INVERTER, POWER GENERATION SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING A POWER GENERATION SYSTEM

• Main Authors: VICTOR MATTHIAS, GREIZER FRANK
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.06.2012
• Subjects: APPARATUS FOR CONVERSION BETWEEN AC AND AC, BETWEEN AC AND DC,OR BETWEEN DC AND DC, AND FOR USE WITH MAINS OR SIMILAR POWERSUPPLY SYSTEMS; CONTROL OR REGULATION THEREOF; CONVERSION OF DC OR AC INPUT POWER INTO SURGE OUTPUTPOWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRICITY; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS; GENERATION

The invention relates an inverter that may be set up as part of a power generation system for the connection of a number of substrings, which, using DC switches, can be connected to each other in series into a string and with the inverter. The inverter includes a bridge circuit to transform the power generated by the string comprising series-connected substrings into a grid-compatible AC voltage and to feed the power into a grid. The inverter also includes a ground fault detector arranged on the AC side of the bridge circuit for ground fault monitoring of the string. A controller connected to the ground fault detector controls the DC switches so that in case of a ground fault, a complete decoupling of the connection of the string from the bridge circuit and a separation of the string into potential-free substrings is performed. A method of operating such a power generation system is also described.