Photovoltaic support grounding design standards

What is a substation grounding guide for photovoltaic solar power plants?

Abstract: This guide is primarily concerned with the grounding system design for photovoltaic solar power plants that are utility owned and/or utility scale (5 MW or greater). The focus of the guide is on diferences in practices from substation grounding as provided in IEEE Std 80.

What is the purpose of the grounding system design guide?

Scope: This guide is primarily concerned with the grounding system design for ground-mount photovoltaic (PV) solar power plants (SPPs) that are utility owned and/or utility scale (5 MW or greater). The focus of the guide is on differences in practices from substation grounding as provided in IEEE Std 80.

Do PV systems need a grounding protocol?

existing hardware standards. As the power output of PV systems continues to increase with each new generation product, grounding is likely to become even more of an issue. As PV system configurations evolve and new equipment comes on the market, equipment and system grounding protocol

Does this guide cover small scale solar power plants?

Similarly, this guide does not directly cover small scale solar power plants (such as rooftop type systems), substation grounding, or lightning protection.

What type of grounding bank should a PV plant use?

The grounding bank can be either a zig-zag or a delta-wye grounding transformer. The main circuit breaker should be rated for the PV plant generation in addition to the steady state zero sequence current resulting from feeder voltage imbalance.

What is a grounding point of a PV inverter?

The grounding point of the inverter is connected onwards to the grounding system or grounding electrode of the residential facility or building (see figure below). 15) PV circuits having 30V or 8A more shall be provided with a ground-fault protection device (GFPD). Nowadays, in general, this is a built-in function of inverters.