Development of an Electrical Characterization Device for Single-phase pv Grid-connected Inverters

The Grupo en Energías Renovables at the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste (GER-UNNE) developed a testing system for the characterization of grid-tied inverters with rated power up to 4.4 kW. The test procedures followed the guidelines established by EN 50530:2010, IEC 61727 and BS 50438:2007. This paper presents the development of the instrumental and the determination of the measurement uncertainties associated to the experiment by comparison with results obtained from an inverter test facility built at the Solar Energy Laboratory at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (LABSOL-UFRGS), Brazil. The error associated to the inverter conversion efficiency, with the loading ranging from 10% to 100%, was shown to be lower than 1%. The error in the efficiency error determination with partial load under 10% is lower than 8%.