What should be my DC/AC Ratio for

Solar PV Power Plant ?

Published on September 12, 2016

Hardik Bhesaniya
FollowHardik Bhesaniya
Management Trainee (Solar) at Hero Future Energies Pvt. Ltd.

The DC to AC ratio is an important parameter when designing a solar project. For

example, a 12-kW DC array combined with a 10-kW AC rated inverter would have
a DC/AC ratio of 1.2 (12 kW / 10 kW = 1.2). The key driver here is the clipping
loss:when the DC power feeding an inverter is more than the inverter can handle,
the resulting power is clipped and lost.

Many people think DC/AC ratios of 1.1 are ideal, with 1.2 as slightly aggressive.
Instead, design values of 1.2 often result in minimal losses, while a 1.25 or 1.3
value can improve project economics, especially when a project size is constrained
by the AC capacity.

Why and how do inverters clip?

Every inverter has a maximum rated power. This is important for two reasons. First,
the component ratings of the power electronics in the inverter are often designed
with a specific power and voltage range in mind. Second, at the system level, the
homes AC panel (and/or the grid connection point) are designed with a specific
max power in mind.
Inverters will generally never output more than their max-rated AC power. During
times when the DC input power is too high, the inverter will raise the operating
voltage of the modules to pull the array off of its max power point and reduce the
DC power.

Also Solar Panel will produce its rated power only at STC (i.e. 25 deg. C
temperature and 1000 W/ sq.m radiation. This will however rarely occur.

When the PV power exceeds name plate rating of Inverter, the inverter has to
displace the operating point along the P/V curve of the array, in order to just draw
the necessary power. This displacement is usually towards higher voltages. The
power loss is (Pmpp - Pnom(dc)) for this hour.

Now if the voltage corresponding to this Pnom(dc) is over the VmppMax of the
inverter, there is no possible operating point with both conditions [Pnom(dc)] and
[Vnom(dc) < VmppMax]: the inverter has to stop!

When you come to this situation, the solution is to diminish the number of PV
modules in series.
Practical Simulation Result
Some Inverter manufacturers guide their clients for higher DC/AC ratio as high as
2. YES!! Some companies give in written for overloading up to 100 %.

For this, simulation is carried out for 3 kW inverter at various overloading ratio by
gradually increasing the DC power (i.e. increasing no. of modules).
 So you can see that for DC/AC =2, Clipping loss will occur from 10 am to
2 pm. i.e. avg. 4 hrs a day.
For DC/AC=1.5, Clipping loss will occur from 11 am to 1 pm i.e. avg. 2
hrs a day.
For DC/AC=1.28 there will not be any clipping loss.

Also Performance Ratio will be affected due to this, Performance Ratio for
DC/AC Ratio of 1.28, 1.5 & 2 will be 77.10%, 76.5% & 67.7% respectively.

Also there will be decrease in Specific Production as my DC/AC ratio goes up.