Rapid shutdown

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hhsting

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I have 1500v (dc) inverter to 550vdc. The solar panel side 1500 vdc has 200 strings in parallel. It is enclosed by fence and solar panels on ground. There are no buildings and its used to provide electric power to 12.45kV ac utility grid. Does the solar system require rapid shutdown?
 
I have 1500v (dc) inverter to 550vac. The solar panel side 1500 vdc has 200 strings in parallel. It is enclosed by fence and solar panels on ground. There are no buildings and its used to provide electric power to 12.45kV ac utility grid. Does the solar system require rapid shutdown?



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Utility System

Utility System

This sounds like a large utility-scale PV system. In which case the utility requirements take precedence. This include low-voltage ride-through, supplying reactive power during a fault, operating under voltage droop. There are a lot of utility-grade protection requirements. You will need to review the technical section of the Interconnection Agreement to find out the specific utility requirements.
 
hhsting said:
I have 1500v (dc) inverter to 550vdc. The solar panel side 1500 vdc has 200 strings in parallel. It is enclosed by fence and solar panels on ground. There are no buildings and its used to provide electric power to 12.45kV ac utility grid. Does the solar system require rapid shutdown?
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No. Rapid shutdown is only required for arrays and DC wiring on or in buildings.

Max DC voltage and operating voltage are irrelevant, at least once they're above the rapid shutdown threshold. AC voltage is irrelevant.
 
hhsting said:
I have 1500v (dc) inverter to 550vdc. The solar panel side 1500 vdc has 200 strings in parallel. It is enclosed by fence and solar panels on ground. There are no buildings and its used to provide electric power to 12.45kV ac utility grid. Does the solar system require rapid shutdown?
Click to expand...


If it is not on a building, rapid shutdown is not required. A free-standing framework for ground mount solar is not a building.
 
GoldDigger said:
Although it is probably a structure. :lol:
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Yeah, and the definition of a structure is so vague that all I need to do is mortar two bricks together, and that meets the definition of a structure. :roll:

There is an exception in 690.12 that excludes buildings whose sole purpose is to house equipment for a ground-mount solar array (like a shed for inverters, which would have uncontrolled DC conductors feeding in to them), so logically that would also exclude the structure of the ground-mount solar itself. The framework that mounts a ground-mounted solar array is only built for the purpose of the solar array.

Carports are a gray area. I would expect them to not count as a building for the purposes of the 690.12 article, since it is a free-standing framework instead of what you usually think of as a building, but I have difficulty justifying it objectively with what the NEC gives me. All I need is a statement that buildings need walls to count as a building. The building definition references fire walls as the way that different sections of adjoining units will count as separate buildings, but no mention that walls are required to count as a building in the first place.
 
Gee... have seen many people in Jamaica using solar panels as the roofs of their car ports...thought it a great idea... wonder how we can create a roof that the roof is just solar panels anencephaly support frame?
 
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