The AC SMART offers two options for utilising the PV surplus charging function. In the following, you will learn in detail which basic requirements must be fulfilled for this. You will then find step-by-step instructions on how to connect your AC SMART directly to your inverter. If you would like to implement PV surplus charging with energy meters, you can obtain information on this page for step-by-step instructions.
Please note that the steps described here may only be carried out by trained electricians.
To use the PV surplus charging function, you can use all variants of our AC SMART VALUE and ADVACNED. These require firmware version 01.02.15 or newer. You can see which firmware version is installed on your AC SMART in the web server of your AC SMART.
If the installed firmware version of your AC SMART is out of date, you will find the latest firmware version in our Weidmüller online catalogue for the existing AC SMART under the item Downloads.
Once your AC SMART has been installed in accordance with the operating instructions (Weidmüller online catalogue under Downloads), you can start connecting your inverter. The necessary steps are described in the following points.
1. A Modbus TCP interface is used for communication between your AC SMART and your inverter. Therefore, please connect an Ethernet cable (RJ45) into the corresponding interface of your inverter and into the RJ45 Ethernet interface X2 on the control board of your AC SMART.
Important: If several wallboxes are controlled via the integrated load management of the AC SMART, only one connection needs to be established between the inverter and the control box.
2. Open the web server of your AC SMART (see chapter 9.3 of the operating instructions). In the menu item Load management settings under General, your AC SMART must be selected as the control box. In addition, the item Connection to external measurement must be set to TCP and then confirmed with Save.
3. In the menu item Config under General the item Modbus TCP settings must be set to the interface of the inverter to be addressed and confirmed with Save . Ethernet and Wifi are available here.
4. In the menu item Load management setting under Ext. Measurement , the existing inverter manufacturer must be selected via the drop-down menu at Energymeter preselection. You must then enter the IP address of your inverter in the IP address field and the Modbus port in the Port field. Confirm your entries with Save.
If your inverter manufacturer is not listed in this dropdown menu, please select Custom and confirm your selection with save. You can then integrate your inverter manually via the respective Modbus register.
Important: The required Modbus registers and the Modbus port can be found in the documentation for your inverter. Please also note that your AC SMART must be located in the same network and IP address range as your inverter. Instructions for configuring your AC SMART in the web server can be found in the AC SMART operating instructions. Please refer to the manufacturer's documentation to find out which settings you need to make to customise the network configuration of your inverter.
5. Finally, you can now activate PV surplus charging in the menu item Load management setting under PV-Charging. In addition, you can define settings for PV surplus charging, such as the PV mode, in this menu item.
Important: If several wallboxes are controlled via the integrated load management of the AC SMART, PV charging must only be activated for the control box. This controls the satellite boxes according to the settings for PV surplus charging and load management. For the Satellite boxes please only make the other settings under this menu item.
Dr.-Ing. Oliver Köster