Pacific Power Source has launched the SmartTS-PV Inverter Test System, a pre-integrated compliance testing platform targeting solar inverters, EVSE with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability and other distributed energy resources. The company says any grid-tied device that needs to meet IEEE 1547.1, UL 1741 SB or EN50549 certification is a candidate. The system was developed with QualityLogic and Tektronix Elektro-Automatik and is available now.
The relevance to bidirectional charging is direct. UL 1741 SB is increasingly required for V2G-capable chargers connecting to the utility grid, and the validation process—covering voltage and frequency ride-through, reactive power control and anti-islanding—involves the same complex, sequenced grid support function testing that has made IEEE 1547.1 certification a bottleneck for solar inverter makers. A synchronized test environment is critical: grid events, inverter responses, measurement capture and protocol commands must align precisely. SmartTS-PV combines an AC grid simulator, DC power supply and load, measurement and data acquisition hardware, and QualityLogic’s automated pass/fail software into a single platform that handles that coordination automatically.
The headline figure is test time. Pacific Power Source and QualityLogic cite approximately 32 hours of actual test time against IREC’s 8-12 week estimate for manual NRTL testing.
“QualityLogic’s test automation reduces what traditionally takes weeks of manual NRTL testing to approximately 32 hours of actual test time, with automatic pass/fail analysis against IEEE 1547 accuracy requirements,” said Steve Kang, General Manager of Smart Energy at QualityLogic. “Combining that software with Pacific Power Source’s grid simulation hardware in one integrated platform removes the integration burden from inverter manufacturers and test labs and gets them to certification faster.”
The system targets string, central and hybrid inverter manufacturers, energy storage developers, test labs, utilities and certification bodies.
Source: Pacific Power Source
