Complementary Guide for the Electrical Design of Grid-Connected PV Systems

In France, all PV systems have to comply with requirements set out in a technical guide published in 2013 by the UTE (Union Technique de l’Electricité) referenced UTE C15-712-1. However, since 2013, many new products have been introduced on the PV market such as bifacial PV modules, power optimizers and micro-inverters which are not addressed by the guide in force today. In order to help PV system designers and organizations in charge of the verification of the electrical compliance of PV systems, a group of PV experts drafted proposals to update the electrical design requirements of PV systems and published a complementary guide presented in this paper. This document is presently used as an informal reference guide for the design of PV systems until the official update of the UTE C15-712-1 guide by Afnor, the French standardization body.