5 Earthing and protection against indirect contact 5.

1 Earthing
The concept of earthing applied to a photovoltaic (PV) system may involve both the
exposed conductive parts (e.g. metal frame of the panels) as well as the generation
power system (live parts of the PV system e.g. the cells). A PV system can be
earthed only if it is galvanically separated (e.g. by means of a transformer) from
the electrical network by means of a transformer. A PV insulated system could seem
apparently safer for the people touching a live part; as a matter of fact, the
insulation resistance to earth of the live parts is not infinite and then a person
may be passed through by a current returning through such resistance. This current
rises when the voltage to earth of the plant and the plant size increase since the
insulation resistance to earth decreases. Besides, the physiological decay of the
insulators, due to the passage of time and the presence of humidity, reduces the
insulation resistance itself. Consequently, in very big plants, the current passing
through a person in touch with the live part may cause electrocution and therefore
the advantage over the earthed systems is present only in case of small plants.
5.2 Plants with transformer
In the plants with transformer, in addition to the analysis of the PV system either
insulated or earthed, for the protection against indirect contacts it is necessary
to make a difference between the exposed conductive parts upstream and downstream
the transformer1
.
5.2.1 Exposed conductive parts on the load side of the transformer
5.2.1.1 Plant with IT system In this type of plant the live parts result insulated
from earth, whereas the exposed conductive parts are earthed2 (Figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1 A Id +- ++B Id Load Re 1
Load Re
In this case upstream and downstream are referred to the direction of the electric
power produced by the PV plant.
2
For safety reasons the earthing system of the PV plant results to be in common with
the consumer’s one. However, to make the insulation controller of the inverter
operate properly and monitor the PV generator it is necessary that the frames
and/or the supporting structures of the panels (even if of class II) are earthed.
Photovoltaic plants 39
conductive parts shall meet the condition (CEI 64-8): Re
120 Id
In this case the earthing resistance Re of the exposed [5.1] where Id is the
current of first fault to earth, which is not
known in advance, but which is generally very low in small-sized plants. As a
consequence, the earthing resistance Re
of the consumer plant, which is defined for a
fault in the network, usually satisfies only the relation [5.1]. In case of a
double earth fault, since the PV generator is a current generator, the voltage of
the interconnected exposed conductive parts shall be lower than:
Isc . Reqp ≤ 120V [5.2]
where Isc is the short-circuit current of the cells involved, whereas Reqp is the
resistance of the conductor interconnecting the exposed conductive parts affected
by fault. For instance, if Reqp
excess), the relation [5.2] is fulfilled for Isc
= 1Ω (value approximated by not exceeding
120A, which is usual in small-sized plants; therefore the effective touch voltage
in case of a second earth fault does not result hazardous. On the contrary, in
large-sized plants it is necessary to reduce to acceptable limits the chance that a
second earth fault occurs by eliminating the first earth fault detected by the
insulation controller (either inside the inverter or external).
5.2.1.2 Plant with TN system In this type of plant the live parts and the exposed
conductive parts are connected to the same earthing system (earthing system of the
consumer’s plant). Thus a TN system on the DC side is obtained (Figure 5.2).
Figure 5.2 A +- ++B 5 Earthing and protection against indirect contactTechnical
Application Papers
In the presence of an earth fault, a short-circuit occurs as in the usual TN
systems, but such current cannot be detected by the maximum current devices since
the characteristic of the PV plants is the generation of fault currents with values
not much higher than the rated current. Therefore, as regards the dangerousness of
this fault, the considerations made in the previous paragraph3 the second fault for
an IT system are valid.
on
5.2.2 Exposed conductive parts on the supply side of the transformer
Take into consideration the network-consumer system of TT type. The exposed
conductive parts belonging to the consumer’s plant protected by a residual current
circuitbreakers positioned at the beginning of the consumer’s plant (Figure 5.3)
result protected both towards the network as well as towards the PV generator.