A 2kw Prototype System Installation

[Edgar Paternina]

:):)Hello Everyone,

As promised I just want to share my experience with the installation of my grid-tie system without batteries. Well, it has been a real success specially because of the people with whom I have worked, the process of installing the tower and taking up the wind generator and blades and tails up was specially exciting, it was done just with 3 people and me, but of course the wind generator and controller manufacturer and the Power One inverter that behave very beautiful, they played an essential role too.

The fact that everything is measured-see attachment- was very useful in the sense that everything was controlled, and we knew before putting the inverter in operation that things were ok. Once everything was ok, we closed the brake switch in the tower and we saw the blades running, and we saw 100 to 250DCV, and so power generating and we connected the grid-switch and then the inverter started its operation giving power to the grid or to the household circuits. We started just with 3 to 4 m/s windspeed, as this time is not the best for wind power, but we had about 0.1 kwh in about an hour according to the measurement of the KWH meter.

Now I want to update after a day of my system working.

In spite it was not a real windy day I obtained 1kwh in a day and a peak power of 874watts, and it has been really very exciting to see functioning everything in such a way.

Best regards

Edgar

[Rob Beckers]

For anyone that didn't read the earlier thread describing Edgar's system, it can be found here (http://www.greenpowertalk.org/showthread.php?t=9182).

Edgar, I'm curious how (well) things work when off-grid. Did you test things when grid is switched off and the generator running?

-RoB-

[Edgar Paternina]

For anyone that didn't read the earlier thread describing Edgar's system, it can be found here (http://www.greenpowertalk.org/showthread.php?t=9182).

Edgar, I'm curious how (well) things work when off-grid. Did you test things when grid is switched off and the generator running?

-RoB-


Hi Rob, certainly I',m most curious about it too; I will test it this week and tell you, but as far as things have been going I think it will behave good too.

Regards

Edgar

[Edgar Paternina]

Hello Everyone,

Finally yesterday I tested my system with the Kipor 1000 inverter generator simulating the grid, after I made some improvements on the ground including a good earth for the Kipor and it worked quite good, but the lesson learned is that we must use, in this case, a Kipor engine with enough power as that one of the wind generator to avoid burning the inverter in very high winds. The Kipor IG are really good engines for grid-tie systems as their output voltage and frequency are so good that the Aurora accepts them immediately.

Another experience I want to share is that I installed too a Professional weather center of La Crosse Technology as I wanted to verify the formulas used in a software developed regarding power, wind and the performance index(Cp = Betz Limit) obtained with the nominal data given by Yueniao, the manufacturer of the WTG, and it was really exciting to see how good had been those predictions.

Now I have average winds of 4 to 6m/s, and 1.7kwh generated per day in spite today I obtained 2.3kwh with the night included, so my initial expectations with this prototype are fulfilled in spite this is not the best wind we have here, at the point, that I have not been able to test the Aurora in very high winds, after I made the changes from split phase to single phase according to the recommendation made by Rob, and the support of the Aurora engineer, Francesco Cassi, who has been very kind and patient with me during this learning process.

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Edgar,

Good to hear it's working as expected!
I'm musing a bit about off-grid operation in the way you are doing this: When there are no local loads to absorb the production from the Aurora it will start backfeeding the Kipor generator. I wonder how well generators can cope with this, especially in your case where there's another inverter between the actual generator and the local grid (most regular H-bridge based inverters will pass power back from their output to their input in this case, though exceeding their maximum current ratings for the semiconductors in there will blow them).

-RoB-

[Edgar Paternina]

Hi Edgar,

Good to hear it's working as expected!
I'm musing a bit about off-grid operation in the way you are doing this: When there are no local loads to absorb the production from the Aurora it will start backfeeding the Kipor generator. I wonder how well generators can cope with this, especially in your case where there's another inverter between the actual generator and the local grid (most regular H-bridge based inverters will pass power back from their output to their input in this case, though exceeding their maximum current ratings for the semiconductors in there will blow them).

-RoB-

Hi Rob,

The real problem I had yesterday was with the dump load controller(see attachment) that I will test today again as most probably we did not operated it well; I could not see myself its operation during the test, as I was seeing the Aurora, but it seems the Kipor managed very well the situation and the Aurora too as after a few minutes it detected "grid failed"; it was a problem of overload, that is why I concluded that we must have a generator with a maximum power as that one of the wind generator. I will try to sell my Kipor IG1000 and buy a greater one as now I am very confident that, a grid-tie system without batteries, functions very well with the Aurora.