Small “tutorial” for anyone with a non-standard setup.
This is especially useful for people with on-grid inverters which do not communicate with Victron (like huawei in my example, but it should work with ANY brand of inverters - I used Fronius in the past, but i’ve just made it “invisible” for VRM just to test it out).
Grid supply is 17kw via 3ph, so just under 6kw per phase.
I have my house setup as 1 phase (all house is on 1 phase), including heat pump.
Wiring is 6mm between main distribution panels, 4mm between secondary panels and large consumers (such as heat pump, car charger, etc.).
3 PV systems - 2 on my garage, 5kw each, E-V, and one 2kw (soon to be 5 also) on pergola near the house. The house is ~20m from the garage, so only AC connections can be made.
I wanted to be able to produce from ANY system and only use it on one phase. Grid co. does not allow vectored sum on my meter, so if I would export 5kwh and import 5kwh, I would pay “transport” fees for the import, even though gets zeroed out at transformer…
I have purchased 3x Multiplus 2 (previously having a 10kw quattro), and had them connected to same battery bank. Each multi has ACIN spliced in between the grid-tied inverters.
While I had a 5kw Fronius primo, and it works beautifully with Victron, my other inverter which is from govt program is a huawei, and there was no way to have to communicate with the Multiplus.
In order to have the Multi detect what is being produced by non-compatible grid inverts, I chose to purchase a Victron 3phase VM-3P75CT meter. I believe this can be also achieved with the CT clamps, but I have not tested this.
Now basically I have 2 grid-tied inverters (approved by utility company, 3 is on standby for an unrelated reason), in which 2 Multiplus also tie on and they are setup as Split 120 Phase. They both see what is being produced/fed into grid, and charge the battery accordingly, while also using ACOUT1 of one of them to power my loads.
One I add the 3rd, I will be able to produce from any grind inverter (and it will not matter if it doesn’t match the load on that phase), use the DC bus/battery as common across all phases, and use/extract as much energy as I want on whatever phase, without worrying which phase produces more and which phase consumes more.
