Photovoltaic safety equipment and the National Electrical Code

Author

Wiles, John C.

Author_Institution

Southwest Technol. Dev. Inst., New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM, USA

fYear

1991

fDate

7-11 Oct 1991

Firstpage

652

Abstract

Article 690-5 of the National Electrical Code (NEC) 1990 Edition requires that photovoltaic (PV) power systems mounted on the roofs of dwellings be equipped with a device that will detect ground faults in the array, interrupt the fault current, and disable the array. The design of a ground fault indicator and array disabler device that meets the requirements of the NEC for stand-alone and grid-tied systems is described. Preliminary testing revealed a low-voltage oscillation and excessive power consumption at voltages below the operating window. These problems have been resolved by a voltage monitoring relay

Keywords

fault location; safety; solar cell arrays; standards; National Electrical Code; ground fault detection; ground fault indicator; low-voltage oscillation; power consumption; roof mounted photovoltaic power systems; safety equipment; Electrical fault detection; Electrical safety; Fault currents; National electric code; Photovoltaic systems; Power system faults; Safety devices; Solar power generation; Testing; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1991., Conference Record of the Twenty Second IEEE

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV

Print_ISBN

0-87942-636-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1991.169291

Filename

169291