What is grid-tied?
Grid-tied Photovoltaic Systems are generally the simplest type of system in the field of Solar Power. Without a backup or storage option it works in conjunction with the national grid.
The electricity of grid-tied Photovoltaic Systems must be used immediately. If your PV System produces excess electricity you have two options:
- Install a grid limiter, which constantly monitors your electricity consumption. This information is transferred to a Regulator (mostly a MPPT – Maximum Power Point Tracker), which will reduce the power production of the Solar Modules to meet your current electricity consumption. This way no Solar Power is fed back into the grid and your grid-tied Photovoltaic System is legally compliant. (Some municipalities might have special rules for Solar Systems. If you are not sure, which regulations apply to your municipality, just e-mail us and we will gladly assist you in finding it out.)
- Entering the City of Cape Town (or similar) Small Scale Embedded Generation tariff to legally feed electricity back into the grid. Your self-produced Solar Power is then rewarded for every kWh. You can find out details about the SSEG Tariff on the current tariff sheet of the CoCT website.
Important to know about grid-tied Photovoltaic Systems
When grid-tied Photovoltaic Systems don’t produce enough Solar Power to cover your consumption, the grid will seamlessly supply your house or business. However, due to a higher potential, your self-produced Solar Power will always be consumed before the grid electricity.
It is important to know that grid-tied Photovoltaic Systems do not produce electricity during a power failure or load-shedding. It requires a reference signal, which is in this particular case the public grid. If you want to have electricity during these times you need to use a Solar Battery System (we call it grid-interactive). The Battery will provide the required reference signal for the Solar Modules and you can still produce and use your electricity.
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Design your own Residential grid-tied PV Systems
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