March 2022

Questions received from a Spanish customer:

1) I have heard about the problematic flat interface cables of the Fonrich monitoring device, which are unable
to provide sufficient noise protection from the internal service interface. Do you think that the separation of
the CPU from the sensor can significantly affect the accuracy of the measurement or its proper functioning?

Answer from KERNEL technical dept.:

Yes, we really believe that. It is very strange that Fonrich claims that its combiner boxes comply with IEC 61439 when
they use flat-cable connections inside boxes with high voltages of up to 1500 VDC. The use of flat cables within high-
voltage boxes implies clearance and creepage problems. For this reason, I have serious doubts regarding its
compliance with IEC 61439 and IEC 62790-2020.
Note that our SMUs also comply with IEC61724-1:2021 Class A.
As a consequence, system integrators that use Fonrich monitoring are non-compliant with IEC 61349, IEC62790 and
IEC61724.
In addition, flat cables cannot be utilized within combiner boxes for mechanical and electronic reasons.
The mechanical cause concerns the oxidation of the flat cable connector after an average period of 2/4 years.
Consequently, the remote sensor readings will be lost.
On the other hand, electronic issues are related to surges and other forms of EMC noise. All connections within the
cards must be protected against surge, which is an overvoltage that can be induced by, for instance, lightning during
thunderstorms. When lightning strikes solar panels, this large energy ends up inside combiner boxes.
For this reason, inside combiner boxes there are parallel power SPDs connected to the positive and negative sides of
strings. Usually, a signal SPD is used to protect the rs485 network.
However, due to the frequent slowness of these SPDs, it is not possible to intervene in time to protect electronic
circuits. This indicates that this energy, or part of it, causes significant overvoltages within all box connections.
Using this flat-cable connection or a different connection will cause severe damage to the CPU unit and hall
sensors slaves due to significant overvoltages.

Fonrich does not produce SMUs for high current input.

2) I am aware that the RS-485 interface on KERNEL’s SMUs was successfully tested at 16 kV. Furthermore, the
advantage of Kernel’s SMUs with fiber is evident.

Answer from KERNEL technical dept.:

We protect our rs485 with an integrated SPD. In fact, the rs485 of our SMUs can work properly even in the presence
of high ESD noise levels. This integrated SPD works by clamping the rs485's 0V EMC noise.
For this purpose, we require to use a 3-wire rs485 cabling.
You can watch this video that demonstrates the rs485 protection level:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRIFp8SZr5Y.
Please note that rs485 cabling requires the use of a 3-wire cable with a cross-section of 0.5/0.75 sq. mm of section
with shield. The shield of this cable MUST be left unconnected and free-floating.
It should also be emphasized that, when using the rs485 network, problems can arise due to various rs485 voltage
levels between two SMUs: this occurs because the SMU’s power supplies are not identical.
If this different voltage value is floating, the rs485 network will not function effectively – there will be damages – and
communication will be lost.
But this is not a common situation!! Usually, these different voltage levels between two or more SMUs are likely to
generate currents that can damage rs485 drivers. As a consequence, between two or more SMUs, we use a
specialized rs485 driver than can also work accurately with static voltages ranging from -70 VDC to + 70 VDC.
Typically, a signal SPD is also used inside combiner boxes to safeguard the rs485 network. For maximum protection
within the communication network, it is possible to use our SMUs with optical fiber interface single ring, /SR option,
or double ring /DR option to realize multidrop connections with full redundancy.
We are currently selling the /DR option for multidrop connections in Turkey, India and South Africa.
Note that when using our SMUs with the /SR or /DR option, the SPD signal to protect the rs485 is not required
because communication is accomplished via an optical signal.
By using OFC instead of rs485, all issues such as different static potentials, EMC noise and lightning are irrelevant due
to the optical nature of the communication signals.
Note that the price of the multimode OFC cable required is very low, lower than that of the copper rs485 cable, and
the price increase associated with the /SR option is roughly equivalent to the SPD signal used to protect the rs485.

3) Do you have special solutions for reading high currents?

Answer from KERNEL technical dept.:

Regarding SMUs with high current input, a few questions arise:
1) The current efficiency of the new generation of bifacial solar panels is between 22% and 23%. This indicates that
these panels can produce currents of approximately 16.5 Amps at 1000W/sqm of solar intensity. Note that solar
intensity exceeds 1000W/sqm in several locations. Therefore, this value of 16.5 Amps, generated by 600 W panels,
must be increased by 20% according to standard practice. This means that each string using this type of panel can
generate 20 Amps.
We are now involved in the supply of 1000 pieces of our codes ST0N2025NC. Our customer needs 21 Amps per
string. This installation is located in Spain, precisely in Estremadura. In this location, the summertime temperature
can reach 50 degrees and the intensity of the sun can reach 1200 Watt/sqm.
Using two parallel strings of 600/700-Watt common solar panels, the total current can reach 35 Amps. In fact, we
sold large quantities of our ST2N1240NC, 12ch, 40 Amps last year.
These requests are currently frequent, this is why we are able to sell 40 Amps shunts SMUs and 45 Amps or 60 Amps
SMUs hall sensors SMUs.
2) However, we have to lead the global market!! For this purpose, we have started offering special SMUs with large
hall sensors capable of handling up to 300 Amps per input.
These large hall sensors have holes with a diameter of 16 mm, which means that 6 solar cables of 4 sq. mm can fit
through these holes to measure the total current of 6 strings.
Using 2, 4 or 6 of these sensors, it is possible to realize 16ch, 32ch or 36ch combiner boxes using one small card.
We offered thousands of these solutions to the Spanish and Brazilian markets.

4) As far as I can tell, the power of solar panels power is not increasing at a rapid rate. And this can result in a
rise in the quantity of solar panels monitored on each channel. And the increase in the number of panels per
channel makes panel monitoring and diagnostics more difficult.

Answer from KERNEL technical dept.:

This is not true. Note that 600/700-watt solar panels are currently available on the market. In only 3 to 4 years, string
currents have multiplied by two.
There is an additional reason: the solar monitoring market is insane.
As we wrote to José, 50 GW of solar plants were installed in India at the end of the previous year (2021). Only 15% of
these installations are equipped with string monitoring.
Now the Indian market is asking us to perform extensive retrofits…
I believe that monitoring a few strings with one channel is preferable to nothing.

Note that small combiner boxes can be designed using our SMUs with 40, 45, and 60 Ampere inputs. Note also that
80 Amps fuses are commercially available.
Moreover, fuse manufacturers such as Adler provide little busbars to make parallel of few strings. Using 600 Watts
common panels, our code ST0HS0860NC can be used to measure a total current of 45/55 Amps from 3 parallel
strings. This solution enables the creation of a very compact box. One of the significant costs associated with the
boxes is the cost of enclosure.