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Sophie Vorrath commented on December 9, 2021

After Queensland authorities announced changes to the safety and certification requirements for residential rooftop photovoltaic inverters, global inverter manufacturer Fimer slammed the Australian solar market’s “latest over-regulation”, which may exclude certain brands and models Outside the market.

The controversial amendment to the rules for inverters with integrated DC isolators requires all products to be retested, recertified and re-marketed in accordance with the new Australian standards by December 18, even if they have been previously approved in accordance with equivalent international standards use.

These changes took place before the mandatory inverter relaunch implemented in mid-December, but some manufacturers warned that their products will not pass the test and certification by then, which means installation delays or increased costs to find a solution .

It's not just because of lack of time. According to industry insiders, it will be difficult to test DC isolators under the new AS 60947.3 because there is currently no testing or certification to that specific standard in Australia or anywhere else in the world-at least not yet.

After the industry's strong protest, CEC called on the Electrical Regulatory Authority to clarify whether the certificate obtained before the administrative change to the DC isolator certification requirements can still be used to comply with the [new Australian standard].

"[These] decisions by electrical safety regulators will determine whether recent administrative changes to DC isolator certification requirements will undermine the introduction of the new AS/NZS 4777.2:2020 inverter standard," CEC said.

At least one state responded to this call, but in a different way than CEC hoped: Queensland’s electrical safety agency EESS stated that it will enforce changes in compliance and testing requirements for residential solar inverters with built-in DC . Isolator.

Jason Venning, country manager of the Australia and New Zealand branch of Fimer, the world's fourth-largest inverter manufacturer, said on Thursday that the decision would "loss work and money, and would not benefit anyone in any practical way."

"This was done without proper consultation or reasonable notice with the industry, and all inverter manufacturers are working hard this year to achieve compliance with the updated AS4777.2:2020 inverter that will take effect on December 18th. Standards," Vining said in a post on LinkedIn.

"This last-minute change will have a huge impact on the residential solar industry. If these changes are implemented now, more than half of the solar inverters currently on the market will no longer be able to [be] install and register with STC."

Vining issued a "call to action" to Australian solar inverter manufacturers, retailers and installers who are also confused, disturbed or angry about the new standards.

"If you are angry about the latest examples of over-regulation and you just want to continue to run your business, please send a message to... [Queensland] Electrical Safety Office’s acting head, and the head [country] minister... tell them Give this industry a break!

"If you really want us to comply with these requirements, then please give us reasonable time to complete it and help us minimize the negative impact on the industry."

Vining is not the only one criticizing the new standards.

"This is a huge mess," said Haider Khan, Manager of Solar Inverter Products and Solutions at Huawei Technologies. "Some people solve this problem by removing the built-in isolator from the inverter. It's a...more risky option. The'safety supervision' is in vain."

"Agree with you," said Muhammad Tahir, CEO of Prosun Solar. "It's just a headache, a waste of time and money. They must set aside a reasonable amount of time for these changes so that we can get rid of our existing inventory."

James Sturch from SolarEdge-whose inverters do not have a built-in DC isolator and therefore are not currently facing any direct problems-told One Step Off The Grid, although the 2018 rule changes to AS/NZS 5033 encouraged integrated DC The isolator entered the inverter, and the change in certification rules was put into work at the last minute.

"This process is very difficult to navigate and understand," Stucci said in a comment last month. "Overnight, they cancelled the ability to test and certify integrated DC isolators, and therefore believe that every current DC isolator listed by ERAC is non-compliant."

On Thursday night, the Smart Energy Committee also weighed this issue, assured members that it had “made a major intervention”, and called for an extension of the compliance date of the new regulations to July 1, 2022 in order to save the inverters. Time out to comply.

SEC Chief Executive John Grimes said in an email: "We have just concluded a meeting with regulators and asked us to resolve this issue as soon as possible."

"If we fail to provide a viable solution, we will ask the State Secretary of Energy to intervene immediately to save solar energy jobs before Christmas."

Grimes stated that there is a "very simple and safe solution" to this problem: allow inverters that have obtained AS 4777.2:2020 certification but have a built-in "non-compliant" DC isolator to be used with an approved external DC isolator 2022 December 18th and July 1st.

"This will give the industry time for the testing laboratory to tick the correct box, redo the test, reissue the test certificate, and comply with Australia's only requirements," he said.

"The Securities and Exchange Commission is not trying to circumvent security or other requirements, and our members certainly don't-there is a question of time to obtain certification, which is what we are looking for."

Sophie is the editor of One Step Off The Grid and the associate editor of its sister site Renew Economy. For more than ten years, Sophie has been writing articles about clean energy.

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