Re: Massive changes to G83 rules for solar PV installations needing advance permissio
From a technical viewpoint this may be simple - from a FIT perspective, this looks like a minefield.
The current FIT is based on how much is generated, not how much is actually fed into the grid. If the panels of a system are generating at 3KW but the inverter is limiting the output to 1KW due to local grid issues, then the FIT should be based on 3KW not 1KW, i.e. on existing installations any limiting should be done between the generation meter and the grid, not at the inverter. Otherwise I can see some nasty court cases against OFGEM/DECC that this was a retrospective change to the FIT contract or with solar installers for mis-selling for not taking this into accounts in their financial forecasts.
This could be introduced for new installations. However, it will make the financial projections even harder to produce, and could even further impact sales - how many would install solar knowing that there is a risk that payback period if one of their neighbours installed a generation facility which resulted in the inverter throttling the output!
Matthew
5 - Suggestions made about investigating / adopting the German solution of inverters that reduce their output to limit localised voltage spikes or overall high frequency issues, instead of the inverters being either 100% on, or 100% off. As virtually all inverters have this capability built in anyway it should be relatively simple to adopt this approach, which would then fully solve most of the concerns the DNOs have around localised over voltage issues. Ofgem seemed interested in this, but it's too late for it to make it into G83/2.
From a technical viewpoint this may be simple - from a FIT perspective, this looks like a minefield.
The current FIT is based on how much is generated, not how much is actually fed into the grid. If the panels of a system are generating at 3KW but the inverter is limiting the output to 1KW due to local grid issues, then the FIT should be based on 3KW not 1KW, i.e. on existing installations any limiting should be done between the generation meter and the grid, not at the inverter. Otherwise I can see some nasty court cases against OFGEM/DECC that this was a retrospective change to the FIT contract or with solar installers for mis-selling for not taking this into accounts in their financial forecasts.
This could be introduced for new installations. However, it will make the financial projections even harder to produce, and could even further impact sales - how many would install solar knowing that there is a risk that payback period if one of their neighbours installed a generation facility which resulted in the inverter throttling the output!
Matthew