Control from Tauron – Silesia under the magnifying glass of the energy giant
Literally a few days ago there was information about the inspections that Tauron is carrying out for the proper construction, connection and operation of micro-installations.
As we read on Tauron’s official website: the inspections for the moment are carried out on the basis of system measurement data. The data shows which photovoltaic installation owner has irregularities. In Ewa Groń’s words:
“We check the correctness of the installed micro-installations connected to our grid in three respects: exceedances of installed capacity, voltage exceedances while generating electricity, and the introduction of energy into the grid without a contract.”
This means that Tauron is checking:
- Is the power of the installation as reported
- Whether the inverters are set according to Polish standards, because according to the current standards, for 230V is a value in the range of 207V-253V)
- Is more power being injected into the grid than reported
Preliminary inspection results from Tauron:
From Tauron’s website, we learned that the company has connected about 400,000 micro-installations to date. The checks carried out so far have shown – only in the Gliwice area – that the scale of irregularities is quite large.
More than 1,500 inverter misalignments and more than 1,600 overruns of installed power. This is a shocking result, but it explains a lot. Why? That’s because it shows the possible causes of domestic photovoltaic systems shutting down. Until now, all the blame has been placed on the operator by users of micro-installations. That’s why on many Facebook groups you could read tips, ways to deal with an inverter shutting down on sunny days. The remedy was supposed to be “Call the power industry! Have them come and lower the voltage on the grid!”. Some said they were helped by intervention with the operator – because, after all, it was the operator’s fault. The fault was said to lie in an inadequate network in relation to the number of installations to be connected.
Others argued that it doesn’t make sense anyway – if a neighbor pushes more into the network then the rest will be turned off.
From the perspective of today’s preliminary inspection results, judge for yourself who might be right. One also has to wonder why it took Tauron so long to bother checking information that users have long reported. Tauron says users reporting problems with inverters shutting down were the driving force behind its efforts to verify the correctness of connected installations.
Inspection from Tauron – irregularities detected
For the time being, Tauron, upon discovering irregularities, sends a notice to the owner describing what the irregularities are and what should be done to eliminate them. If, despite the notice sent, the owner of the micro-installation does not make these changes, Tauron warns the URE (Energy Regulatory Office) of the notice.
Can you prepare for an inspection from Tauron?
If the installation was reported correctly, no one changed the settings on the inverters, no panels were added after the report – then you can rest easy. On the other hand, if you are not sure if everything is properly done and reported then there are 2 solutions.
- Waiting. If Tauron notices irregularities, it will certainly insist on correcting them.
- Have the installation checked to verify the notification and the actual condition (possible improvements with an update of the notification to the operator)
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