Safety of power converters for use in photovoltaic power systems — Part 2: Particular requirements for inverters

This clause of Part 1 is applicable with the following exception: 

1.1 Scope 
Addition: 
This Part 2 of IEC 62109 covers the particular safety requirements relevant to d.c. to a.c. inverter products as well as products that have or perform inverter functions in addition to other functions, where the inverter is intended for use in photovoltaic power systems. 

Inverters covered by this standard may be grid-interactive, stand-alone, or multiple mode inverters, may be supplied by single or multiple photovoltaic modules grouped in various array configurations, and may be intended for use in conjunction with batteries or other forms of energy storage. 

Inverters with multiple functions or modes shall be judged against all applicable requirements for each of those functions and modes. 

Note: Throughout this standard where terms such as grid-interactive inverter are used, the meaning is either a grid-interactive inverter or a grid-interactive operating mode of a multi-mode inverter. 

This Standard does not address grid interconnection requirements for grid-interactive inverters. 

Note: The authors of this Part 2 did not think it would be appropriate or successful to attempt to put grid interconnection requirements into this standard, for the following reasons: 

a) Grid interconnection standards typically contain both protection and power quality requirements, dealing with aspects such as disconnection under abnormal voltage or frequency conditions on the grid, protection against islanding, limitation of harmonic currents and d.c. injection, power factor, etc. Many of these aspects are power quality requirements that are beyond the scope of a product safety standard such as this. 
b) At the time of writing there is inadequate consensus amongst regulators of grid-interactive inverters to lead to acceptance of harmonized interconnect requirements. For example, IEC 61727 gives grid interconnection requirements, but has not gained significant acceptance, and publication of EN 50438 required inclusion of country-specific deviations for a large number of countries. 
c) The recently published IEC 62116 contains test methods for islanding protection. 

This Standard does contain safety requirements specific to grid-interactive inverters that are similar to the safety aspects of some existing national grid interconnection standards. 

Users of this standard should be aware that in most jurisdictions allowing grid interconnection of inverters there are national or local requirements that must be met. Examples include EN 50438, IEEE 1547, DIN VDE 0126-1-1, and AS 4777.3.