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US 10,312,857 B2Granted
Systems and methods for an enhanced watchdog in solar module installations
AssigneeTigo Energy, Inc.
InventorsRon Hadar, Shmuel Arditi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for automatically or remotely rendering a solar array safe during an emergency or maintenance. A watchdog unit is disclosed for monitoring a signal from a central controller. If the signal is lost, interrupted, or becomes irregular, or if a shutdown signal is received, then the watchdog unit can shut down one or more solar modules. Shutting down a solar module can mean disconnecting it from a power bus of the solar array or lowering the solar module voltage to a safe level.
Claims5
A photovoltaic system, comprising:
- a power bus;
- a central controller;
- an inverter coupled between the power bus and a power grid;
- and
- a plurality of photovoltaic modules, each respective photovoltaic module of the photovoltaic modules having a watchdog unit coupled between the respective photovoltaic module and the power bus, the watchdog unit comprising:
- a converter configured to convert power generated by the respective photovoltaic module for the power bus;
- a communication connection to the central controller;
- a local controller;
- and
- at least one switch coupled between photovoltaic cells of the respective photovoltaic module and the power bus;
- wherein the local controller is configured via hardware, or software, or combination of hardware and software to:
- receive, over the communication connection, a communication from the central controller;
- determine whether the communication connection containing a shutdown command;
- control the at least one switch to disconnect the converter from the power bus, in response to the communication containing a shutdown command;
- determine whether the communication from the central controller has been interrupted for a time period longer than a predetermined number of allowed skips, when the communication contains no shutdown command;
- control the at least one switch to connect the converter to the power bus, in absence of a determination by the local controller that the communication from the central controller has been interrupted for a time period longer than the predetermined number of allowed skips;
- and
- control the converter to lower an output of the converter to the power bus to below a predetermine threshold in response to a determination by the local controller that the communication from the central controller has been interrupted for a time period longer than the predetermined number of allowed skips.
15 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.