skytron energy redesigns smart combiner box for PV power plants

Greentech Lead Europe: skytron energy, a supplier of high quality monitoring, control and supervision solutions to the renewable energy sector, announced a redesigned smart combiner box series to enable economic operation in PV power plants.

The ArrayGuard combiner-box series for PV systems is a 1000 VDC component family. It is expanded to include a redesigned smart combiner box for utility-scale PV applications. The combiner box deliver outstanding price/performance ratio.

The ArrayGuard FH comes with the essential measurement, switching and protection functions fully integrated at no additional cost.

Some of the important features of this solution include: efficient DC connection of up to 24 strings; operational safety provided by integrated DC isolator switch; real-time monitoring of string performance using reliable shunt measurement techniques with high temperature-stable measurement precision of 0.5 percent; dependable string protection provided by gPV plug-in fuses, flexibly configured for both PV+ and PV-, or just PV+.

The combiner box series also delivers adaptable surge protection using Combi Type 1+2 for high-risk installations or Type 2 for medium-risk conditions compliant with local lightning protection standards. It features fully integrated monitoring of all critical conditions: tripping of surge protector, on/off status of DC isolator switch, cabinet temperature.

The solution ensures low cost operation through efficient power management with 24 V dc supply over CAN bus and low power consumption at 1.5 W max. Optimized cabinet layout provides efficient heat dissipation and prevention of condensation in humid climates.
These standard built-in features can be expanded by additional functions such as remote OFF for additional fire safety on rooftop installations, external DC isolator switch mounted on the front panel, 1500VDC operation or 32 string inputs, UL certification for the US market.

The company claims that when combined with skytron’s PVGuard control room software for remote plant supervision, ArrayGuard combiner boxes with their integrated monitoring function ensure high resolution visualization of plant and string performance.

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