| By :
Roger Brown
The grid tie in inverter is and essential part you need in order to sell your homemade power back to your electric utility. They are also called "GTIs" or "synchronous inverters". These devices change to AC electricity the DC power that your wind turbine or solar collector makes. Selling power you make back to your utility is in fact the quickest way to start paying back your investment in a renewable energy project. Your local power is actually required by law to buy your excess power - all you have to do is export it to them in the form and fashion they required it - and, that's what a GTI does for you. This is how it came about: In 1978, the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act clearly defined how we as private citizens can export power to our local electric companies. This happened because of the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Even back then the U.S. was trying to wean itself from fossil fuel power plants and wanted to mobilize the masses of its citizens to make energy at home. One thing to realize though is that you won't get paid the same amount for the power you make as what the utility charges you at your home now. When you are buying power from the utility, they sell it to you normally at their cost to produce it plus a public service commission mandated profit. When you sell power from your turbine, the utility will pay you what it costs them to make it during that specific hour, or at what they call their "avoided cost" of generating the power. This is the way the grid tie in inverter actually works… As we said, the GTI turns DC power you make with your wind turbine into AC power the utility can transport over its wires and send to its customers. To make that happen though, the GTI must synch-up at the identical frequency that the utility's grid operates at. In most cases, that is anywhere from 50-60 HZ. To keep the system from ever being in an over-voltage condition, the inverter uses an oscillator that limits frequency. There is also a computer installed onboard the grid tie in inverter that keeps up with the utility's waveform and frequency in real time. The computer makes small adjustments in the power coming from your home system so that it matches up with the utility's grid. The utility will of course send someone out to your house to do the actual tie in. They don't want the liability of someone outside the utility opening up their grid. Lastly, a failsafe is also provided by the computer - it will also shut down your system if the grid goes down. In summary, the grid tie in inverter is a piece of equipment that is indispensible for anyone wanting to interact and make some money selling power back to the grid.
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articleforbacklinks.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
