solar generation higher than possible peak??

Magnitio

Mikeyboy01443 said:

Magnitio said:

I had 7.2kW max yesterday for 6.4kWp of panels. This can be caused by "cloud lensing" where the clouds impact the sunlight resulting in a momentary increase in PV output. With a completely clear sky on a cool day, my panels max out at just over 5.5kW

Is that not the clipping effect then if they max at 5.5? Mine will generate 6kw+ most of the day as long as there is battery still left to charge, once the batt hits 100% it will drop to the 5.5kw...
I've read before about the cloud edge effect, but it must been generating this amount for more than a few seconds, my solax app updates every 5 minutes so it would be a coincidence if it had manage to capture that high figure at that exact moment....7.2 from 6.4 is pretty good though isn't it! 

I normally leave a few percent in the battery available for charging when the PV output exceeds the 5.5kW limit of the inverter. This happened several times yesterday due to clouds and added a few percent to the state of charge. With clouds moving slowly, or with the sun passing along the edge of a cloud, the effect can last for several minutes.
Last year, in cloudless skies in the middle of the day, the output peaked at between 5 and 5.5kW depending on the temperature, even when there was some spare capacity in the battery. If we have a cool day in late June it might be better, but last year it was too warm.

jimjames

I've had the same thing with my new inverter. Not got to the bottom of whether it's correct or not yet

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6439727/inverter-output-higher-than-panels-and-inverter-spec#latest

jimjames

Mikeyboy01443 said:

its 5kw and can handle i think up to 5.5kw...

it was more a question of the panels ability to output higher than their rated maximum

Panels can output more as the rating is given at specific conditions, if the conditions are better the output could be higher.

94JDH

Also if the panels are of a "family" of panels with a range of available output, it's not unknown for some of these to be labelled as lower output even though they could output more. For example, a manufacturer of panels with 380W to 405W panels with the same other specifications.

Mikeyboy01443

mine are Trina 390w panels if that makes any difference... good to know others have seen it too!

EcoScruples

I've had 4.42kw from my 4.29kw set but only briefly when the battery is charging.
Once charged mines clipped at 3.68kw. 
I've thought about holding my battery charge until later in the day so I can get more yield but you just can't pin those clouds down.

Mikeyboy01443

EcoScruples said:

I've had 4.42kw from my 4.29kw set but only briefly when the battery is charging.
Once charged mines clipped at 3.68kw. 
I've thought about holding my battery charge until later in the day so I can get more yield but you just can't pin those clouds down.

I limit my charge rate to quite low at the moment so it charges at most at about 1.7kw so i can have 1.7kw + the 5.5kw of the inverter which equates to the 7.2kw max i have seen... perhaps i could up my charging to 2kw to squeeze a bit more out but then i would fill my battery quicker...
If its a rubbish day i take off the limit as i dont want to miss out on charging if there is only a short bout of sunshine

Alnat1

I limit my battery's charging rate down to 5% in the morning if a good day is forecast. I can then up the % as the system starts clipping and squeeze a bit more out.

Magnitio

I set the max charge of the batteries to 95% so that there is always a bit of spare capacity to prevent clipping.

Mikeyboy01443

Magnitio said:

I set the max charge of the batteries to 95% so that there is always a bit of spare capacity to prevent clipping.

This confused me a bit... if you set your battery to charge to 95%, it will treat that as full and then just clip anyway? Or do you mean you have the room there to enable charging again if you want to? 
Its a lovely day here in sunny south wales and my battery is full so i am now discharging it so i can top it up again, making the most of this weather!