9.

8 Inverter Transformer Station (ITS)

The Contractor will be responsible for the purchase, transporting and safe and secure
onloading, handling and storage all of the Inverter Stations.

Contractor shall provide the calculation method to obtain the power derating of the
Inverters, with regards to the variation of the temperature, the altitude, the reactive
power etc.

The Inverters installation shall be in accordance with the inverter’s installation manuals.

Contractor should manage with the manufacturer all the test necessary and
commissioning process to achieve the correct and functional operation of the plant.

The ITS includes but is not limited to:

 The Medium Voltage switchgear.

 The MV/LV transformer.
 The DC/AC inverter(s).
 The data collection/monitoring system.
 The auxiliary equipment.
 All related cables.

The Contractor has to calculate and confirm that the ITS design is compliant with the
DC design of the PV plant.

The ITSs are to be sited in positions that ensure no shadows fall on the array that
impact performance.

The Contractor shall provide the PQ curves of the ITS at the above conditions with
indications on DC voltage, thermal and THD limitations.

9.8.1 Enclosure
Regardless of the solution (indoor or outdoor), the enclosure of the ITS shall be
designed to be compliant with:

 The environmental conditions: temperature, moisture, hygrometry, snow, sun etc.

 The operating and maintenance conditions
 The safety of the personnel

No equipment shall be mounted externally to the enclosure without requesting a

deviation.

The enclosure shall have the following characteristics:

9.8.2 Inverters and associated equipment
The Contractor will be responsible for the safe and secure onloading, handling and
assembling.

Assembly details, requirements and safety instructions:

 AC cables between the inverters and the MV/LV transformer, shall be shielded,
installed symmetrically and the installation of the cables and the routing shall be
done in order to avoid any EMC issue, or generation of induced currents in the
earth and equipotential conductors.
 Harmonic. The overall voltage and current waveform distortion at the network
point shall not exceed the acceptable upper limit for the electrical network stated
by the utility. Each harmonic is not greater than 3%.
 Opening of the inverter housing for connection is not allowed.

9.8.3 MV/LV Transformer

The step-up transformer shall have the following characteristics:

 PARAMETER VALUE/DESCRIPTION
Transformer 4 MVA
power and 800V / 34.5 KV
voltages
Type Oil type with an oil retention tank with fire extinguishing
system must be provided according to local legislation.
Air cooling ONAN (Oil)
Moulding The mouldings of the windings should contain no
halogen compounds (chlorine, bromine, etc.) or other
compounds capable of producing corrosive or toxic
pollutants, thereby guaranteeing a high degree of safety
to personnel in emergency situations such as fire.
Corrosion The enclosure shall be corrosion resistant in
resistance accordance with the ISO 12944.
Vector Group Dyn11-yn11
Frequency 50 Hz / 60 Hz
Tap-changer Type: Manual
Regulation margin: ±10%
Total positions: ± 2 x 2,5% (5 steps)
Losses Losses must be lower than 1%with 0% tolerance
Design data The transformer shall be designed according to the PV
plant’s characteristics and operation life time > 30 years
Protections Dedicated protection relay for transformer:
 Temperature sensors (dry type)
 DGPT2 or equivalent (oil type)
Surge limiter at the secondary side of the transformer
(Cardew or equivalent) as per local regulation.
Maintenance Transformer shall have a system to take oil sample and
to allow oil refill without air contact.
The design of the equipment must allow access to all
necessary parts for preventive maintenance (i.e. collect
oil sample, electrical points, etc) without equipment
disassembly and at any time of the day.
LV cable entry Protective cable box
LV bushing Copper, allowing for 4 connecting lugs per phase and
per winding.
MV bushing Plug in bushings with key interlocked
Metering The Contractor must install the energy meter, current
transformers (TI) and voltage transformers (TP) to be
connected to the meter together with the necessary
protection. The calibration reports must be provided.

9.8.4 Medium-voltage Switchgear

The MV switchgear shall have the following characteristics:
PARAMETER VALUE/DESCRIPTION
Enclosure Indoor: IP2x / IK08 (or NEMA 1) as a minimum
Corrosive Class: enclosure shall be corrosion
resistant in accordance with ISO 12944.
MV switchgear type 1 motorized circuit breaker with a three-position
earthing switch for transformer cables
Rated Voltage 34.5KV
Insulation voltage 36KV
Frequency 50 Hz / 60 Hz
Insulation SF6
Open/Close Remote open/close motorized control.
operation The motorized MV switchgear shall be designed
and manufactured to allow:
 Local open/close operation with buttons
and key
 Remote open/close operation via
monitoring
 Automatic open/close operation:
 Open automatically when the grid voltage
is not present or lower than a certain
percentage with delay. The percentage
and delay shall be settable
 Close automatically when the grid voltage
is present after time delay. The delay shall
be settable
The three operations above shall be hierarchized
as follow:
1. The local operation
2. The remote operation
3. The automatic operation
The Contractor shall provide the electrical
drawing of the open/close operation.
Features  Time-delay voltage detection relay with
timer
 Current differential scheme [project
specific]
 Overcurrent (50/51)
 Ground fault detector (50N/51N)
 Voltage Presence Indicating System
 RTU connections
Monitoring interfaces All positions of the switches or the circuit breakers
shall be transmitted to monitoring system via hard
wires.
9.8.5 UPS
Should an UPS be required by the Contractor for the proper operation of the ITS, the
UPS shall withstand the following conditions of operations:

 UPS operating temperature up to 60°C

 Autonomy of batteries calculated for battery ambient temperature between 25°C
and 55°C and with no reduction of the lifespan of the batteries
 Maximum UPS input voltage up to 3Un and with no UPS failures or stops

In addition, the UPS shall be selected in order to ride through the low voltage conditions
per indicated in the project’s applicable Grid code requirements.

The Contractor shall indicate the max. short circuit current generated by the UPS when
operating in back-up power supply (loss of Grid).

9.8.6 Auxiliary distribution board

An auxiliary transformer shall be present in each ITS with its associated auxiliary LV
distribution board. This auxiliary transformer will be powering the Auxiliary Services.

Each inverter must be connected by a specific circuit and protected by a single

dedicated differential circuit breaker on the PV installations internal distribution board
(main 300mA and differential 30mA if the circuit breaker of connection is gauged with
a higher value). Preferably no fuses should be used for the AC main power line part of
the Facility.

The auxiliary distribution board must comply with the following:

ITEM VALUE/DESCRIPTION
Enclosure Outdoor : IP54 / IK10 as a minimum
For metallic enclosure it shall be corrosion resistant in
accordance with ISO 12944.
Rated Voltage 400/220V
Panel If there is an UPS, 2 separated distributions in the same
board:
 Normal auxiliary power
 Emergency auxiliary power
Socket outlet One socket outlet shall be integrated in the low voltage
distribution board.
The socket outlet shall be directly accessible from the
front face of the low voltage distribution board (i.e. no
need to open the door to access to the socket outlet).
Spare For each distribution system (normal and emergency):
 Installed spare as follow: 16A-C / 10A-C / 6A-C
circuit breakers
  20% of the installed equipment or as a minimum a
free space of 20 cm with mounted rails to fix the
breakers and cable trays.

9.8.7 SCADA equipment

The Contractor shall supply and integrate within ITS all necessary equipment to
communicate with SCADA.

9.8.8 Over Voltage

All the internal equipment constituting the ITS (and that makes part of the scope of
supply of the Contractor) must be designed to withstand to over voltages occurring in
the MV and the LV distribution systems on which the ITS is connected, and without
damage, reduction of lifespan or increase of maintenance.

The over voltage could be higher than 3 times the nominal voltage of the grid.

Should an UPS be required by the Contractor, the UPS shall be designed to withstand
the over voltage, maintain proper operation and not propagate the over voltage to its
loads

9.8.9 Interlocking system

As per the requirements set for the GCS, the interlocking system of the plant shall be
fully integrated.

Moreover, for the ITS the interlock system shall be on the DC and the AC side.

9.8.10 Safety & Other Accessories

Transformer station shall have the appropriate fire and safety equipment according to
local legislation requirements, international standards and Client’s HSE policy.

Smoke detection and alarm (fire detection) shall be connected to the monitoring
system.

Adequate earthing of all equipment shall be done.

The TS shall include the following required accessories:

Accessories required for the operation of the ITS shall include (but not limited to)
internal temperature sensors (inverter/transformer compartments), heaters, light,
emergency button.

9.8.11 Terminals, connections and cabling

The ITS shall have the appropriate number of string inputs according to the design.
Connection of the DC LS cables directly on the main DC switch. The DC LS cables will
be fitted with cable terminals on their ends.

String cables terminal blocks shall be mounted on DIN rail keeping some distance
between positive terminals and negative terminals.

9.8.12 Grounding

The ITS will be connected to the site's grounding mesh network via a grounding
terminal.

Each surge arrester will be grounded directly on the grounding terminal with a cable
between the surge arrester and the grounding terminal. The characteristics of that
cable must be in accordance with local standards.

The metal sections of the ITS must be grounded in order to prevent any risk in terms
of contact voltage.

9.8.13 Installation requirements

The ITS shall be installed in such a way that they are easily accessible to operators at
any time of the day and protected as reasonably possible from the site conditions.

9.8.14 Quality Assurance – Traceability

Each string inverter must be accompanied with an inspection form, stating the areas
inspected, the name of the inspector and the inspection date.

String inverters must be traceable via a serial number according to the related inverter
subfield in wich it is installed.

9.9 Main step-up power transformer

The Contractor shall be responsible for the design, the manufacturing, the delivery on
site, the unloading, the installation and the commissioning of the main step-up power
transformer and all its accessories.

The Contractor shall choose a transformer manufacturer from the approved

subcontractors list.

9.9.1 Operating Conditions

Power transformers shall be capable of continuous service at the rated power on all
taps, without exceeding the temperatures rises specified in the Standards, and without
any deleterious effects of any kind.

It is the responsibility of the Contractor to design a transformer which is fully compatible

with the requirement set in the Grid code applicable to the Project.