Accreditation compliance

Compliance with Australian Standards and Clean Energy Council guidelines

The renewable energy industry is a rapidly developing and changing environment for solar power system designers and installers. This is especially true for grid connected power systems.

The revision of the following Australian Standards is ongoing through the Standards Australia EL-042 "Renewable energy power supplies and systems" committee:

  • AS 4777  Grid connection of energy systems via inverters; and
  • AS/NZS 5033  Installation of photovoltaic (PV) arrays

Revising and publishing these standards through the committee system will take substantial time. Meanwhile it is necessary to keep the industry advised of changing safety requirements.

The CEC's guidelines are updated on the advice of the Standards Australia EL-042 committee to keep the industry up to date and include the following changes:

  • For PV Arrays that operate above 120V d.c. and that are connected to non-isolated inverters, all module frames shall be earthed in such a way that if one module is removed no other component’s earth is compromised. 
  • Note also AS/NZS 3000 SECTION 5: 
  • EARTHING ARRANGEMENTS AND EARTHING CONDUCTORS
    5.1.2 Selection and installation requires that “Earthing arrangements shall be selected and installed to ...  "
    c) Mitigate voltage differences appearing between exposed conductive parts of equipment and extraneous conductive parts through equipotential bonding arrangements.
    5.1.2.1 Equipotential bonding arrangements shall be provided in accordance with
    e) Photovoltiac array, in accordance with AS/NZ 5033

The most recent version of the grid connect install guidelines was made available to the industry in September.  It included a number of changes, including a requirement for PV module frame earthing for arrays connected to non-isolated inverters.

ORER requirements for installers

The Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator (ORER), created by the federal RET legislation in 2001, required that to be eligible to claim Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) electrical power systems must be designed and installed by industry accredited personnel.

In mid 2010 the enhanced RET legislation was passed.

The Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 5) included additional safety and compliance requirements. Installers are also bound by, and must comply with,
the CEC Code of Conduct which states that installers

  • shall observe and conform to all relevant Australian Standards and all relevant Clean Energy Council Accreditation guidelines,and all applicable laws, ordinances, regulations and codes of practice

ORER previously announced a compliance deadline of 1 November 2010. This deadline has now been extended by three months to give the industry sufficient time to update its installation practices. It is anticipated that the revised AS/NZS 5033 will not be released until after the middle of 2011. At this time it is likely that earthing of all PV Module frames will be required.

Please note this deadline and ensure that your business is operating within the requirements above by this date.