At the time of the powerwall install I also had the Gateway installed at an extra cost so I could keep using the generated power from the powerwall and during solar production when the powergrit fell out without danger for the grit workers because the Gateway instantly falls and prevent power to the grit. What am I missing? Its only possible to go larger with a zero export limit: https://www.powerwater.com.au/customers/power/solar-power-systems/pv-class-requirements. If you are in the solar industry - try to get to the truth, not the sale.5. Below is the email response I received from Powercor. Store it and use it later (this requires solar battery storage), or it disappears into thin air via a heat sink. Thanks Ron. P/Prated (%) Even if you have the Envoy-S, I believe at least on paper there was a Enphase Envoy-S For any amount above the daily export, you will receive our standard retailer feed-in tariff of 5 . As the LG Chem battery charges using DC current from the panels it is possible to go over the 10 kW inverter limit by charging the LG Chem battery in the middle of the day. 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. 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. 0000039284 00000 n Am I wrong? As batteries currently operate they charge from power in the morning that could otherwise be sold rather than from power that may not be able to be sold in the middle of the day. If they want a big solar system with an inverter larger than 5 kW, they must export limit the inverter. I cant justify the cost of adding additional solar if the max I can export with Essential energy is 3kwh. 100 litres alone means little, but if there are 100 litres per hour, this means 100 litre hours of output. But your situation is complicated by already having a 3 kilowatt system. I also dont know if my meter has limiting but suspect not as it is a pretty dumb device. A 5 kilowatt inverter will never supply more than 5 kilowatts of power no matter how many kilowatts of panels it has. These consumption spikes go past the Solar energy being limited suggesting were drawing from the grid! So you may decide adding a second system is worthwhile, or you may want to put it off until your current system develops problems and replace it with one large new system. Contracts and resources for connection agreement, Vegetation clearing requirements for new powerlines, Registered Electrical Contractor resources, Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiters (REFCL), Endorsement for wholesale demand response. Select your country/region. Im in regional WA with a rural 2 phase supply. 0000001260 00000 n Australian Rooftop Solar Powers Rise Astounding, But.. Australias Emissions: Electricity Down, Transport Up, Compare Feed-In Tariffs And Electricity Plans, Victorias Powercor Lifts Its Solar Exports Game, 3029: Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Truganina, 3030: Cocoroc, Derrimut, Point Cook, Werribee, Werribee South, 3551: Ascot (Greater Bendigo), Axe Creek, Axedale, Bagshot, East Bendigo, Emu Creek, Eppalock, Epsom, 3337: Kurunjang, Melton, Melton West, Toolern Vale, 3340: Bacchus Marsh, Balliang, Coimadai, Darley, Hopetoun Park, Long Forest, Maddingley, Merrimu, 3352: Bonshaw, Bungaree, Bunkers Hill, Burrumbeet, Cambrian Hill, Cardigan, Cardigan Village, Clarendon, 3305: Bolwarra, Cape Bridgewater, Gorae West, Heathmere, Portland, Portland North, Portland West, 3444: Baynton, Kyneton, Lauriston, Lyal, Metcalfe, Redesdale, Tylden 3465 Alma, Bowenvale, Daisy Hill, Maryborough. Victorias Jemena network area: A small but crowded chunk of North and Western Melbourne. If you dont get under the covers and look carefully at the logs you might miss this, or think it is a cloud coming over, rather than voltage triggered throttling. I am a bit confused about export. The metered version comes with extra current clamps to hook up to the grid side so you can do consumption monitoring and export limiting. As per current standards, a single phase premises is limited to 10kW generation and 5kW export. 207 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. Please keep the SolarQuotes blog constructive and useful with these 5 rules: 1. 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. Hello. 0000018244 00000 n In a Enphase system, only the Envoy can provide this. Please keep the SolarQuotes blog constructive and useful with these 5 rules: 1. I suspect that it is likely, that that they are all signaled equally, not in truth I dont know for sure. Definitely, thats an inverter that is export limited to zero. Its also worth taking a look in case you shied away from installing solar panels in the past because of the situation now might be the time to revisit the idea. 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. Australian Rooftop Solar Powers Rise Astounding, But.. Australias Emissions: Electricity Down, Transport Up, Compare Feed-In Tariffs And Electricity Plans, Solar Export Limiting What It Is & Why Its Useful. Generation sources can be, but are not limited to solar, wind and batteries. So it is unfortunate that it is necessary, but good that people can still install a larger system and generally have insignificant losses. ), converting to a maximum of 5kW of AC power, whilst the GW10K-MS provides for up to 13.5kW of panels generating capacity, across three MPPTs (strings? Long term benefits would be a more energy efficient system. How to correctly configure inverter settings. 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. 0% both said Do the inverters prevent the production of energy by the solar panels when an export limit would otherwise be exceeded? Wouldnt it be better for the inverter to display its total actual potential output under current conditions? If you are export limited, the only way to implement that is with some sort of meter as Ronald says. VAr (var % rated VA) <]/Prev 115522/XRefStm 1575>> Also note that for new installations in WA, only residences with inverters of 5 kilowatts or less can receive the states, Western Australias Western Power area: Perth and South West WA. Still a very long payback period, but not as long. Enter your postcode now. There is not likely to be an Enphase system without a gateway (called the Envoy with in the Enphase system), because this is needed to setup the system, configure its profiles and report production and other important functions of the system. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Powercor says it has contacted all solar customers within the previously impacted areas to let them know about the companys progress and to encourage them to consider reapplying for exports. Ronald was born more years ago than he can remember. I have an existing 3.5kW PV system with Solis inverter. Some manufacturers may have this pre-selected. Surely the distributors capping what you can export to the grid is a bad thing? To get your quotes, please enter your postcode: Flexible Solar Exports To Ramp Up In South Australia, Australian Solar Systems Interest Index: September 2021, Why Australian Solar Installers Love Austrian Fronius Inverters, Tesla Powerwall Price Takes A Tumble In Australia, "Snail Mail" Home Battery Offers: Be Wary, New Minimum VIC Solar Feed-In Tariffs Locked In, Glenrowan Solar Farm Construction Gets Cranking. The loss figures above are for Sydney and are affected by the climate. So having a powerwall is way less useful for helping with an export limit than you would think. . Have a good christmas. The infrastructure is not sufficiently flexible to deal with this. 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. 0000010080 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. Depending on their location, some may be constrained to a lesser export level or even no exports at all. 0000038752 00000 n 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. Here at SolarQuotes, we had been hearing quite a few complaints about Powercors zero export limits. We might still be willing to do this all the same, from an environmental viewpoint. So my understanding of the info above is that my inverter will increase production in unison with demand until it hits 5kw? at night or not enough at day time ? If they face in two or more directions, it will further reduce the losses by reducing the peak solar output while stretching it out, so it lasts longer through the day. 100% I am trying to get a system installed (6.5k smart hybrid inverter with a battery) and have been told by Western Power that I am limited to a 3.0 kva system. If at any moment in time you are generating more solar electricity than you need, the excess is exported to the grid. 0000037497 00000 n I could easily share my excess power for the time I am not irrigating my crops. They want to do it there way and it seems my request complicates things for them and I dont hear back, bar a couple. 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. 260 The MSO helps us manage and keep our network safe for solar customers. And also is it worth installing solar with 0 kWh limit with self consumption around 20-30%( payback 6-7 years). Your dedicated meter will inform the inverter, and it will immediately reduce the power, so it doesnt exceed 5 kilowatts1. We respect your privacy and you can opt out from the newsletter at any time. But you may as well just get a standard inverter and send your excess electricity into the grid. We just applied for pre-approval from Powercor and were given a 0kW export approval which is going to make almost anything we choose uneconomical. This 80% could translate to an estimated 50,000 current or potential solar customers able to export more solar to the grid. Max. There are exceptions for off-grid installations and systems that are installed with a battery. Thats a huge jump and even a smidge higher than the Powercor network wide average of 89%. No-one seems to have replied Dirk, so I will try. 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? At times MPPT1 is at 600 odd watts while MPPT2 is at 2500 odd watts. Still, few people will want more than the 13.33 kilowatts of panel capacity single phase homes can generally install: The Bad: Homes with single-phase power on the main grid can have up to 5 kilowatts of inverter capacity but can usually get around this limit by installing an export limited solar inverter of up to 10 kilowatts. hooked up to an energy efficient 44kW motor for a real-world 0000004622 00000 n The following is a list of the areas in case youve been missed. Victoria's "Hotest" Solar Postcode is 3977 at last look. AS4777.2:2015 has some rather low default recommendations, which can be tweaked up as no doubt my profile has allowed. Rooftop solar works by turning sunlight into electric power. Put down your weapons.3. If we consider a home in Sydney where no electricity is used during the day, and all the solar panels face directly north, then the percentage of output that will be lost due to a 5 kilowatt export limit would be: So even in a worst-case situation for Sydney, an 8 kilowatt solar system that is exported limited to 5 kilowatts will only lose 4% of generation. As far as I know, only solar installers can apply for export capacity in the Powercor area. 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 . Makes sense but begs my next question (sorry). We installed 4.5kw with a 5kw inverter in 2014. At the moment a battery system is unlikely to pay for itself, but you could install a system that is larger than what makes financial sense for your current situation and hope home batteries will fall in price over the next few years. Residential properties are unlikely to be allowed to use export limiting to install even larger inverters. In most cases, if you had your envoy shut off, the micros would start and work on their own and independently of the envoy, and in fact of each other. 0000038218 00000 n Heres the Fronius Smart Meter that you need if you want to export limit a Fronius inverter it will add about $500 to the cost of the system: An example of how export limiting works You have an inverter thats exported limited to 5 kilowatts. This is often referred to as 'network constraints'. A rooftop solar system's grid export limit is determined by the local electricity network operator - sometimes on a case-by-case basis, sometimes according to an across-the-board standard, and . 2. Good question Tony. There are versions without this consumption monitoring (old Non -s version of Envoy and even the Envoy-S without consumption monitoring). So if an inverter that is export limited to 5 kilowatts is providing 8 kilowatts of power, none of it will go to waste provided the home is consuming at least 3 kilowatts at the time. I have 3 x PV systems on one phase. The reason for this query, is that, in the past, my understanding has been that, in WA, where export limiting is apparently, banned by the gratuitously oppressive state parliament, and, where a limit of a 5kW output inverter, is allowed, for a single phase grid connection on the SWIS grid, a limit of 6.66 kW of panels generating capacity, is imposed for single phase connections to the SWIS grid, and, thence, the limit of panels generating capacity, to which the federal solar panels rebate applies, for such a connection, has been the 6.66kW. Was sure if its been configured correctly or if this is just how it works? So, I am pretty much left in the dark about whether all the energy my panels are theoretically producing is being utilised, or (which is my fearful assumption) up to 1.6kW are wasted whenever the panels produce more than 5kW AC. (Image from Finns Tesla App). To get your quotes, please enter your postcode: AEMC: Electricity Prices To Continue To Fall, http://www.johnrogers.com.au/battery_charging_noon.jpg, http://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/kw-and-kwh-what-is-the-difference/, Why Australian Solar Installers Love Austrian Fronius Inverters, Tesla Powerwall Price Takes A Tumble In Australia, "Snail Mail" Home Battery Offers: Be Wary, New Minimum VIC Solar Feed-In Tariffs Locked In, Glenrowan Solar Farm Construction Gets Cranking. 100% document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Download the first chapter of The Good Solar Guide, authored by SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock, FREE! Instead the home can benefit from a small system, as I explain here: Ah yes I see. IE if Im producing 8KW, the house is using 2KW it will still export 5kw? Allows installation but has an export limit. The daily export limit is averaged across your billing period (calculated by multiplying the number of days in your billing period by your daily export limit of 14 kWh). hbbf`b``3 I j 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. Even then, the losses from the limit are minor. There are two options: 1. Efficiency has and will improve further over time, but never to the point of perpetuity. When a home is exported limited, all the power the solar inverter can produce is available for the home to use. My question is should that then eliminate the 5 kw inverter of the powerwall wich Energex claims is part of the 10kw allowance on a single phase? The standard relating to solar inverters is about to change. 11kW panels with 10kW 3-phase inverter (Fronius Symo + Fronius 3-phase meter). I do NOT have a device in my meter box that could tell the inverter anything about consumption and feed in energy. I have solar on my house and having it installed at an investment property, but not sure what to do now as there will be no benefit of feed in tariff. Seem most solar places, even the ones the go on about how good they are, arent that good when presented with this, what seems to be a conundrum for them. Powercor wrote back with the following response:"Due to the size of t . If thats not a good option, you can consider getting a demand tariff and doing pumping outside the peak period when the cost of grid electricity will be relatively low. For example, if you are export limited, only the Envoy-S with consumption monitoring can provide this. You could approach SAPN and ask for special permission to install more solar capacity on an SWER but I would not be optimistic about that. Queenslands Energex area: South East Queensland. Finally, there are profiles for other countries that run 220-240V networks, and its remarkable how many of them use the older AS4777.3:2005 standard in their countries, because for many of these countries, this is the only profile the Envoy offers. Powercor is the Distributed Network Service Provider for central and western Victoria, as well as Melbournes western suburbs. Hi All. In exchange, the customer receives a small rebate on their bill for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) they export. 4. Normally it makes more sense to buy a second, separate system, than to expand an existing one. This is done for three main reasons: In this article, Ill give a broad outline of how export limiting works and why it can be a good idea. Despite the low feed-in tariff you will receive it can still be worthwhile, especially if you can shift some electricity consumption to the middle of the day. But if people send a lot of power into the line then the voltage at the far end, instead of being lower than at the sending end, becomes higher. I have noticed that one string seems to be performing well under the performance of the slightly smaller string. 0000038296 00000 n 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: I think it is illegal in WA to rewire your inverter or modify any parameters, as it may result in more than 5kW being sent to the grid, so I will just bite the bullet and see that I use as much solar as possible. 0000011077 00000 n Will this mean any additional system would be limited to 0kW output?? Swearing revenge, he began his lifelong quest to reduce the harm the environment could cause. I am surprised to hear that Powercor has allowed you to increase your exports, but that is good to hear. Im surprised this hasnt hit the mainstream media yet. I have a 5kw solar system plus a Tesla powerwall 2 on my house . Powercor's network solutions manager Claire Cass said of 32,580 customers connected to solar with Powercor in the last 18 months, only 2023 could not export power. 0000093063 00000 n Or is there a build up of voltage in the system? Even if I were exporting 100% of it, it still would only bring down my bills by a tiny amount per month. 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. It is delivering 8 kilowatts of solar power. 0000001757 00000 n In addition, all modern solar inverters must comply with AS4777.2015 at least. Are Tesla Powerwall smart enough to let majority of power export to grid and only start charging battery as inverter approaches its export limit? Notify me of follow-up comments by email. We have a 3kwh system and are really using as much during the day as we can. Queenslands Ergon network area: All of Queensland on the main grid outside of South East Queensland. If you cant store the power (too expensive) and you cant export it, why the requirement (or desire) to put in large systems? you request 5kW and Powercor says you can only export 2.5kW) Set a 'zero export' limit - i.e. As a general rule, 5kW tends to be the upper system size limit for single-phase connections, but some networks allow up to 10kW. 220 0000037380 00000 n There are lots of variations to this theme, however. Certainly this dumb meter is not capable of sending current from the inverter selectively to my home circuits and any excess to the grid? The solar installer or customer must have sought and received pre-approval from us for the requested capacity of the generator. Im afraid in a typical situation the inverter wont show its potential output. The majority of customers are approved for the export level they request. 5kW export limiter imposed on one inverter. While this is fine during the week when we are open, it seems a huge waste of electricity on the weekends when we are closed. Great article and content on this website 0000007057 00000 n It clicked, not long after I wrote the comment, My 10 kW system will not go above 10 kW unless my house battery is charging and then it can go to 13.25 kW. It is just the placement of the meter and the current sensor that controls the limiting. It is possible to max out the 10 kW inverter capacity with my Tesla, house load and Heat Pump hot water. 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. 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. This is sufficient to charge a battery, although larger solar systems generally improve the return from batteries. My AS4777.2:2015 profile allows voltages up to 265v (for short periods, and shuts down on 10 minute averages above 258v). I want about 10Kw of panels so I can run pumps etc. Victorias AusNet network area: The eastern third of Victoria, not including Melbourne or French Island. No unfortunately. Can one have micro-inverter panels without a gateway, and how would that be limited? JackD 1 year ago. So-called wasting of the extra electricity produced is irrelevant: sunlight is FREE, and whether I use it or not has no bearing on the environment. Solar Analytics confirms in this scenario its only exporting up to the limit; 3kw. Does anyone have similar experience with powercor? The good news is, even in a worst-case situation, the amount will be fairly minor. Victorias Powercor area: Western Victoria, including a large portion of West Melbourne. 5kW times the number of hours is the total production over that time. (Although they will also allow an additional 5 kilowatts of battery inverter capacity.) Put down your weapons.3. Just last week, Powercor (Western Victoria) advised that they now have more room in the grid for export. If a home cant export any power at all then there is no financial reason to install a large solar system. But just note, not everyone Envoy has required bits to do export limiting. So the size of the system becomes irrelevant if you can only export 3kwh (we are Regional NSW Essential Energy). Im glad to hear its flexible enough to do that. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Download the first chapter of The Good Solar Guide, authored by SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock, FREE! 0000038830 00000 n Powercor claims 30% increase in rooftop solar export approvals Victorian network service provider Powercor claims a major works program designed to alleviate grid congestion in areas of high rooftop solar PV penetration has boosted the approval rate for new solar connections to export excess energy to the grid by an impressive 30%. Metered and a non metered version. My solar installer applied to Powercor to install a 5.4kw system at my Point Cook address. Off the main grid, rural properties can have 3 kilowatts of inverter capacity. I have spoken to one installer , but he couldnt really help me . But if you suddenly switch off everything, there is more surplus solar power than youre allowed to export. 10kW of inverters with 11.325kW of panels. And doing so potentially puts you running in a non compliant state. The percentage var/VA level leading is the inverter sourcing vars to the grid, whereas the percentage var/VA level lagging is the inverter sinking vars from the grid. Sorry if dumb question. it is, kind of, effectively export limiting. 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. 0000028229 00000 n Weve seen a rapid growth in rooftop solar systems.With each installation, were facilitating rapid growth in the amount of solar capacity on our network. Once voltage thresholds etc are configure in the profile by the Envoy at install, each micro operates largely independently. %%EOF 0000009027 00000 n and only supply me with power from the grid is it 10kW AC or DC?? Is there anything that can be done about it? All these profiles need to dance carefully around the problem. Where do I find information on reapplying for export with Powercor? Why my Power Limit is set to ON with the % whereas her Power Limit is set to OFF and she has been exporting. Some battery powered cars can not be programmed to only recharge at particular times of the day, and, so, if someone drives one to work (that is, if and when battery powered cars become affordable to the working class) and home after work, then puts the car on the charger, the drain to the grid, that would consequently occur, during peak demand hours, needs to be covered. Recent work by Victorian DNSP Powercor on some problematic parts of its network is enabling more solar power from rooftop panels to be exported to the grid. I think the installers like the Volt-watt modes, because if you dont know where to look they hid the problem at your expense anyway. Assume positive intention.4. Self confessed newbie to the mechanics of Solar so bear with me. We just had a 30kW inverter solar install for our business and it has been limited to 1.8kW export. So far I have not seen much more than 5kW DC anyway, but in summer I would expect to see a curve thats flattened at the top during the high sun phase, as it is cut off by the inverter. (Note: it is possible to install a larger system, say 10kW on a single phase property and meet the Powercor rules by export limiting the system . Australian network service providers (including CitiPower) use solar export limits to keep voltage levels in transmission lines operating within safe . reliable export limit control function as per AS4777.2 to limit the export output where the . 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). I prefer a profile that just has the voltages set to a high voltage threshold, and if I have to sacrifice V-W mode, so be it. They did say that with future upgrades we could reapply, but I cant find a way to do this. While installing solar panels can still be worth it under these conditions, its a disincentive, increases payback time and is generally a pretty crappy state of affairs. As a single example, the Renault Kangoo ZE van (I think that it is the only battery powered cargo van currently available in Australia) has a 33kWh battery, and, To go further, Kangoo Z.E boasts a Z.E 33 (33kWh) battery,