Projects:2015s1-07 Remote AVR Control for Embedded Generation

Solar panels are more annoying than you think

Project Information

Background

Project Team

William Declan Schuller

Sebastien Gray

Yiju Ma

Daniel Tang

Supervisors

Commercial

Mark Doherty

Erin Hart

Academic

Rastko Zivanovic

SA Power Networks

SA Power Networks is South Australia's privately owned but heavily regulated power distribution network operator. SA Power Networks is charged with delivering power from the transmission grid to consumers around South Australia. The company is split into a regulated monopoly and a competitive infrastructure and maintenance company.

Over the past decade South Australians have taken up rooftop solar power in a big way, recent statistics suggest that SA has at least 575 MW of installed solar capacity. As solar levels have risen SA Power Networks has begun to receive complaints of solar panels tripping off where penetration is at it's highest. The solar panels are tripping off because the voltage on their output terminals has risen above Australia's regulatory level. SA Power Networks began looking into the issue in more in late 2014 and has asked a team of Adelaide University Electrical and Electronic Engineering students to take a look at the problem from a more academic direction.