The importance of reliable grid code compliance in times of increasing requirements

Markus Holzapfel, Product Manager at meteocontrol GmbH spoke to PES about the reasons, the process and benefits for the industry of the certification of meteocontrol’s Power Plant Controller.

PES: Welcome to PES Solar, it’s great to meet you. How did you end up in the solar industry and what is your role at meteocontrol?

Markus Holzapfel: Thanks, likewise. As part of a volunteer year in East Africa, I worked on PV off-grid systems and after my studies decided to take up a career in renewable energies, with a focus on photovoltaics.

At meteocontrol I work as a product manager and I’m responsible for our solutions based on one of our core products, the
blue’Log XM / XC, a combination of plant controller and data logger in one device.

The grid integration of PV systems plays a decisive role here, as the requirements of grid operators are also increasing with the continuous growth of solar power generation in our grids.

PES: We would love to hear about some of your current projects.

MH: Over the last 18 months and still ongoing, the certification of our plant controller Power Plant Controller (PPC), based on the blue’Log XC, according to the technical connection rule medium voltage (VDE-AR-N 4110) and high voltage (VDE-AR-N 4120), valid in Germany, has taken up a very big part of my working time.

From the first draft versions of these two regulations at the beginning of 2017, through the product specification of our controller, to the execution of the first prototype tests in the summer of last year, this project has not only kept me, but also many of my colleagues across departments, in suspense.

The approach of developing our plant controller model-based, continuously improving the quality of the software, by means of regular measurements on our in-house hardware-in-the-loop test bench, as well as the cooperation with an independent, accredited test laboratory and a certification body, were new territory for us until recently, from a product point of view.