Energy Management & Grid Limit in v7.3

[Endura]

It is common practice in the North American region to define solar projects with an active power grid limit at the PCC and require the facility to be designed with the capability of operating anywhere within a power factor band defined by the utility.  It's also common for inverters to be nominally rated in kVA.  Prior to PVsyst v7.3, we were able to define a grid limit in MW, select Pnom as apparent power rating and to provide a PF setting for the inverters. 

With the update to V7.3, it appears that the selection of definition of Pnom is linked to the grid limit definition - so Pnom = apparent requires the grid limit in MVA and Pnom = active power requires the grid limit in MW.  Is there a method to decouple this so simulations can be performed similar to pre-V7.3?

The issue with having these linked is that I don't believe PVsyst is able to simulate the impacts of HV/MV transformers, cables, etc. on reactive power in the system, meaning simulation results will be incorrect for curtailment scenarios.  It also makes simulating various PF setpoints tedious as it requires adjusting both the inverter PF setting and the grid limit MVA to attempt to limit MW semi-correctly.

The original de-linked method worked well as reactive power could be managed in load flow software - with the required inverter setpoint to meet a PCC power factor defined in PVsyst so that the inverters were properly derated - and active power would be simulated accurately in PVsyst.  

[Michele Oliosi]

Hi @Endura indeed we have confirmed this new "linked" behaviour, which is in fact incorrect. We will be working to reverting to the previous behaviour within a couple patches.
In the meantime I would go about as you suggest, i.e.

On 1/20/2023 at 2:52 PM, Endura said:

requires adjusting both the inverter PF setting and the grid limit MVA to attempt to limit MW semi-correctly.

Sorry for the inconvenience

[laurahin]

What's the status of this correction?

[Michele Oliosi]

Should be out in the next patch ?