Ford Lightning as backup power

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
But for the nested solution, the question is whether the Ford/SunRun controller is designed to deal with AC coupled PV when off-grid, e.g. when necessary can it throttle AC coupled PV by raising the frequency?
Extremely unlikely IMO.
 

jaggedben

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
Occupation
Solar and Energy Storage Installer
In particular because, AFAIK, there is not a standard for the raised frequency signaling across manufacturers.
Yeah we could really use some improvement there. For newer inverters you can probably use UL 1741 SA (or SB?) frequency-watt feature and the California Rule 21 guidelines. But yes, this is fraught and we don't know if the existing system will do it or how much hassle it would be set up.
 

wwhitney

Senior Member
Location
Berkeley, CA
Occupation
Retired
Ok, right. In that case my guess is no, the Ford/Sunrun system likely doesn't support AC coupling with a third party solar. But I don't know for sure.
Some more research is required, including tracking down the full installation manual, but my preliminary info is that the Ford/Sunrun solution is using a Delta E10_BDI inverter, and that its installation manual indicates support for AC coupling. To be confirmed.

Cheers, Wayne
 

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
My customer wants to use a bidirectional charger and add an inverter for backup, I'm not sure were talking about the same thing?
We’re not. The inverter system is exponentially more expensive. I think the equipment alone is close to $10k. There is a Sunrun installer here in the forum that has shared some details on price and installation you can find in a search.
 

retirede

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Some more research is required, including tracking down the full installation manual, but my preliminary info is that the Ford/Sunrun solution is using a Delta E10_BDI inverter, and that its installation manual indicates support for AC coupling. To be confirmed.

Cheers, Wayne

The inverter may be capable, but the Ford Charge Station Pro controls the DC contactors in the truck and its logic is to do so on loss of AC power. I don’t know if a workaround is possible or not.
 

wwhitney

Senior Member
Location
Berkeley, CA
Occupation
Retired
The inverter may be capable, but the Ford Charge Station Pro controls the DC contactors in the truck and its logic is to do so on loss of AC power. I don’t know if a workaround is possible or not.
From a brief glance at the Delta one-line diagrams, the Ford Charge Station Pro gets installed on the utility side of the MID(s), so it will be see any grid outage and I would expect do its thing as usual. I'm considering the configuration where the Delta MID is the top-level (closest to the grid) MID. I don't see how the presence of another MID/PV/BESS downstream (away from the grid) of the Delta MID would affect the Ford Charge Station Pro's behavior.

As long as the Delta inverter supports charging its stationary (and perhaps F150 Lightning) battery(s) from the AC side when in grid-forming mode, and can also raise its AC frequency to 62.5 Hz (or whatever the minimum frequency is to get all versions of UL 1471 grid following inverters to shut off), then there should be no conflict with the existing MID/PV/BESS being behind (downstream, away from the grid) the Delta MID.

And that is what I assume the manual means when it says it supports "AC coupling", although I've not read the whole manual to confirm that.

Cheers, Wayne
 
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JoeNorm

Senior Member
Location
WA
I am not even sure if I(not being SunRun) am allowed to do anything and have it not void any warranties
 

retirede

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
I am not even sure if I(not being SunRun) am allowed to do anything and have it not void any warranties

Not all Lightning backup power installations are installed by SunRun. SunRun does not operate in every locale. The Lightning owner should have access to Ford’s installation requirements. As I recall, the only requirement was being licensed.
 
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