Belgian grid operator releases tool to help residential PV system owners detect inverter failures – pv magazine International

Belgium’s electricity grid operator Fluvius has launched a new tool to allow all residential PV customers to see if there are any outstanding complaints related to inverter failure in their area.

The launch of the so-called “network checker” follows Fluvius’ announcement that it will compensate residential PV systems if they are not reconnected within 30 working days after a curtailment event.

The latest compensation package, announced in April, followed over 5,000 complaints from residential PV array owners in the last year that their inverters were not immediately reconnected after curtailment incidents. The figure is equivalent to 0.55% of Belgium’s deployed PV systems.

Upon launching the checker, Fluvius acknowledged that increased sun in the coming months could cause problems with inverter failure “at some peak times and very locally”. 

Residential PV owners will be able to log into the checker using their EAN number. It will tell customers the risk of inverter failure is either ‘low’, meaning there are no outstanding complaints in the area, or ‘existing’, meaning there is at least one open complaint with a network-related cause. It will also inform customers of complaint files in progress related to their EAN number.

Fluvius’ latest update also says the Flemish government is yet to determine the level of compensation for small, average and large-scale installations that are not reconnected within a month. It says the compensation amounted to €10.6/kVA of inverter power in 2023.

Belgium reached a cumulative installed solar power capacity of more than 9.8 GW at the end of 2023, the majority of which is represented by rooftop PV systems up to 10 kW in size.