Solar PV effect on PF and THD?

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shockking

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engineer
Could someone link to or explain the impacts of utility scale solar on power factor and harmonic distortion? I kind of thought modern inverters gave very high quality output, but yet I know it's normal to have to add capacitors for PF correction. Is the issue phase displacement or harmonic distortion? Are there settings in the inverter that should be changed?

TIA,
Tom
 
Those are broad subject areas. What is 'the issue' from your perspective? It might help to narrow down the question.

I'm not a engineer and not working in utility scale. But from my understanding the capability of solar inverters to operate at power factors other than unity, and to respond to conditions, has increased a lot over the last decade, at all scales of installation.

In theory, solar inverters can operate at any power factor but from what I've seen grid-tied operation is usually limited to between unity and .8 leading or lagging. The PF can be fixed or adjust itself dynamically depending on the inverter.

I don't recall seeing a THD spec above 3% on any recent data sheet.

I've heard that if you are interconnecting utility scale systems then the utility engineers may have specific requests regarding the power factor you run the system at.
 
shockking said:
Could someone link to or explain the impacts of utility scale solar on power factor and harmonic distortion? I kind of thought modern inverters gave very high quality output, but yet I know it's normal to have to add capacitors for PF correction. Is the issue phase displacement or harmonic distortion? Are there settings in the inverter that should be changed?

TIA,
Tom
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You might want to talk to these guys: https://powermonitors.com/ I just completed an online course they conducted concerning power quality monitoring; it had a bunch of information about how PV systems influence and react to power factor and harmonics. It is a much more complex issue than I had thought.
 
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