Solar Lattice

OperatingState

Island operation

ID
state:island-operation
IRI
https://solarlattice.org/kb/state/island-operation
Status
active
Also known as
off-grid operation, stand-alone grid operation, island mode, stand-alone grid, Off-Grid mode, intentional island
Category
Storage

In island operation, a battery inverter such as the Sunny Island supplies a stand-alone grid that is not connected to the utility grid. This is the opposite of grid operation, where the two grids are linked and share the same voltage and frequency. In a battery-backup system, the Sunny Island detects a utility power outage by itself and moves the connected Sunny Boy PV inverters into Off-Grid mode. For this switchover to work, the Sunny Island and the Sunny Boy inverters must share an RS485 data cable, and the Sunny Boy parameters must be set as SMA specifies. When the utility grid comes back, the Sunny Island returns to grid-tied operation under UL 1741. On Tesla battery systems, the user can set a voltage target and a frequency target for the battery system during off-grid operation. While running a stand-alone grid, the Sunny Island can report events at its AC1 connection, such as overvoltage, overfrequency, underfrequency or an unexpected voltage. These events point to a condition that needs checking and are not part of normal island operation. Battery-backup and off-grid setups need more battery modules than self-consumption setups. Check SMA's minimum module counts for the inverter model and phase setup before commissioning.

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