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Troubleshooting
PV System EN

DC isolation fault PV System

ISOLATION FAULT TROUBLESHOOTING
Isolation Fault Troubleshooting.......................................................................................................... 1
1 DC insulation fault..................................................................................................................... 2
1.1 What is insulation resistance? ................................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Identify a DC insulation problem................................................................................................................ 2
1.3 Relevant standards ..................................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.1 For the inverter: ...................................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.2 For the PV system: ................................................................................................................................. 3
1.3.3 For PV modules: ..................................................................................................................................... 4
1.3.4 Past standards (no longer applicable): ................................................................................................... 4
1.3.5 Contradiction of the standards: .............................................................................................................. 4
2 Safety measures of the inverter ............................................................................................... 5
2.1 Adjusting the insulation resistance (Riso) threshold level for the SnapINverter ........................................ 5
3 Measurement of insulation resistance ..................................................................................... 5
3.1 Measurement with a PV installation tester ............................................................................................... 6
3.2 Measurement with a megohmmeter ......................................................................................................... 6
3.3 Troubleshooting / Localize the failure ....................................................................................................... 7
3.3.1 General steps: ........................................................................................................................................ 7
3.3.2 Check ground leakage:........................................................................................................................... 7
3.3.3 Localize with insulation measurement.................................................................................................... 9
4 Appendix .................................................................................................................................. 10
4.1 Calculation table for the minimum insulation resistance ........................................................................ 10

01/2020 1/10
1 DC INSULATION FAULT

This document will help you to identify and locate insulation problems of your PV system.

1.1 What is insulation resistance?

Each single component of the PV system has an insulation resistance to ground. Combined, this results in the
insulation resistance of the PV system (Riso).
This usually leads to very small and harmless fault current, in the event of a fault.

On rare occasions, a fault current can reach a dangerous level, which may cause damage (e.g. fire) or personal
injury. Therefore, the insulation resistance has to be above a certain value to ensure that fault currents stay below
a dangerous level.

1.2 Identify a DC insulation problem

Every time the inverter starts up, the insulation resistance (DC+ to earth and DC- to earth) is getting measured.
If the resistance is within normal range, the inverter will start up normally, otherwise if the insulation resistance is
below the threshold value, the inverter will show one or more state codes.
Please check the possible state codes for your inverter in the list below.

Fronius IG and IG Plus Fronius SnapINverter

State: Description: (Galvo, Primo, Symo, Symo Hybrid, Eco)
100 kΩ module grounding State: Description:
474 401 Power Stack Communication Error
measurement detects failure
475 Isolation Error 447 Isolation Error
502 DC Isolation Failure 475 Isolation Too Low Error
502 Isolation Too Low Warning

01/2020 2/10
Inverters with transformers (IG, Galvo, …) also measure insulation resistance during feed in.

Transformer less inverters (Symo, Primo, Eco, GEN24, …) can only detect a DC insulation failure before they
start to feed in.
If the insulation resistance changes during the normal feed-in process (due to rain, fog …) the inverter is not able
to measure the insulation.
This can happen if any component (module, DC wire, DC isolator, …) is damaged or leaky. Rainwater can enter
the module or any connector and create a short circuit between DC and earth; also loose damaged cables can be
a problem.
For this case, every inverter has a built in Residual Current Monitoring Unit (RCMU).
The RCMU works like a summation current transformer – it measures the incoming and outgoing currents.
In case of a deviation, the inverter is disconnected from the grid by shutting down.
The RCMU is able to detect transient insulation faults. If the current increases faster than the RCMU can turn off
the inverter in case of a short circuit, damage to the inverter electronic may result.

1.3 Relevant standards

1.3.1 For the inverter:

IEC 62109-2: Safety of power converters for use in photovoltaic power systems –
Part 2: Particular requirements for inverters
This standard requires that the insulation resistance of the PV system shall not be less than Riso = (Vmax_PV / 30
mA).
For example, an inverter with a maximum DC input voltage of 1000V should not connect to the mains if the Riso is
less than 33.3kΩ (= 1000V / 30mA).

1.3.2 For the PV system:

IEC 60364-7-712: Low voltage electrical installations – Part 7-712: Requirements for special installations
or locations – Solar photovoltaic (PV) power supply systems

This standard specifies the insulation resistance for certain PV array sizes (see table below):

PV array rating [kW] R limit [kΩ]

≤ 20 30
> 20 and ≤ 30 20
> 30 and ≤ 50 15
> 50 and ≤ 100 10
> 100 and ≤ 200 7
> 200 and ≤ 400 4
> 400 and ≤ 500 2
> 500 1

It also recommends, where possible, to use higher values than the ones stated, to increase the safety of the PV
system.
According to a higher safety of the PV System, Fronius inverters are limitied to an Riso threshold of 100 kOhm.
For more details see the table with preset and device limit thresholds under the point:”Adjusting the Insulation
Resitance”.

01/2020 3/10
1.3.3 For PV modules:

IEC 61215-2: Terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) modules - Design qualification and type approval – Part 2: Test
procedures
This standard requires the insulation resistance of a module not to be less than 40 MΩm².
This definition makes the Riso of a real PV system dependent on the area of the PV array.
The larger the array, the lower the insulation resistance may be and of course, will be.

1.3.4 Past standards (no longer applicable):

In previous inverter standards it was defined that the calculation of Riso may not be less than 1 kΩ * Vmax_PV. This
resulted in a value of 1 MΩ for inverters with a Vmax_PV of 1000 Vdc.

1.3.5 Contradiction of the standards:

It is obvious that these thresholds somewhat contradict each other (see diagram below).
Most international and national standards dealing with personal protection require that fault currents do not
exceed 30 mA (also the reference value of the standard IEC 62109-2 for inverters).
Of course, it is always allowed to use a higher value for Riso than stated in the standards, as this may increase the
safety of the PV system.

01/2020 4/10
2 SAFETY MEASURES OF THE INVERTER

2.1 Adjusting the insulation resistance (Riso) threshold level for the SnapINverter

The measured Riso value can be read on the inverter display under the menu item INFO.

If it is determined as necessary to lower the DC insulation threshold, then this is possible via the inverter display:
1. Press the ”Menu” key
The menu level appears.

2. Press the unassigned “Menu / Esc” key 5 times

"Access Code" is displayed in the "CODE" menu; the first digit starts flashing.
3. Enter the code 22742: Use the "Plus" and "Minus" keys to select a value for the first digit of the code
4. Press "Enter"
The second digit flashes.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the second, third, fourth and fifth digits of the access code until the selected
code starts flashing.
6. Press "Enter"
The Basic menu appears.
7. Use the "Plus" and "Minus" keys to select “Insulation Settings” and press “Enter”
8. Use the "Plus" and "Minus" keys to select “Error Threshold” and press “Enter”
9. Adjust the threshold accordingly and press enter to confirm.

10. Exit the service menu by pressing the “Menu / Esc” key

If sufficient DC power is available and the inverter detects no further critical safety issues, it will automatically
begin its start-up procedure and begin feeding-in.
Please find the preset and device limit Riso thresholds for each inverter series in the table below:

Riso treshold level

Inverter
preset [kΩ] device limit [kΩ]
Fronius Galvo 1.5-1 … 3.1-1 600 100
Fronius Primo 3.0-1 … 8.2-1 1000 1000
Fronius Symo 3.0-3-S … 4.5-3-S 100 100
Fronius Symo 3.0-3-M … 20.0-3-M 100 100
Fronius Symo Hybrid 3.0-3-S … 5.0-3-S 100 100
Fronius Eco 25.0-3-S … 27.0-3-S 100 100

3 MEASUREMENT OF INSULATION RESISTANCE

We would recommend to measure the system with a PV installation tester, but if there is no installation tester
available it is also possible to use a megohmmeter or voltmeter.

01/2020 5/10
In general, we would recommend to do this measurements during rainy weather or to water the modules.

An insulation failure can be temporary, so keep in mind that there can be an isolation problem, even if the
measurements on the system are within specifications!

In a parallel circuit of strings on one MPPT, total Riso is changing by the amount of strings in the circuit,
due to the physicalic rules of a parallel circuit.
1 / Riso total = 1 / Riso1 + 1 / Riso2 + 1 / Riso3 ...

The inverter must be disconnected (removed from the wall bracket) before starting the measurements!

Also keep in mind, that the inverter measures the DC insulation in a different way than a PV installation
tester or a megohmmeter. It is possible that the inverter will not start up, even if the measured value is a
little higher or exactly the value of the setup threshold of the inverter.

3.1 Measurement with a PV installation tester

1. Remove the inverter from the wall bracket and remove any SPD, or disconnect the strings from the
inverter.
2. Connect the PV Installation tester according to the manual of your device to the first PV module string.
3. Start testing with a voltage of 1000 V
4. Connect the installation tester according to the manual of your device to the second PV module string (if
available).
5. Start testing with a voltage of 1000 V
6. Both measured Riso values must be >min. Riso (according to standards, see the table below)

3.2 Measurement with a megohmmeter

1. Remove the inverter from the wall bracket and remove any SPD, or disconnect the strings from the
inverter.
2. Short-circuit the connections of the first string.
An appropriate DC switch must be used for short-circuiting the PV array (e.g. fulfilling IEC 60947-3#9.
The switch should be able to handle the string maximum voltage and current).

01/2020 6/10
 3. Connect the megohmmeter to the short-circuit and to the ground connection (e.g. on the AC connection
area)

4. Measure the resistance between the short circuit and the ground
5. Repeat steps 2-4 with the second string (if available)
6. Both measured Riso values must be >min. Riso (according to standards, see the table below)

3.3 Troubleshooting / Localize the failure

If the test on one or both strings was not passed, some steps to localize the failure are necessary.
You can also use this test instead of the resistance measurements, if you don’t need to know an accurate Riso
value.
Therefore follow this troubleshooting steps:

3.3.1 General steps:

1. Remove the inverter from the wall bracket and remove any SPD, or disconnect the strings from the inverter.
2. If possible, visually check all the connection points and cables from the string / strings

3.3.2 Check ground leakage:

For this test, a voltmeter which is able to handle up to 1000 Vdc is necessary.
In this test, we are able to roughly localize the ground leakage area.

1. Connect the Voltmeter to DC+ at the end of the string (you can also do this on the connection point of the
wall bracket if the DC switch is turned on).

01/2020 7/10
 2. Connect the other measurement line to the ground connection (e.g. in the AC connection area) and
measure the voltage between DC+ and ground.

Due to the capacitive effect of the PV modules the measurement will show = ~Total String Voltage / 2. After
a few moments the voltage should go down to ~0V.

3. The same measurement needs to be repeated by connecting DC- to ground.

4. If both these measurements pass and voltage drops to ~0V (DC+ and DC-), there was no leakage
detected at this moment and you can continue with chapter “3.3.3 Localize with insulation measurement”.
If any voltage is measured, please continue with step 5.
5. With the measured voltage, it is possible to localize the ground leakage. Therefore, it is necessary to
divide the measured voltage by the voltage a single module can provide.

For example: Measurement DC+ to ground is 200V. Each module provides 50V.
200V:50V = 4  this means that the failure needs to be in between module 4 and 5 (but it can also be
inside module 4 or 5).

01/2020 8/10
 6. Check the cable between the two localized modules and check the modules themselves like in chapter
3.3.3.

3.3.3 Localize with insulation measurement

With this test, the insulation resistance of the string is measured. After every measurement, one module must be
disconnected until the defective module is found. Therefore, an insulation tester or a megohmmeter is needed.

Riso is calculated by dividing the module resistance by the module size. According to the standards (DIN EN
61646; DIN IEC 61215) the module resistance needs to be >40 MΩ m².
The past standard (DIN VDE 0126-1-1) for the insulation resistance requires a Riso >1 kΩ*V  with our maximum
system voltage of 1000V the minimum Riso must be at least 1 MΩ.

Past standard conflict

With our max. System voltage of 1000 V the standard for the module gets in conflict with the standard for the inverter if the
total PV module size on one string is bigger than 40m².
Example: 40 MΩ m² / 42 m² = 0.952 kΩ. This would be below our min of > 1 MΩ (> 1 kΩ*V), even if the modules and
everything is ok.

1. Measure Riso on the string the same way as before (insulation tester, megohmmeter).
2. Calculate the minimum Riso with the formula 40MOhm m² / total module size (m2), or compare with the
table below.
If the measured Riso is higher than the calculated min Riso, everything is fine.
If the measured Riso is below the calculated value, please continue with step 3.
3. Disconnect the last module of the string and measure the PV string again. If the measured Riso is now
higher than the calculated min Riso (a new calculation because of the changing total module size is
necessary), the module which was removed before is causing the isolation failure. Otherwise repeat this
step until the faulty module is found.
4. Measure the faulty module itself with the same method. Riso must be bigger than 40MOhm m².

01/2020 9/10
4 APPENDIX

4.1 Calculation table for the minimum insulation resistance

For the calculation, common module size was used:

36 cells: 1500mm x 690mm
48 cells: 1320mm x 1000mm
54 cells: 1480mm x 1000mm
60 cells: 1640mm x 1000mm
72 cells: 2000mm x 1000mm

Since there are no worldwide standards for the module size, these values can differ a bit, depending on the
manufacturer.
Module size
36 cells 48 cells 54 cells 60 cells 72 cells
1 38,647 30,303 27,027 24,390 20,000
2 19,324 15,152 13,514 12,195 10,000
3 12,882 10,101 9,009 8,130 6,667
4 9,662 7,576 6,757 6,098 5,000
5 7,729 6,061 5,405 4,878 4,000
6 6,441 5,051 4,505 4,065 3,333
7 5,521 4,329 3,861 3,484 2,857
8 4,831 3,788 3,378 3,049 2,500
9 4,294 3,367 3,003 2,710 2,222

Minimum Insulation Resistance (Mohm)

10 3,865 3,030 2,703 2,439 2,000
11 3,513 2,755 2,457 2,217 1,818
Amount of modules in string

12 3,221 2,525 2,252 2,033 1,667

13 2,973 2,331 2,079 1,876 1,538
14 2,761 2,165 1,931 1,742 1,429
15 2,576 2,020 1,802 1,626 1,333
16 2,415 1,894 1,689 1,524 1,250
17 2,273 1,783 1,590 1,435 1,176
18 2,147 1,684 1,502 1,355 1,111
19 2,034 1,595 1,422 1,284 1,053
20 1,932 1,515 1,351 1,220 1,000
21 1,840 1,443 1,287 1,161 0,952
22 1,757 1,377 1,229 1,109 0,909
23 1,680 1,318 1,175 1,060 0,870
24 1,610 1,263 1,126 1,016 0,833
25 1,546 1,212 1,081 0,976 0,800
26 1,486 1,166 1,040 0,938 0,769
27 1,431 1,122 1,001 0,903 0,741
28 1,380 1,082 0,965 0,871 0,714
29 1,333 1,045 0,932 0,841 0,690
30 1,288 1,010 0,901 0,813 0,667

01/2020 10/10
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