PV panels FOCUS Case study – Tasmazia complex, Australia
AS A night time fire ripped through the popular Tasmazia tourist attraction in Tasmania, Australia, the Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) learned, with some relief, that the SafeDC feature of the installed SolarEdge system eliminated the risk of working around damaged cables, reduced the high level DC voltage and prevented the solar panels used at the park from reigniting the flames at sunrise.
Fears allayed
Given that the fire had broken out in the early hours of the morning and had been extinguished under the cover of darkness, concerns remained that the blaze could reignite when the sun came up, as PV arrays may continue to generate dangerously high DC voltages of up to 1,000V during daylight hours, even when disconnected from the grid. Two SE15K inverters had been installed – one SE3300 inverter and its P300 power optimisers – and the SafeDC feature built into SolarEdge systems is designed to reduce DC voltage to a safe level automatically.
This happens if a building is disconnected from the grid, the inverter is turned off or a cabling fault is detected.
Touch safe
Adrian Luke, director of dynamic maintenance at DMS Energy, was called in to inspect the PV array and was able to reassure the fire crew that, as the system was a SolarEdge installation, the DC wires had automatically de-energised as soon as the grid power was cut off, and the system was therefore touch safe.
He commented: ‘I arrived at the site at 5:30 in the morning just as the sun was rising, and was pleased to confirm that the SolarEdge power optimisers were doing their job. Despite the system having been damaged by the fire, exposing copper wires, all the cables had automatically de-energised and were touch safe. When the TechSafe inspector arrived he was relieved to see it was a SolarEdge installation.’ As the fire and rescue service’s standard
practice is to shut down the full electrical supply to a burning site, all SolarEdge power
Case study continues overleaf
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