Dno says no

alford

Hi just been turned down by the dno for a extension to my 4 kW system.
What are my options
Could I extend my pv without conecting to the grid (without battery storage)
Any suggestions please

theboylard

Ooh that's rough:(

Can you give us an idea of which area and which DNO?

Might help others who are thinking ahead, might also allow folks to see if there is a pattern as to which DNO are more amenable?

oldskoo1

Could you use the extra panels to power your own energy capture into a tesla power wall battery pack?

alford

My location is Lincolnshire, i was wondering if I put a 2.5 kW extension up the excess could be used in my immersun,would that work,but what happens when the water is hot and the panels are still produceing power and the house is not consuming it.

pinnks

Your immersun can power 3 outputs sequentially but they can only be resistive loads like an immersion, oil-filled radiator etc. it also has a multifunction relay that can turn another device on for a fixed time when a threshold is reached but if the generation then drops you will import from the grid.

alford

Thanks Pinnks, so in reality I couldn't have a extra 2.5 kW because it would dump excess back into the grid,and there's no way round that without the expense of a battery bank.

Martyn1981

alford wrote: »

My location is Lincolnshire, i was wondering if I put a 2.5 kW extension up the excess could be used in my immersun,would that work,but what happens when the water is hot and the panels are still produceing power and the house is not consuming it.

I've been pondering this but can't think of a simple solution.

One possibility, and it's a long shot, is to think about an EMMA GVS, this is a bit like an immersun, it diverts excess leccy to water heating, space heating, battery, wherever you want it to go. But the GVS model can be set to only export 3.68kW before dialing down the PV generation.

Some DNO's may allow you to use such a device to go bigger on the PV, since you still won't exceed their 3.68kW limit.

Now for the bad news:-
Do some googling, these aren't cheap, probably £1k+.
Long shot that your DNO would accept this approach, you'd need to ask.
Duplicating costs as you already have an immersun.
A smaller install, such as 2.5kWp is already proportionately more expensive, so adding another grand or more might trash the economics.
Whenever generation is restricted, you are losing more money, due to lost FiT and export.

I think I've talked myself out of this idea!

What are the orientations of the two arrays, could you put it all through a larger inverter, but still capped (by the installer) to 3.68kW. Probably too much capping on a total 6.5kWp.

Batteries - potential route, but this will get complex fast, and cost big bucks at the moment. Plus you need a way to put the leccy back in, without allowing export (to keep DNO happy), so probably something clever and expensive like a SMA Sunny Island (2 or 3 grand?).

Perhaps, till something better comes along, you could invest the money in a solar scheme with Abundance @ 7% or so. That way you get a decent return, whilst generating clean leccy and supporting the development/rollout of PV?

Mart.

alford

Thanks everyone I think this will have to go on the back burner for a while.

Martyn1981

alford wrote: »

Thanks everyone I think this will have to go on the back burner for a while.

Do you know why they said no?

Could be that there is too much generation in your area, could be your voltage is already very high such as at the end of a line, could be that you share a supply with one or two neighbours.

I got permission for my extension because the DNO recabled our street and we all went onto single connections, before that my house and my semi-detached neighbours shared, and I was told that had I asked when that was still the case, I would have been told no.

You could ask if there are any plans to upgrade you, but my neighbour opposite worked closely with the DNO (till recently retiring) as he was head of the University electrical team, but told me that often the left hand don't know what the right is doing. Similarly my mate 2 streets over asked the DNO if there were any plans to change their supply (I suggested he do this) as he was building an extension, and needed to move the supply slightly. He was told no plans, and finished the job. 1 month later they recabled the whole street!

Another option might be to pay to upgrade the near infrastructure yourself, such as a transformer near you, or have 3 phase leccy put in, but these options will be very expensive. If this is possible then the DNO should be able to provide you with a quote, but make sure you are sitting down before you read it.

Just things that you might want to ponder or keep an eye out for.

Mart.

alford

Can't expand my system because of the network would need upgradeing,but I have talked to western power and my opinion my be install a 6kw and cap the inveter,which I would have to prove to them it was capped, I have yet to do the maths to see if it's viable.Looking to the future and battery storage becoming viable it might.