Ginlong

No. 57, Jintong Road, Xiangshan Binhai Industrial Park, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China 315712
Tel:0574 - 6578 1806 Fax:0574 - 6578 1606
E-Mail: info@Ginlong.com

Technical clarification

Ginlong Technologies is manufacturing 3-Phase grid tie solar Inverters which also supports IT grid AC
connection 3 Wire connection U,V,W, and High voltage(480 Vac) Inverter doesn’t have the physical
neutral connection point.
• Grid -connected solar inverter operates as a current source device.
• Grid-in ter ac tive inver ter s cannot be operated as voltage sources.
• Neu tr al connec tions and ef fec tive grounding are not recommended to
mitigate tempor ary overvoltage(TOV) when using in photovoltaic inver ter s.

The physical characteristics of inverters are very different from those of generators. Generators have large
reactance because they are constructed from massive coiled conductors with magnetic cores.

Fig 1 -Typical PV inverter equivalent circuit.

The typical X/R ratio for a generator is on the order of 30 to 50. For this reason, the restive portion of a
typical generator impedance is ignored because it is so small when compared to the reactance. By
contrast, inverter have essentially no reactance. Only the relatively small choke inductors and the isolation
transformer leakage inductance contribute any positive reactance to the circuit characteristics.

Why Grid -connected solar Inverters Do Not Have a Solid Neutral Connection
Photovoltaic inver ter s are designed and intended to oper ate as balanced, 3 phase current sources.
Therefore, a neutr al conduc tor is not necessary for the expor t of power. Since the neutral conduc tor is
not actually necessary, mos t inver ter s do not even have ter minals for a neutr al conduc tor.
Even inver ter s which measure voltage phase-to-neutral do not have solid connection between
the isolation tr ansfor mer neutr al output and the neutr al terminal. Where a connection between
the neutral ter minal and isolation tr ansformer exists, there is a neutr al grounding resistor in
ser ies with the connec tion.
In principal the actual work of neutral connection to correct the phase angle between the phases
(120deg phase shift), so to over come this requirement solar inverter do this measurement by
“phase lock Loop” method which senses actual grid voltage angle and synchronise accordingly, so
having physical Neutral isn’t that useful.

The temptation would be to simply remove the neutr al grounding resistor or add a solid neutr al
 Ginlong

No. 57, Jintong Road, Xiangshan Binhai Industrial Park, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China 315712
Tel:0574 - 6578 1806 Fax:0574 - 6578 1606
E-Mail: info@Ginlong.com

connection and thus render the inver ter “ef fec tively grounded”. The reason this is not offered as
an option by inver ter manufac turer s is this modification would make it very difficult to comply
with the UL/IEC s tandard.
The mos t impor tant reason inver ter s do not have solid neutr al connection is prevent minute, shor t
duration imbalances in phase switching times from leading to unwanted neutral currents in the
output. Allowing the isolation transfor mer neutral to “ float” prevents these distur bances from
causing harmonic dis tor tion in the hos t elec trical system. This harmonic dis tor tion would make it
extremely difficult for an inver ter with a solid neutr al connection to meet the harmonic dis tor tion
requirements of the UL 1741/IEC s tandard.
Additionally, a solid neutral connection can interfere with the inverter’s ability to detect phase
voltage problems, and lead to unwanted nuisance currents in the isolation transformer. Ex tensive
design modifications and tes ting would be required to overcome these problems.
Given the difficulties associated with adding a solid neutral connec tion, it is wor th ascer taining
whether or not there is any real benefit to having a solid neutral connection in an inver ter.

Current Source vs Voltage Source Generation

Therefore, listed PV inverters are carefully designed to operate as current sources into the existing voltage
on the grid, Any attempt to predict power system behavior with PV inverters must incorporate this
fundamental property of inverters.

Fig 2 - Current source equivalent circuit. Fig 3 - Illustration of current source

generation phase-neutral voltage during line
to ground faults.
 Ginlong

No. 57, Jintong Road, Xiangshan Binhai Industrial Park, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China 315712
Tel:0574 - 6578 1806 Fax:0574 - 6578 1606
E-Mail: info@Ginlong.com

Under normal operation, phase voltage is set by central generation (usually a synchronous generator) on
the grid. The inverter will act as a current source into the connected grid impedance. As a result, the
inverter will load share with the grid power source. Typically, the grid and load impedances assure that the
inverter power is utilized by the locally connected load.

Thus, we would not expect to see TOV mechanism, derived neutral shift, during line-to-ground faults being
fed by PV generation.

Below listed Solis inverter are compatible with IT grid (3 wire) AC connection

SOLIS TN/ 4 wire

Sr. TT / 5 Wire Grid IT /3 wire Grid
INVERTER Grid Note
No. Compatible Compatible
MODEL Compatible
1 SOLIS-3P-5K-4G YES YES YES
2 SOLIS-3P-6K-4G YES YES YES
3 SOLIS-3P-8K-4G YES YES YES
4 SOLIS-3P-10K-4G YES YES YES
5 SOLIS-3P-12K-4G YES YES YES
6 SOLIS-3P-15K-4G YES YES YES
7 SOLIS-3P-17K-4G YES YES YES
8 SOLIS-3P-20K-4G YES YES YES
9 SOLIS-25K YES YES YES
10 SOLIS-30K YES YES YES
11 SOLIS-50K NO NO YES
12 SOLIS-60K-4G. YES YES YES
13 SOLIS-60K-HV NO NO YES

Note:
1. TN Grid /4 wire: 3 Phase Neutral and PE bridge connection.
2. TT Grid/ 5 Wire: 3 Phase, neutral, PE separate connections.
3. IT Grid/3 Wire: 3 Phase and only PE Connection Separate.