Leakage current measurement in transformerless PV inverters

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) installations have seen a huge increase during the last couple of years. Transformerless PV inverters are gaining more share of the total inverter market, due to their high conversion efficiency, small weight and size. Nevertheless safety should have an important role in case of these tranformerless systems, due to the missing galvanic isolation. Leakage and fault current measurement is a key issue for these inverter topologies to be able to comply with the required safety standards. This article presents the test results of two different current measurement sensors that were suggested to be used in commercial PV inverters for the measurement of leakage and fault ground currents. The German VDE0126–1–1 standard gives the limit for fault and leakage ground currents and all grid connected PV inverters have to comply with these limits and disconnect from the grid in case of a fault.