Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

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jeba
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Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by jeba »

My PV facility has shown signs of malfunction: It generates and intermittendly regulates down to zero so that the generation chart has some similiarity to a sine curve - even though the sky is blue and sunny. What could be the reason?
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PW in Polemi
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Re: Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by PW in Polemi »

Best to get your system installer round to check.
I know of somebody whose PV system kept switching off and staying off till reset, but that was due to EAC setting their power voltage too high (or something like that, too technical for me!). Anyway, it was sorted with a callout by EAC to alter some of their settings, nothing needed doing to the PV system.
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cyprusmax47
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Re: Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by cyprusmax47 »

jeba wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 2:34 pm My PV facility has shown signs of malfunction: It generates and intermittendly regulates down to zero so that the generation chart has some similiarity to a sine curve - even though the sky is blue and sunny. What could be the reason?
It could be the same problem I had a couple of weeks ago. The inverter switched on and off due to high voltage supplied from EAC ( >253 volt!!)

I explained the problem to EAC and 4 days later the voltage delivered from them went back to a Cypriot "normal" of 243-246 v.

Since then my inverter has no problem anymore, however the high voltage destroyed one of my battery pack of a garden tool I was charging, which I cannot use now anymore... :roll:

Max
jeba
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Re: Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by jeba »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 8:23 am
jeba wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 2:34 pm My PV facility has shown signs of malfunction: It generates and intermittendly regulates down to zero so that the generation chart has some similiarity to a sine curve - even though the sky is blue and sunny. What could be the reason?
It could be the same problem I had a couple of weeks ago. The inverter switched on and off due to high voltage supplied from EAC ( >253 volt!!)

I explained the problem to EAC and 4 days later the voltage delivered from them went back to a Cypriot "normal" of 243-246 v.

Since then my inverter has no problem anymore, however the high voltage destroyed one of my battery pack of a garden tool I was charging, which I cannot use now anymore... :roll:

Max
When that happened - did production drop abruptly or over a period of time like in my case?
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cyprusmax47
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Re: Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by cyprusmax47 »

I can talk only about my Inverter experience. It showed on the display that it will restart the system after 2-4 minutes as soon as the voltage from EAC was above 253v. It could cope with 252v or lower, depending on consumption at the same power line (neighbours switching things on)
Altogether I had only half of the normal kWh's/day in sunny conditions ( 4 kWh/day per kWp installed )

Max
jeba
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Re: Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by jeba »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 11:19 am I can talk only about my Inverter experience. It showed on the display that it will restart the system after 2-4 minutes as soon as the voltage from EAC was above 253v. It could cope with 252v or lower, depending on consumption at the same power line (neighbours switching things on)
Altogether I had only half of the normal kWh's/day in sunny conditions ( 4 kWh/day per kWp installed )

Max
Thank you, but that doesn´t seem to be the same problem as according to my monitoring graph generation goes down slowly (takes up to 30 min to reach zero) and goes up slowly as well.
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cyprusmax47
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Re: Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by cyprusmax47 »

jeba wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 5:44 pm
cyprusmax47 wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 11:19 am I can talk only about my Inverter experience. It showed on the display that it will restart the system after 2-4 minutes as soon as the voltage from EAC was above 253v. It could cope with 252v or lower, depending on consumption at the same power line (neighbours switching things on)
Altogether I had only half of the normal kWh's/day in sunny conditions ( 4 kWh/day per kWp installed )

Max
Thank you, but that doesn´t seem to be the same problem as according to my monitoring graph generation goes down slowly (takes up to 30 min to reach zero) and goes up slowly as well.
This sounds like you get shading on the solar panels from high trees, chimneys, solar hot water system etc .... easily happens this time a year as the sun is still quite low producing shades on the modules.

Max
jeba
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Re: Photovoltaic system malfunctioning

Post by jeba »

No, there is definitely nothing which could put shade on the roof. The elctrician who installed it could see from his monitoring that there is a problem but couldn´t point to what kind of problem exactly (possibly the inverter). Waiting to hear back from the manufacturer (Solaredge).
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