Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Lecture 12 - Power Conditioning, Regulation and

Balance of System Components

Alan P. Morrison

October 30, 2019

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Table of contents

1 Charge Controllers

2 inverters

3 Balance of System Components

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Charge Controller

Required for all PV systems with

batteries.
Shuts down the load when the
battery reaches a prescribed level
of discharge.
Disconnects PV array when battery
is fully charged.
The controller should be adjustable
to ensure optimal battery system
performance under various
charging, discharging and
temperature conditions.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Charge Controller

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Charge controller set-points

Regulation set point (VR) - maximum allowable voltage. At

this point the controller stops charging. May need
temperature compensation unless battery temperature is
stable.
Regulation hysteresis (VRH) - the difference between VR
and the voltage at which charging is restored.
Low voltage disconnect (LVD) - gives the voltage at which
the load is disconnected to set the maximum depth of
discharge.
Low voltage disconnect hysteresis (LVDH) - the difference
between LVD and the voltage at which load reconnection is
allowable.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Charge Controller System

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT)

A MPPT, or maximum power point tracker is an electronic

DC to DC converter that optimizes the match between the
solar array (PV panels), and the battery bank or utility grid.
It converts the higher voltage output from the solar panels
down to the lower voltage needed to charge batteries, for
example.
Most modern MPPT’s are around 93-97% efficient in the
conversion.
You typically get a 20 to 45% power gain in winter and
10-15% in summer.
Actual gain can vary widely depending weather, temperature,
battery state of charge, and other factors.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Common Loads and Ideal Loads

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

MPPT Operation

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

MPPT Circuits

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT)

MPPT’s are most effective under these conditions:

Winter, and/or cloudy or hazy days - when the extra power is
needed the most.
Cold weather - solar panels work better at cold temperatures
e.g. winter when insolation is at its lowest and power is most
needed.
Low battery charge - the lower the state of charge in your
battery, the more current a MPPT puts into them - another
time when the extra power is needed the most.
Long wire runs. Can connect panels in series for higher
voltage and less loss in cable.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Power Inverter

Required in PV systems where ac power is required.

Inverters use high frequency switching techniques to convert
dc to ac.
They also step up the voltage from 12, 24 or 48 V to 110 or
240 Vac or higher for grid-connected systems.
For standalone systems they are required to supply constant
voltage and frequency under varying load conditions.
Most inverters contain isolation transformers to separate dc
and ac circuits.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Inverter Waveforms

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Inverter limitations

Preferred wave shape for ac loads is pure sine wave.

Many inverters are square wave (no good for motor loads -
too many high frequency harmonics)
Some inverters are modified sine wave - better than square
but still too many harmonics.
Inverters can draw significant power even on no-load → need
inverter control.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Requirements for inverters in stand-alone PV

Large input voltage range.

Voltage waveform close to sinusoidal.
Controlled voltage and frequency output.
High efficiency for low loads (>90% at 10% load).
Tolerance for short overloads e.g. motor starting
Good behaviour with reactive loads.
Tolerance of loads that use half-wave rectification.
Tolerance of short circuits.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Dual Inverter System

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Wiring

Substantial cost for low voltage, high current application or

where long distances involved.
Copper preferred over aluminium for PV, despite higher cost.
Aluminium acceptable for long wire runs, as long as
appropriate connectors are used.
Wire cross-sections must be chosen to limit resistive losses:
I <5% between PV array and battery.
I <2% between battery and dc circuits
Wire current rating should never be exceeded.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Wiring

Larger diameter cable must be used as current increases.

Cable sizes and insulation quality chosen according to:
I System voltage.
I Allowable voltage drop.
I Current-carrying capacity.
I Trip-levels of protection devices.
Diameter of n-AWG wire calculated from:
36−n
dn = 0.127mm × 92 39

for 36 AWG to 0 AWG.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Wire Gauge Sizing for Domestic PV

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Wire Diameters

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Metal resistivity

Cable resistance can be

calculated from AWG and
material resistivity.
Resistance:
ρl
R=
A

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Overcurrent Protection

Circuit breakers or fuses required to protect equipment and

personnel.
Earth fault protection required.
Appropriate type circuit-breakers required to limit current
below maximum current carrying capability of any part of
connected circuit.
Battery over current protection must be mounted as close as
possible to the battery while avoiding spark ignition of evolved
hydrogen gas.
Each string of PV cells must be separately protected.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

System Diagram

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Connectors

Poor connections are greatest source of reliability problems in

PV systems.
Ring connectors are preferred to spade connectors.
Battery cable terminations should be crimped.
Bolted battery connections should use stainless steel bolts,
nuts, washers and spring washers.
Plugs, sockets and couplers should be multipolar and rated for
at least 1.2 times dc open circuit voltage of the array.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

MC4 PV Connector

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Earthing and Lightning protection

Provision of low resistance path from PV system to earth

(ground).
All metal enclosures and parts of the array that may be
touched by hand should be well earthed.
Manufacturer’s recommendations regarding grounding of
power conditioning equipment must be taken into
consideration.
Ground rods are required to give good connection to earth.
Lightning protection required where the system may be prone
to lightening strikes.
Protection may include clamping circuits; transient absorption
zener diodes and/or circuit breakers.

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Charge Controllers inverters Balance of System Components

Other elements to consider

Metering and alarm systems.

Battery housing and protection.
Housing for electronics and power conditioning circuitry.
Module mounting and support structures.
Provision for seasonally adjusted tilting of array.
Single axis tracking.
Two-axis tracking.

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