Short answer: no, this product's reactive power generation will not
affect you in the real world.
Long answer:
I don't see how their 6kVA system could outperform your 10kW system
unless you're installing your system in the shade. This device seems to
be quite limited- max VOC 42VDC, max input wattage 200W, max input
short-circuit current 10A! And it appears to not have an internal
GFDI(!), nor power line carrier, so you're running separate ethernet
cable between the inverters.
As for the reactive power, a larger portion of future inverters will be
able to supply complex power rather than just real power. However, an
important part of that feature is that it will be dynamic- when the
utility (or site) needs more reactive power, it can ask the inverter to
adjust its output. I can't find anything in the documentation on this,
but it appears from the description that this company plans for you to
measure your site power factor, and then manually set these inverters to
a certain power factor (presumably lower than the site PF to help adjust
the site PF in the right direction). I don't know how power factor
penalties are typically calculated; for the utilities that do actually
charge this (not all do), would they look at the worst 15 minutes of the
month? If so, I think it's safe to say that a 6kVA system of these
inverters- which is presumably capable of peaking at 6 kVAR during about
three hours of a nice day- will have minimal impact on that power factor
penalty. And since the user manual tells you not to install more than
30kW at a single interconnection point... how much do they really think
they're helping?
So, the reactive power feature of this product may be worthwhile if your
site only has power factor problems from about 10-2, only on sunny days,
and you are on your computer at the site continuously adjusting the
inverters' PF to ensure you're not overcompensating and making your site
PF worse, and your utility penalizes for power factor, and your building
power draw maxes out below the size of your PV system. To be really
useful, VARs from inverters need to be dynamically configurable by some
sort of software control so that you are always helping your site PF,
and those VARs also should be available 24-7... and if the utility
offers to pay you for your VARs, then they will also require the
inverters to respond to utility requests for VARs (right after a power
outage, for example, when a bunch of motors are trying to come back up
to speed). And for this to really happen, we'll need a revised UL 1741.
Maybe in 2015.
My $0.03.
DKC
August Goers wrote:
Hi All -
Have any of you heard of the Xslent XPX-A1000 microinverter?
http://www.xetenergy.com/#Tab-2_link-1
We're going up against them on a 10 kW system and I'm trying to figure out
if their claims about producing reactive power mean anything to us in the
real world. They are saying that their 6 kW system will outperform our 10
kW system.
I also noticed that their CEC efficiency is only 89%...
Best,
August
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