Power quality emission assessment of photovoltaic inverters based on IEC Technical Report 61000-3-15:2011

The International Electrotechnical Committee Technical Report IEC 61000-3-15:2011 provides electromagnetic compatibility requirements and test conditions for distributed generators up to 75 A per phase. In the current research, two commercially available photovoltaic (PV) inverters up to the capacity of 3600 W were tested following the guidelines proposed in IEC 61000-3-15 in relation to low order harmonic emission and flicker emission. In addition, the harmonic and flicker emission behaviour of the PV inverters were investigated under varying irradiation conditions. Both PV inverters were observed to comply with the emission requirements prescribed by the technical report under most conditions except for even order harmonics, which were observed to be in excess of the stipulated limits. Furthermore, fluctuation in solar irradiation was observed not to have any significant impact on flicker emission of the PV inverters under consideration.