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Darryl, The inverter is reducing the real power used by the customer but not the reactive power. So it does make the power factor worse when you are looking at from the utility meter. Since most customers don't pay for reactive power it doesn't matter to them. But some customers do pay for reactive power and the solar system doesn't help on the reactive side of the bill. Variable reactor devices are made to improve power factor by providing leading or lagging reactive power. The solar powered inverter doesn't reduce or increase the need for a variable reactive device. If you are dealing with an industrial customer that is billed for reactive power, or VAR-hrs, it is important to make sure they are aware that the solar system won't help with that portion of the bill. >From the utility's perspective the fact that the solar inverter only provides real power is bad, except when they are billing customers for reactive power. Take a look at a "Net Zero" possibility for the house. The kWhs used is net zero, but reactive power was still provided by the utility company: a service they weren't paid for yet did have an impact on equipment in their system. When solar starts having a 5%, 10%, 15% impact on the total residential load, you'll see the utilities screaming for tariffs that allow them to bill residential customers (or at least grid interactive customers) for reactive power, or for higher monthly base fees. The greedy-guts will probably ask for both and an allowance for lost kWh sales too. Kent Osterberg Blue Mountain Solar, Inc. Darryl Thayer wrote: I recently spoke with an inverter manufacture and I left with the following opinion. Normally the inverter takes the unity power factor load and leaves the reactive load. making the power factor worse. However the power factor could be corrected by the inverter, However this would add cost to the inverter and would not appear to have value to the solar industry. There are variable reactance devices existing that can correct power factor, is there need for another device?DarrylHello Wrenches, Commercial power customers often are penalized for low power factors. Looking for other info I came across this article, which seems to cover the subject from an academic standpoint. http://tinyurl.com/ye5pzrw Does anyone have real world data which might shed light on the impact of a DGT PV system on power factor. With Regards Carl Adams SunRock Solar, LLC. _______________________________________________ |
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