Micro Turbine

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newt

Senior Member
We have a customer that is going to put in 2 micro turbines and he plans on backfeeding a 800 amp panel the panel with a 800 amp breaker and the main is 800 amp he said he is not considered a utility interactive inverter and there for he doesnt have to follow 705.12 D1-D7. He said his microturbines are not inverters so that does not apply.
 

GoldDigger

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Placerville, CA, USA
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They are however grid interactive?
They have to match the grid in voltagez frequency and phase.
Is this done the way that a paralleled generator would be controlled, by regulating the shaft speed of the turbine?
Even if it is not an inverter circuit inside the turbine, it is still back feeding as an interactive generation system.
Are local loads connected to the same 800A panel?
 

arcsnsparks98

Senior Member
Location
Jackson, TN USA
I am only in the 'wanting to learn more' phase of alternative energy so I apologize if this is an ignorant question. My understanding of wind turbines (small ones anyway) is that they charge a battery bank which then feeds a utility interactive inverter. Mainly because the output can vary so much that it isnt stable enough to tie directly to the grid. Is this somewhere along the correct line of understanding?
 

GoldDigger

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Placerville, CA, USA
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It is close, but no cigar.
It is true that the output frequency of a wind turbine is tied to the shaft speed unless some form of conversion is used. And the shaft speed for maximum power will vary with the wind speed.
But it is only necessary to store energy for at most one cycle ofvthr AC waveform, so batteries are not necessary.
If the utility imposes stability requirements on the plant output, then batteries are necessary.
There is also a technology called, I believe, a written pole generator which can provide a stable output frequency and phase over a wide range of shaft speeds.
With no further qualification, I would interpret a micro turbine to be hydro, not wind.
 
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ron

Senior Member
We have a customer that is going to put in 2 micro turbines and he plans on backfeeding a 800 amp panel the panel with a 800 amp breaker and the main is 800 amp he said he is not considered a utility interactive inverter and there for he doesnt have to follow 705.12 D1-D7. He said his microturbines are not inverters so that does not apply.
Agreed. I don't know why they have so much detail associated with an inverter type utility interaction, but they do not seem to regulate other types of grid interaction to that same extent. Just the other parts of 705
 

newt

Senior Member
other loads are connected to panel looking for code section but nothing on microturbines
 

tom baker

First Chief Moderator
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One question. If you are backfeeding the 800 amp panel, and there is a utility power outage, how will you avoid feeding the utility grid with a potential of an electrocution of a utility worker?
 
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