Sungrow announced the successful completion of a comprehensive field test conducted jointly with TUV Rheinland on its latest 1+X 2.0 modular inverter. The results verify the inverter's Intelligent DC-Side Full-Scope Safety Solution, demonstrating significant advancements in active protection, fault identification, and system-level safety for utility-scale PV plants. In utility-scale PV plants, the DC-side is often the most vulnerable part of the entire system.
With complexiring and numerous connection points, even a minor issue at one point can cause equipment damage or, in severe cases, fire. Industry data indicates that nearly 90% of plant incidents originate from the DC-side. Sungrow's 1+X 2.0 Modular Inverter addresses these challenges with an upgraded safety architecture based on the PDC model--Prevent, Diagnose, and Contain--offering a proactive and precise way to enhance safety across the entire DC-side.
The joint field test evaluated performance under four typical DC risks: short circuits, arc faults, loose-connection overheating, and low-magnitude overcurrent. Short Circuit Test: Millisecond-Level Safe Power Cut: Traditional combiner boxes using copper fuses as the protection device often fail to disconnect rapidly under short-circuit fault conditions due to copper's high melting point. This can lead to sustained arcing, which may instantly burn through the fuse box and damage nearby components.
Sungrow's combiner box uses silver fuses with a lower melting point as the core fuse material. Combined with a multi-breakpoint topology design, it significantly improves arc suppression and response speed. During the test, a loose connection was deliberately triggered.
The temperature at the tested PV terminal contact rose slowly at about 0.5-2degC per minute and gradually stabilized. The 1+X 2.0 monitored these changes in real time, issued a warning approximately 15 minutes after the temperature exceeded the threshold, and precisely disconnected the affected branch without impacting the rest. Low-Magnitude Overcurrent Test: Less than 2ms Cutoff, No Damage: Traditional fuse solutions rely on fault current magnitude for disconnection.
Under hidden faults such as low-magnitude over current, fuses often cannot react in time, and prolonged current stress may damage key components like IGBTs. Sungrow pioneered the pyro-fuse protection scheme, which integrates three core mechanisms on top of traditional fuses: active arc control, high-efficiency cutting, and strong arc suppression. During the field test, a short-circuit fault was deliberately induced.
The results showed that the 1+X 2.0 disconnected the faulted circuit precisely in just 1.472 milliseconds. After disconnection, the inverter remained undamaged and restarted smoothly. By comparison, a traditional fuse solution took 526 milliseconds to complete disconnection, demonstrating the pyro fuse scheme's significant advantage in speed and protection accuracy.
Besides, the pyro fuse can detect up to 15 categories of DC faults, enabling proactive forced disconnection to secure inverter integrity. TUV Rheinland expert Tian Xingxin, who witnessed the full field tests, affirmed that the 1+X2.0 modular inverter and its Intelligent DC-Side Full- scope Safety Solution successfully passed all challenges. He highlighted the system's leading capabilities in proactive detection, precise disconnection, and system-level protection.
This not only provides a verifiable technical pathway for ensuring DC-side safety in utility-scale PV plants, but also offers a reference for the industry to explore higher-level safety measures. As global solar projects move toward larger scales and higher system voltages, DC-side safety requirements continue to intensify. The Sungrow 1+X 2.0 introduces a new, verifiable safety standard for the industry, offering plant operators and investors enhanced assurance for long-term reliability.
