question

arjanbijker86 avatar image
arjanbijker86 asked

High reactive power demand overloading inverter

hi Victronions,

I have the following setup: 3 x 15kVA Quattro inverters, 1 x Smartsolar MPPT and 1x Fronius 27kWp AC Coupled inverter.


The load is motors with a very high reactive power draw.

The total load is approx a total of 18kW over the three phases.

6000W phase A

6000W phase B

6000W phase C


The power factor of the load is very bad +/- (0.6)

i.e. a draw of

8000VAR phase A

8000VAR phase B

8000VAR phase C


Obvisouly the kVAR's is causing the inverters to overload.


Can a power factor correction unit be installed on the AC Output of the inverters?

What is best practice?






power factor
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3 Answers
Johannes Boonstra (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Johannes Boonstra (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hello, At bad power factor the load should be reduced. Practice is that at 0,7 the load should be maximal of the nominal power. In this case thats even worse so this setup is critical if not unrated for the load. The start-up is about x3 so you need a 18kW startup per phase. Advise would be to increase the inverter power or try a powerfactor correction device however i dont have a lot of experiance with that to be honest (would like to hear which result you get from them)

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arjanbijker86 avatar image arjanbijker86 commented ·

Hi,

I have contacted the power quality experts, they recommend Static Var Generators (SVG) - faster reaction times.


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durval avatar image durval commented ·

Hi @Johannes,

Would the same apply to Victron Phoenix inverter (model 12/1200 in case it matters)?

I want to use it to power a refrigerator, and I've just determined its power factor varies between 0.50 and 0.65 (at each cycle, starts at 0.65 then slowly decrements to nearly 0.50).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,

-- Durval.



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arjanbijker86 avatar image
arjanbijker86 answered ·

Hi @Johannes Boonstra (Victron Energy Staff)

The solution was to install a SVG (Static var generator).

This immediately took away the reactive KVAR load from the inverters, and the added bonus was a reduction in harmonic as the SVG selected also had active filtering capabilities.


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michelg avatar image michelg commented ·
Hi Arjanbijer86, what brand / model did you use for the SVG ?

Thanks, Michel.

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arjanbijker86 avatar image
arjanbijker86 answered ·

hi,

we used Delta 50kVAR SVG. Works like a charm


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