If anyone has had experience with this Carlo Gavazzi EM330 Energy Meter, or even the Victron VM-3PCT75, I would love some input (pun intended).
Specifically, it is the EM330DINAV53HS1X. Paired with a Cerbo-GX via the Victron RS485 to USB Cable.
Can I set up VRM to alert users on an installation when incoming Grid Power:
1) AC Voltage is +/-5% outside of the nominal 480V (L-L)
2) AC Frequency is +/-2% outside of the nominal 60Hz
Our grid power is USA, but a high power 3-phase 480VY/277 (480 leg to leg, 277 leg to neutral), w/ up to 200 Amps per leg. Yowza.
We’ve got a customer that wants to do this, but neither them nor us wants to spend the money if it simply won’t work $350 (meter) + $150 (Current Transformer, for 1 of the 3 needed).
ChatGPT suggests it should work, and I tried to implement it on the DEMO VRM page (the ESS installation), however when setting up Alarms in it I got stopped because I don’t have required “permissions” to adjust the alarm settings on the DEMO VRM installation.
If I get the sense from anyone out there (or from my Victron rep) that it will work, I’ll go ahead and risk the upfront cost. I also do have the Victron model (about $130 or so) already on its way to me, so I should know in roughly 1 week if VRM can do it with that model and I’d imagine it could do it with the Carlo Gavazzi as well then.
ChatGPT writes (I omitted their first 2 obvious steps):
3. Configure VRM alarms for voltage & frequency
From a browser in VRM:
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Go to the site → Settings (gear icon) → Alarm rules (name can be “Alarms” or “Alarm settings” depending on current UI).
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Look for alarms related to the grid / AC input coming from the EM330. You’ll typically see items like:
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“AC Input 1 voltage too high/too low”
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“Grid L1 voltage”
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“Grid frequency”
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“AC Input frequency too high/too low”
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Enable alarms for:
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Grid voltage – over
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Grid voltage – under
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Grid frequency – over
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Grid frequency – under
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Example threshold settings
Assuming you want to watch line-to-line voltage:
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Grid voltage under:
- Set to 456 V (or 455 V to be slightly conservative)
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Grid voltage over:
- Set to 504 V (or 505 V)
If VRM exposes the three phases separately (L1-L2, L2-L3, L3-L1), set those same thresholds per phase.
For frequency:
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Grid frequency under:
- Set to 58.8 Hz (may need to round to 58.8 or 59.0 depending on allowed step)
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Grid frequency over:
- Set to 61.2 Hz (or 61.0/61.5 depending on step size)
If VRM only allows integer values, nearest equivalents:
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Under: 59 Hz
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Over: 61 Hz
That’s ±1 Hz (±1.67%), close to the ±2% requirement. If you want to be stricter, you can tighten it further once you see how noisy the site is.
And we know how to push alerts to users on VRM.
ChatGPT also suggests adding a 10 second delay to avoid nuisance alarms. I won’t do that right away. Customer wants to be notified instantly, for now. Maybe later they’ll get annoyed at too many alarms and if a 10 second delay is possible, maybe we’ll do that.
Thanks in advance!
Ryan Murphy
Prairie Equipment Company