What is Ripple Control

Ripple Control is a common form of grid management in many countries around the world. Its communication is based on superimposing a very high frequency signal onto the 50/60Hz mains power. The amplitude of the superimposed signal is usually around 5% of the nominal phase voltage, and the frequency of the ripple signal is usually ranging from 100 to 1600Hz. For instance, in France the frequency used by grid ripple control systems is 175 Hz. In Germany, the Renewable Energy Sources Act has particular requirement for PV installations to be remotely controlled to reduce output power in the event of grid overloading. It will usually have a ripple control receiving device installed on site to receive this control signal from the grid operator. In this way, the local grid system operator can send control signals remotely in order to limit the output of the solar PV systems.

SolaX provides 16 controllable options with 4 Digital Inputs in response to different grid dispatching requirements from the grid operator. The installers can easily set 16 different combinations of the active power and reactive power values in percentage.

How to connect DataHub to Ripple Control Receiver

Compatible inverters

Connection Diagram

How to set up the power control functions

After connecting a laptop to the WiFi hotspot of DataHub, please login to the configuration page via http://192.168.10.10 on browser. For more details please refer to the DataHub user manual.

① On the Display D1, D2, D3, D4 of DI port, green dot means corresponding K1-K4 of RCR is closed. 

② On the Enable session, enable the DI option to activate the power control settings;

③ On the combobox of Setting, select the following power control functions:

A. Inverter output active power control

B. Inverter input active power control

C. Inverter output reactive power control

D. Remote shutdown

④ When Inverter output active power control is selected, input the active power value you need to    set in percentage([0-100]%), and for Inverter output reactive power control, please input the Power Factor([80-100]%) and reactive power mode respectively. The reactive power mode includes OverExcited and UnderExcited;

⑤ Submit and save the settings.

Note:

• Make sure to follow STEP1-5 strictly. In total there are 16 different combinations available for settings.
• Green dot means that the selected DI port 1-4 will be pulled-up to high level(12V), which matches the scenario that the co-responding K1-K4 on RCR are switched closed after receiving ripple control signal from the local grid operator.
• When the actual input pins of D1-D4 are not configured in the power control interface, the DataHub will control the connected inverters to run full power at normal condition. 
• When switching from one DI combination to another one, the selection of the new DI combination will be executed. The old settings will be stopped.