EN 
PT_BR 
Inmetro, with support from Eldorado Research Institute and PTB/Germany, promoted, this Tuesday (13) in Campinas (SP), a workshop on electromagnetic compatibility in photovoltaic equipment.
The event featured sector authorities and speakers from Eldorado, Inmetro, CCR Aeroportos, Labre, Fraunhofer Institute and INRI/UFSM, who addressed issues such as problems with interference from photovoltaic equipment, technical standards and EMC tests.
Furthermore, the experts spoke about experiences in applying the requirements of the Ordinance No. 140/2022 – which regulates technical quality requirements, conformity assessment and the commercialization of hybrid inverters – and in other countries.
“The meeting was very important to remember the need to reinforce the quality requirements of photovoltaic inverters sold in Brazil”, highlighted Prof. Dr. Marcelo Villalva, director of LESF (Unicamp Energy and Photovoltaic Systems Laboratory).
For the engineer, the new Ordinance already contains some requirements on electromagnetic compatibility that must be met by the equipment and the Brazilian market is starting to adapt to this new reality. “The main agents of these changes are the manufacturers and testing laboratories together with Inmetro”.
“LESF is working with Eldorado to develop testing procedures. Some preliminaries were already carried out in August on some photovoltaic inverters. These were the first tests of this type carried out in the country”, highlighted Villalva.
General aspects of Ordinance No. 140
Pedro Costa, executive analyst at Inmetro, was also present at the workshop and clarified the general aspects of Ordinance No. 140, which encompasses: scope (modules, inverters, charge controllers and batteries) and focuses on electrical safety, energy performance, quality power, grid compatibility, electrical system support, and electromagnetic compatibility.
“Among the mechanisms are technical requirements, testing, declaration of supplier conformity, import control, registration, labeling, market surveillance”, he reported.
EMC: adaptation deadlines
Throughout the event, adaptation deadlines and the importance of the EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) test were also discussed, which aims to verify whether the subsystems operate properly when exposed to the electromagnetic fields created by themselves.
Costa spoke about the subject and showed a table with the respective deadlines from the publication of Ordinance No. 142. See below.
Testing laboratory
The objective of the tests is to ensure that a device, equipment or system operates in accordance with its operational characteristics, in its electromagnetic environment, without imposing intolerable disturbances to other equipment, devices or systems that share the same electromagnetic environment.
In the case of Eldorado, it has laboratories to carry out electromagnetic compatibility tests, which can be used both for certification and for product development, including automotive, household appliances, medical, telecommunications, LED lamps, information technology equipment. and any other products or system.
Inverters that do not meet standards
Leandro Michels, associate professor at the Federal University of Santa Maria, where he works as a researcher in the areas of power electronics and photovoltaic systems, was at the workshop and commented on the consequences of inverters that do not meet electromagnetic interference emission standards.
“In this case, they can cause problems with communications and the functioning of other electronic equipment – reset, wifi, IoT, etc. They also tend to be more susceptible to external disturbances – emission filters help a lot with immunity”, he reported.
Another point mentioned by Michels is that the noise generated can harm the inverter's own functioning (remote communication), can cause interference in the functioning of electronic energy meters and cause potential safety risks in some cases.
“Good manufacturers are concerned with developing compliant products to avoid operational problems in the field, as compliant products have fewer defects and provide less after-sales,” he concluded.
