Accelerated Loss of Mains Change Programme (ALoMCP)

Following the investigation into 9 August 2019 power outage, approximately 550MW of embedded generation was disconnected. In some cases, due to the expected operation of the rate of change of frequency protection system but in other cases because some generators may be operating incorrect protection settings.

To avoid future outages, the ALoMCP was initiated to amend the loss of mains (LoM) settings on generation in GB. In summary these are to remove vector shift (VS) as an allowable LoM technique, and to change any rate of frequency protection (RoCoF) settings to new, less sensitive values.

The vast majority of the SMA inverters do not explicitly rely on RoCoF or VS techniques, as we decided either to use an active LoM protection or to disable the LoM protection for those inverters with a power higher than 50 kW. To sum up, the LoM settings in the following inverters do not need to be changed and do not use RoCoF / Vecor shift as a means of disconnection:

• SHP 150-20 and SHP 100-20
• STP 50-40
• STP 25000TL-30, STP 20000TL-30 and STP 15000TL-30
• STP 20000TLEE-10, STP 15000TLEE-10
• STP 20000TLHE-10, STP 15000TLHE-10
• STP 17000TL-10, STP 15000TL-10, STP 12000TL-10, STP 10000TL-10 and STP 8000TL-10
• STP 12000TL-20, STP 10000TL-20, STP 9000TL-20, STP 8000TL-20, STP 7000TL-20, STP 6000TL-20 and STP 5000TL-20
• WTP 9000TL-20, WTP 8000TL-20, WTP 7000TL-20, WTP 6000TL-20 and WTP 5000TL-20
• STP10.0-3AV-40, STP8.0-3AV-40, STP6.0-3AV-40, STP5.0-3AV-40, STP4.0-3AV-40 and STP3.0-3AV-40
• SB 5000TL-21, SB 4000TL-21, SB 3600Tl-21 and SB 3000TL-21
• WB 5000TL-21, WB 4000TL-21, WB 3600Tl-21 and WB 3000TL-21
• SB 5000SE-10, SB 3600SE-10
• SB 5000TL-20, SB 4000TL-20, SB 3000TL-20 and WB 5000TL-20
• SMC 4600A-11, SMC 5000A-11, SMC 6000A-11, WB 5000A-11 and WB 6000A-11
• SPR-5000M, SPR-6000M and SPR-7000-11M
• SMC 7000HV-11
• SBS3.7-10, SBS5.0-10 and SBS6.0-10
• SB3.0-1AV-40, SB3.6-1AV-40, SB4.0-1AV-40 and SB5.0-1AV-40
• SB3.0-1AV-41, SB3.6-1AV-41, SB4.0-1AV-41, SB5.0-1AV-41 and SB6.0-1AV-41
• SI 6.0H-11 and SI 8.0H-11
• SB 2500TLST-10 and SB 3000TLST-10
• SBS2.5-1VL-10
• SB 240-10

For the inverters MLX/STP 60-10 and SHP75-10, we have defined three country settings for the UK. Two of them contain RoCoF settings in accordance with the G59/3. Similarly, for the inverters TLX and FLX, the country setting contains RoCoF settings in accordance with the G59/3. The RoCoF settings need to be changed or set to disable as specified in the ALoMCP.

Inverters that do use RoCoF / Vector shift as a means of disconnection:

Information about Sunny Central CP inverters

The Sunny Central inverters from type SC xxx0 CP(-XT) do not use Vecor shift as LoM detection method. Furthermore all anti-islanding methods implemented in the inverters firmware (such as RoCoF or AID) are deactivated by default when delivered in European regions. This means there is no need to change any settings for this function.

However, it is strongly recommended to check the setting values of the frequency trip-limits for compliance with the recommendations of the ALoMCP and adjust the settings if necessary. You can find a description of the relevant parameters („HzCtlxxLim“; „HzCtlxxLimTm“) in the corresponding operation manual of your device. If you are not sure about how to identify or change the relevant parameters please contact the SMA UK Service Line for assistance.

Information about Windy Boy inverters

For the following inverters please check if they were delivered with the FW version in the table below. If not then the RoCoF setting should be changed from 0,25 Hz/s to 4 Hz/s.