Hi,

I'm looking to design a purely off grid hybrid PV / Generator system but without batteries and include the SMA fuel saver controller as an energy management system.

Can this be done in PVSol?

Thanks

Regards

Damon

 

 

 

Hi Damon,

while we haven't implemented the exact control mechanisms of the SMA Fuel Saver, you could do the following to mimic a hybrid PV system:

• Go to the battery and battery inverter page, select the first cluster in your system configuration
• Click the "Battery Management" link
• Disable the battery as good as possible with these settings:

It will not be possible to avoid their usage completely, but you can limit their participation quite effectively, so that your load will be covered by PV and diesel only:

Hope that helps, kind regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,

Thanks, it does answer the battery part of the equation but traditional PV Diesel generator systems only really allow the PV system to provide up to 20% of energy capacity. The SMA fuel saver controller increases this capacity to 60% though.

I suppose you can't cater for the SMA fuel saver controller though?

Regards

Damon

 

Hi Damon,

you are right, these aspects are not implemented in the simulation right now. What do you mean by energy capacity? Are these values a percentage of the instantaneous load (power), or is it in terms of daily or annual energy share?

Kind regards,

Martin

Apologies, referring to percentage of instantaneous load.

ok, I understand now. No, that is definetely not possible to accomplish right now. But is it never possible to cover the entire load with 100% PV on sunny days with these systems? That seems a bit odd to me...

 

No, but there is technology that can maximise PV output and minimise the diesel genset load according to the time of day, climatic conditions and demands.

Hi Damon,

Yes, designing a purely off-grid hybrid PV/Generator system without batteries, while incorporating the SMA Fuel Saver Controller as an energy management system, can be done. PVSol may have some limitations in modeling such a specific setup, especially when it comes to real-time energy management without batteries, but it's worth exploring its capabilities. For more detailed guidance and expert advice, you may want to check with or ask directly from Force-V, as they specialize in advanced PV and energy management systems.

Best regards