MNRE Releases Draft Standards for Utility Grid Inverters

In a key development, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has released the draft standards for “Technical requirements for Photovoltaic Grid Tie Inverters to be connected to the Utility Grid in India”. The notice calls upon industry stakeholders to provide their feedback and comments latest by April 30, 2020 for these standards, before they are adopted.

The focus of these standards is to provide interconnection technical specifications and requirements along with environmental test specifications and requirements applicable for Utility Interconnected Inverters used in Photovoltaic Power Systems.

The test conditions for inverters have been specified as an Operating voltage range in single phase 240V +10%, -15% (as per CEA)

Operating frequency range – 50Hz +/- 2% (as per CEA). Unless otherwise specified, all tests shall be carried out under the nominal input and 5 output power conditions at room ambient between 25°C ± 5°C.

The equipment shall be connected and configured in accordance with the manufacturer’s instruction, where the outcome of testing could be affected.

Interestingly, on standards, the documents refers to CEA (Central Electricity Authority) document referring to IEEE 519 standard; but BIS Recognized labs or ISO 17025 labs in India are not accredited to conduct Harmonic test as per this standard; hence a suggestion to move away from IEEE standard and refer to IEC standard.

Complete details on the document can be accessed here.