.

ReactivePower-UEN101310

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Introduction

1 Introduction
On January 01, 2009, the Technical Regulation for Generating Plants in the Medium Voltage Grid (Medium Voltage Regulation) issued by the German Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) came into force. This Regulation defines special requirements towards PV systems feeding directly into the mediumvoltage grid, as follows: Maintenance of voltage level and provision of reactive power Performance of PV systems during grid failures Frequency stability Identification procedures, e.g., measurement, acknowledgement Recovery of supply (system performance during re-connection) France has also issued similar regulations in the "Decree of April 23, 2008". In Portugal and Italy draft regulations are being discussed which also include requirements for the "reactive power capability" of largescale plants. A fundamental premise in the guidelines mentioned is the provision of reactive power. This is already required by many grid operators in order to exploit existing grid capacities to the full.

2 Which SMA inverters can supply reactive power?

Reactive power is supplied by presetting the power factor cos . This option exists for the following SMA inverters: Sunny Mini Central: SMC 9000TLRP-10 / 10000TLRP-10 / 11000TLRP-10 SMC 7000HV-11 Sunny Tripower: STP 10000TL-10 / 12000TL-10 / 15000TL-10 / 17000TL-10 It is not possible to upgrade an inverter without reactive power capability into an inverter with reactive power capability!

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How do we go about presetting reactive power?

3 How do we go about presetting reactive power?

Feed-in of reactive power can take place in a number of ways: a) Fixed setting of cos() in the inverter (0.8lagging ... 0.8leading) via device parameter. b) External pre-setting of the power factor cos via Power Reducer Box. c) Pre-setting of power factor cos via Power Reducer Box and external control (outside suppliers) Option a) is the simplest case. In this case, the power factor of each individual inverter can be adjusted so that the exact power factor required at the feed-in point is achieved. It is important to realize that the preset power factors in the inverters do not correspond to the power factor at the feed-in point. The reasons for this are influences such as inductivity of the transformer and line capacities. This concept is used when a constant power factor is stipulated by the grid operator at the feed-in point. Option b) enables the presetting of various power factors (e.g., depending on the time of day) by activation via a 4-bit digital signal. To accomplish this, you need to integrate a Power Reducer Box into the communication concept. With option c) it is possible to preset various power factors, e.g. as a function of the voltage at the feed-in point. In this case, the Power Reducer Box is activated by a transducer. The corresponding voltagedependent power factors are then transmitted to the inverters. You should discuss with the grid operator beforehand which of these solution options is to be implemented.

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Further functions of inverters with reactive power provision capability

4 Further functions of inverters with reactive power provision capability

Apart from "reactive power capability", the grid connection must often fulfill certain other requirements. The scope of functions implemented in the inverter is continuously being upgraded and adapted meet the requirements of the applicable regulations. For this reason, the summary below will be restricted to the currently available functions. Utility interaction management: active power limitation defined by external signal via Power Reducer Box Active power reduction depending on frequency P(f) Extended voltage and frequency limits Limited dynamic grid support Power ramp on re-connection The functions are made available by means of firmware updates. The functions implemented in the inverters and the corresponding setting options can be found in the installation guides to the inverters listed in Section 2.

4.1Which regulations does your inverter fulfill?

First of all, no regulations are entirely fulfilled by an inverter alone. You always need to consider the entire plant made up of its various installation components, such as the communication concept, transformer, cabling, switching organs, disconnection protection, etc. However, the inverters can be equipped with many features to reduce costs arising from external components. As a result of revisions, expansions, or the requirements of locally applicable regulations which come into force in stages, the degree of fulfillment also depends very strongly on the installation location, the installation time or the date of the application. Technical Regulation for Generating Systems in the Medium Voltage Grid (Medium Voltage Regulation) issued by the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), Germany "Decree of April 23, 2008, on technical regulations for the design and operation of generating systems connecting to a public power supply grid in the low- and medium-voltage range", France Technical connection conditions stipulated by local grid operators requiring a constant power factor at the feed-in point or reserving the right to define a reactive power feed-in at a future time.

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Planning and design of plants

5 Planning and design of plants

If an inverter supplies reactive power, this must be taken into account in the design of the connected PV generator.

Symbol S P Q

Name Apparent power Active power Reactive power

Unit VA (Volt Ampere) W (Watt) var (Volt Ampere Reactive)

The key equations are as follows:

P = S cos S2 = P2 + Q2

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Planning and design of plants

5.1Oversizing of PV plants
The AC power of SMA inverters is generally given as apparent power in VA. At power factor cos = 1, active and apparent power are equal. Hence, there is no need to make any provision for oversizing in the design of the inverter. However, if the power factor is specified, provision must be made for oversizing the inverter to allow for the connected module capacity.

Influence of the power factor cos , or reactive power share, on the active power of the inverter.

Example calculation:
60 SMA inverters model SMC 10000TLRP-10 feed into the grid at power factor cos = 1 with a total active power of 600 kW. Alternatively, grid feed is to take place at power factor cos = 0.95. What results are derived for apparent power, active power and reactive power? Is the number of existing inverters sufficient? The available active power P is 600 kW. For the apparent power S the following is true:
P S = ----------cos 600 , therefore S = ------------ = 631, 57kVA 0, 95

A simple rearrangement of the equation S 2 = P 2 + Q 2 results in:

Q = S2 ? P Q =
2

631 2 ? 600 2 Q = 197, 2kvar

Result: Due to the phase shift with a power factor of cos = 0.95, the inverters generate additional reactive power of 197.2 kvar from the 600 kW active power. The geometrical sum results in an apparent power value of 631.6 kVA. The inverters and the subsequent grid infrastructure must be designed to accommodate this apparent power. Hence, to operate at the same PV generator, an inverter output of 631.6 kVA is required e.g., 63 SMC 10000TLRP-10 inverters.

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Planning and design of plants

Note: If the utility operator is expected to demand a setting of cos 1 at a later juncture, the plant design must take into account the maximum possible reactive power requirement, in order to avoid a subsequent loss of active power.

Rule of thumb for oversizing an inverter

When a cos of e.g. 0.95 is stipulated, the active power output of an inverter is reduced by 5 % ( P = S cos ). In order to feed in the maximum output of the PV generator without any power limitation, the inverter must be oversized by 5 %. This is easy to achieve at the plant dimensioning stage by adding 5 % to the required nominal output ratio!

5.2Designing "hybrid" plants

In order to achieve a practically constant cos at the delivery point, hybrid plant concepts consisting of inverters with and without reactive power capability can be implemented under the following provision only: a) Each "roof area" must be regarded as one unit. In this case, it is imperative to use identical module types installed with identical alignment. Partial shading must be avoided. b) Each unit must be designed to comply with the locally applicable asymmetric load limits (e.g., in Germany, 4.6 kVA). If both requirements a) and b) are fulfilled, a smaller number of inverters without reactive power capability can be deployed. Inverters with reactive power capability have a wide power factor setting range. They are therefore able to compensate the reactive power available in inverters without reactive power capability by supplying an additional share of reactive power.

5.3Additional Information
Technical Compendium 1 "Reactive power: basic principles, uses and SMA solutions": basic information on this subject. Installation guide for inverters: description of functions with the corresponding parameter settings. Technical description in the download area of www.SMA.de/en: "Reactive power feed and grid security management for Sunny Tripower" (currently in progress).

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