Discovering how a grid-tied solar power system like mine works during a power outage from the power grid

Source - @cryptopie

Source - @cryptopie

Yesterday as I was trying to have some sleep following my dialysis center here in my bedroom after getting back home I had sensed that after a while the A/C is not anymore working and there was a commotion outside with some people and my mother and sister saying something along with an unfamiliar voice which I though was my brother-in-law talking.

I have to see what the commotion is about because for one thing our electricity was cut-off. Then I saw this guy up on our electrical service area working on our electricity connection which the accidentally pulled with their big dump truck. These truckers used our road after the road of the next barrio got finished with its elevation from the ground and this thing happened because their dump trucks are large and tall and is being used by the development of the subdivision near our area, a couple of Barrios away.

My mother went into my room checking out if the A/C was working and urging me to turn it off after I was told that a big dump truck had dragged the electricity service wire coming from the grid and essentially cut our electricity. Well my parents were furious but the truck driver or one of its personnel tried to reconnect it back on and was successful. There was only this thing that we thought that it broke some of the outlets inside the house because my father thought that all the small breakers are turned on in the same direction and so after toggling a specific breaker, all the power outlets gave power, so got back to normal operation to my relief.

However it ruined the structure where the wire was connected from so now I have the burden of getting it fixed so that the even twill not happen again. I asked my brother to tell the electrician which did this house's electrical wiring to check upon it. The electrician will not get into here anytime soon because it is a major holiday today with the catholic Holy Week, so I was told that the electrician will get here on Monday God-willing.

Anyway, as I experienced that the Solar power inverter was not delivering power to the house after the wire servicing the house got cut-off because of the stupid truck driver passing through our Barrio, I immediately learned about how the grid-tied solar power system really works.

So it really will not deliver power from the solar panels if there will be a brown-out or black-out from the grid even if it is daytime. It is because to prevent the solar panels electrifying the connection to the grid which prevents electrocution of service personnel when they work on servicing the power lines in our area.

Well, the mechanism how our grid-tied power system is fine by me because we seldom experience power outages here in our area. Opting for a hybrid solar power system will not be feasible for me because the battery will not be that useful if we always have power coming from the grid plus it will get more expensive to buy a battery as well together with changing the inverter into a type that would do the job of being a hybrid although I am not sure if the inverter we are using can also be a hybrid inverter.