A grid-tied electrical system, also called ''tied to grid'' or ''grid tie system'', is a semi-autonomous electrical generation or
grid energy storage
Grid energy storage (also called large-scale energy storage) is a collection of methods used for energy storage on a large scale within an electrical power grid. Electrical energy is stored during times when electricity is plentiful and inexp ...
system which links to the mains to feed excess capacity back to the local
mains electrical
grid
Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to:
Common usage
* Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road
* Grid reference, used to define a location on a map
Arts, entertainment, and media
* News g ...
. When insufficient electricity is available, electricity drawn from the mains grid can
make up
Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...
the shortfall. Conversely when excess electricity is available, it is sent to the main grid. When the Utility or network operator restricts the amount of energy that goes into the grid, it is possible to prevent any input into the grid by installing Export Limiting devices.
When batteries are used for storage, the system is called battery-to-grid (B2G), which includes
vehicle-to-grid
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G), also known as Vehicle-to-home (V2H) or Vehicle-to-load (V2L) describes a system in which plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) sell demand response services to the grid. Demand services are either delivering electricity or by red ...
(V2G).
How it works
Direct Current (DC) electricity from sources such as hydro, wind or solar is passed to an
inverter
A power inverter, inverter or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the opp ...
which is
grid tied. The inverter monitors the alternating current mains supply frequency and generates electricity that is phase matched to the mains. When the grid fails to accept power during a "black out", most
inverter
A power inverter, inverter or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the opp ...
s can continue to provide courtesy power.
Battery-to-grid
A key concept of this system is the possibility of creating an electrical micro-system that is not dependent on the grid-tie to provide a high level quality of service. If the mains supply of the region is unreliable, the local generation system can be used to power important equipment.
Battery-to-grid can also spare the use of
fossil fuel power plant
A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, wh ...
s to supply energy during
peak load
In electrical engineering, a load profile is a graph of the variation in the electrical load versus time. A load profile will vary according to customer type (typical examples include residential, commercial and industrial), temperature and hol ...
s on the public electric grid. Regions that charge based on
time of use metering may benefit by using stored battery power during prime time.
Environmentally friendly
Local generation can be from an
environmentally friendly
Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...
source such as
pico hydro
Pico hydro is a term used for hydroelectric power generation of under 5 kW. These generators have proven to be useful in small, remote communities that require only a small amount of electricity for example, to power one or two fluorescent ...
,
solar panel
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...
s or a
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
. Individuals can choose to install their own system if an environmentally friendly mains provider is not available in their location.
Small scale start
A micro generation facility can be started with a very small system such as a home wind power generation, photovoltaic (solar cells) generation, or micro combined heat and power (Micro-CHP) system.
Sell to and buy from mains
*Excess electricity can be sold to mains.
*Electrical
shortfall can be bought from mains.
List of countries or regions that legally allow grid-tied electrical systems
*Armenia
*Australia
*Bangladesh
*Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Brazil
*Canada
*Chile
*Dominican Republic
*El Salvador
*European Union
*Guatemala
*India
*Iran
*Israel
*Japan
*Jordan
*Mexico
*New Zealand
*Pakistan
*Panama
*Philippines (via Meralco)
*Russia (from Dec 2019)
*Singapore
"Energy Market Authority of Singapore"
"Handbook for Photo-voltaic (PV) Systems"
updated 10 September 2007
*South Africa (Only by arrangement with municipality)
*Sri Lanka
*United States of America
*Venezuela (no legal restrictions)
See also
* Cost of electricity by source
Different methods of electricity generation can incur a variety of different costs, which can be divided into three general categories: 1) wholesale costs, or all costs paid by utilities associated with acquiring and distributing electricity to ...
* Distributed network
* Electric power transmission
Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a ''transmission network''. This is ...
* Electranet
Electranet is a proposed smart electric grid which would allow people to sell electricity into the grid without any artificial caps. It was proposed in an op-ed article Al Gore wrote in a "My Turn" column for ''Newsweek'' in 2006.
Like the inter ...
* Photovoltaic system
A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and co ...
* Grid tie inverter
A grid-tie inverter converts direct current (DC) into an alternating current (AC) suitable for injecting into an electrical power grid, normally 120 V RMS at 60 Hz or 240 V RMS at 50 Hz. Grid-tie inverters are used between local electric ...
* Inverter
A power inverter, inverter or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the opp ...
* Deep cycle battery
A deep-cycle battery is a battery designed to be regularly deeply discharged using most of its capacity. The term is traditionally mainly used for lead–acid batteries in the same form factor as automotive batteries; and contrasted with starte ...
* Power outage
A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.
There are many causes of power failures in an electricit ...
* V2G
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G), also known as Vehicle-to-home (V2H) or Vehicle-to-load (V2L) describes a system in which plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) sell demand response services to the grid. Demand services are either delivering electricity or by red ...
* Grid-connected photovoltaic power system
A grid-connected photovoltaic system, or grid-connected PV system is an electricity generating solar PV power system that is connected to the utility grid. A grid-connected PV system consists of solar panels, one or several solar inverter, invert ...
References
External links
*
Grid Tied Solar explained
{{Electricity generation
Distributed generation
Distributed generation, also distributed energy, on-site generation (OSG), or district/decentralized energy, is electrical generation and storage performed by a variety of small, grid-connected or distribution system-connected devices referred to ...
Battery (electricity)
An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices.
When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its negat ...
Electric power
Low-carbon economy