Drawbacks of a medium sized, grid coupled Photo Voltaic Array

Abstract

A medium sized photo voltaic (PV) array with good inverters produces high quality, real (true) power.. The maximum allowable reactive power is a percentage of the real power consumed from the grid. Before the PV array was installed the reactive power was less than 50% of the real power, which is allowed by the by-laws. Because of the amount of PV generated real power the actual consumed real power reduced. The ratio of reactive power to the consumed power changed therefore drastically. According the by-laws and the utility the eactive power drawn from the power grid is too high and the owner of the PV installation now has to pay a fine.