Hi Wrenches -
Just to clarify on this a bit... When we designed the XW we were always assuming there would be some sort of voltage regulation on the input to the batteries, either with a PV MPPT controller or a diversion regulator for wind and uHydro systems. So hence while the unit does try to regulate the battery voltage while selling power to the grid it does take some time when in sell mode to make sure everything is stable and compliant with the UL1741 limits before actually starting to transfer power. With a typical set up this is just fine, but obviously with a wind system like this the delay allows the voltage to rise to the point the inverter thinks it has a lot of power to sell, and with smaller battery bank sizes quickly pulls the voltage back down to the point it stops selling. As mentioned below we think we can speed this start of selling to the grid when battery voltage rises past the Grid Support Voltage setting, which should help smooth out this sort of situation. Initially we will test this in the lab and at a few sites to ensure we get good performance, then will roll the change into new units. This all may take longer than a few weeks, but we will do our best! Yours for a windy future... Mark Mark Edmunds Director Engineering Residential Renewable Energy Markets Xantrex Technology Inc. p. 604.422.2609 f. 604.420.1591 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.xantrex.com <http://www.xantrex.com> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Welch Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 1:46 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [RE-wrenches] XW / Wind problem to be fixed by firmware update Hi gang. Please contact me OFF LIST if you have any questions. Dan Lennox asked me to post this to the list: I have been working with Xantrex customer support for the last couple of months, concerning an issue when a XW-6048 inverter is connected to a wind turbine and allows alarmingly high battery voltage. The inverter Grid Support Volts is set to 55v, and should sell at or around this voltage. However I have seen issues where the inverter is not selling and allows the battery voltage to get alarmingly high (>60v). It would have gone higher (and I have seen 63v) except that my diversion controller kicks in and diverts power, stopping the voltage increase. This situation occurs typically under low wind conditions and it seemed to take about 15 seconds for the inverter to wake up and load the wind turbine. When the inverter did 'kick in' it put a 60amp load onto the turbine, which caused it to slow down, quickly lowering the battery voltage and the inverter stops selling - causing the whole cycle to happen over again! I just heard from an Xantrex customer support engineer that the XW inverter software has a built in 20 second delay (de-bouncing time they called it) once the Grid Support Voltage is reached, regardless of how high the voltage may get. Xantrex has agreed to work on a firmware upgrade that will allow SELL to occur when BATTV=GSV+4V and this should be available in a few weeks. Dan Lenox
_______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
