Cozy35

Has anyone here gone the SSEG Application route with City of Tshwane? from what I can gather on their Website, the application is a mix between Eskom and COCT and somewhat complicated for residential solar installations as opposed to COCT. Any guidance will be appreciated - contact etc. Thanks

Can anyone suggest and supply me with contact info for an ECSA registered electrical engineer to sign off on a pV installation - City of Cape Town. Thanks in advance.

How long did you wait for the application to be concluded and receiving the letter of permission?

I need some guidance on some strange system behavior. I have two Kodak 5.48OGX(a)'s in parallel and two Kodak FL5.2 Lithium also in parallel, communication with the master inverter via RS485 CAN as well as 14 x 450Watt Panels in two strings split across the two inverters. Master inverter is setup for Pylontech and the slave as USE. Settings as follows as forced by the FL5.2 BMS via CAN: Bulk Charging - 56 Volts Float Charging - 56 Volts Battery Cut-Off - 48 Volts Back to Grid - 51 Volts Back to Discharge - Full (All the above settings keeps changing from whatever I set to the above) Charge Source Priority - Solar & Utility Output Source Priority - SBU The issue is that it does not matter if battery is full or/and solar is exceeding loads - The loads are supplied by Grid as well as Solar, making cost savings not great. see Pic: The CAN is communication perfectly with the Inverters. I am using Manie's ICM Remote Management from ICC Software. I am clueless? Any ideas.

I was under the impression that the inverter option 05 must be set to PYL to work with these batts when connecting Inverter can to batt rs485 and communicate properly? Interesting that you select LIC? I have several installs with parallel inverters, some three in parallel wotrking with FL5.2 in Master and salve, and some two slaves. All working like a dream. Some times these batteries come totally below voltage (43.5VDC) and then it is a nifty workaround to get them going. That is what I suspect you issue was here.

HI, It makes sense but somehow I seem to not get the grips on it. The inverter has a a change over set of relays, one for live (phase) and one for neutral. When power is available from grid, then this is fed via the relays to plugs and lights. Plugs via the ELU of course. this is a mechanical connection (switched), so the same power from the grid is now at the plugs. (In this case where the CIU is plugged in). When the grid fails, the inverter passes AC via the now switched relays to the loads, isolating the grid input. Under this condition I can accept that the CIU will not communicate with the Meter, but when grid id available it does not. Yes, and in bypass mode it does. I have wired a 4P change over switch as to return the fed power back to the loads, taking the whole inverter out of circuit. Looks like I will have to isolate a single plug for the sake of the CIU and wire it before the inverter input.

Hi Folks, some help or pointers will be very much appreciated. I installed the above inverter as a backup only solution. The client has pre-paid electricity and the controll unit resides on one of the plug point being fed from the inverter. It does not communicate with the main unit. When I take the inverter out of the circuit by looping the power feed the DB to the inverter input, back to to the ELU in the DB, the CU comms is OK. I ma not sure if I should rather run the CU on the feed to the inverter rather than from inverter output and if will work? Any thoughts on this will be appreciated. Thanks

I have just swapped the faulty inverter with a replacement and all is well. The inverter is definitely faulty, strange issue at that. It will go back for warranty exchange. I have installed quite allot of these in parallel and 3 Phase configurations in both solar and backup power scenarios but this is a first for me. I suspect that the safety relay switching the IP AC got stuck and feeding the OP AC via the IP. Not too sure of this is possible? What I also noticed is that when setting it back to SIG as a single unit, there is no 220VAC on the IP as when in Master Mode, but.... in the SIG mode, there is 220VAC between the earth and the Natural as well as earth and live on the IP, but zero between the Live & Neutral. Very strange indeed.

Ok, now wtf can be causing this. I have 2 x MksII connected parallel. One inverterfails with 05 error. When I remove the input to the inverter it shows the same input vac as the output. Wires removed directly on the inverter input. If I use it as a single inverter it works perfectly. They were both bought together and serial numbers follow. Both running same firmware version.

I surely will keep this in mind. Thanks, it all makes perfect sense now.

OK, it makes sense. Then what would be the best panel to use to get most the most power/ Seems the 400 watt option will have some sacrifices.

Oops, I thought 49,1VDC X 9 = 441,1VDC and that it is less than the OC value of 450VDC of the inverter? Is the margin too close? Panels would not get close to the 4500 Watt PV power the inverter is capable of. I'm sure I am missing something here.

My thoughts exactly. So I think given the design limits and PV panel specs I would opt for 9 PV panels in series. This will have the Input amperage at 9.6 and a max of 442 Volts OC. Still within the limits as well as solar edge effect. 10 panels in series would also be risky in solar edge effect. I was thinking 12 panels connected as 2P 6S, but that would exceed the max Input 18A. Rather safe than sorry.

Need some advice here. I want to use 400Watt PV panels with the Axpert MKS-II 450V MPPT inverter. The Inverter manual states max open circuit PV voltage is 450V with max input current 18A. The PV Panel Spec is max OC volts is 49.1V and max current is 9.62A How many panels and how to string them for the best possible power production keeping safety and reliability in mind. Thanks

Ok folks, is 12 x 400 watt panels too much for the Kodak OGX. The manual states max OC voltage is 450vdc with max current input of 18A. It seems 9 panels in one string is about the limit. 10 is pushing it. Your thoughts please.