Export cable list

7.5 Export cable list

Click the "Export cable list" button in the toolbar to enter the "Cable list" settings interface.

Before using the export cable list function, it should be ensured that the layout is completed, power blocks are created, and the electrical connections are completed.

The "Cable list" interface consists of four main parts:

①Select the electrical configuration. If there are multiple electrical configurations in a project, please set relevant parameters for each electrical configuration separately.

②Set electrical parameters. Set the electrical parameters of the relevant combiner equipment.

③Set the cable parameters used for each level.

④Export settings, export cable voltage drops calculation sheet, set cable reels, set 485 cables and calculate cable voltage drop, etc.

Users can follow the sequence from ①→④ to complete the relevant settings and export the cable list and cable voltage drop calculation report.

7.5.1 Preparation before exporting cable list

1) Complete the layout of the PV array;

2) Complete the creation of power blocks;

3) Complete the electrical connection for each level below the transformer level;

Electrical configuration	Device hierarchy
Electrical configuration 1	String → DC combiner → Centralized inverter → Transformer
Electrical configuration 2	String → String inverter → AC combiner → Transformer
Electrical configuration 3	String → String inverter → Transformer
Electrical configuration 4	String → DC combiner → Power station

4) Place the MV grid connection point and draw the mv path. (optional)

7.5.2 Definition of Terms: Thin Cable and Thick Cable

Thin cable: usually refers to PV DC cable.

Thick cable: Depending on the electrical configuration, the thick cable may be a DC cable or AC cable.

Electrical configuration	Thick Cable
Electrical configuration 1	Output cables of DC combiners and centralized inverters
Electrical configuration 2	Output cables ofstring inverters and AC combiners
Electrical configuration 3	Output cables of string inverters
Electrical configuration 4	Output cables of DC combiners

7.5.3 Relevant Calculation Principles

7.5.3.1 Overall principle

①The length of the cable list = (3D length of the cable + margin) * margin factor;

②The 3D length of the cable has considered: the elevation of the device's input and output points, the burial depth of the cable, and terrain variations;

③The input and output points of the Device are the physical center points of Combine devices, Containerized Transformers, etc;

④Cable burial depth: Set a positive value below the terrain and a negative value above the terrain. Setting 0m indicates that the cable is laid along the surface;

⑤Users can use the "Show cable route" tool to select a device and view the 3D segment length of the cable for that device. The text "Total Length" in the lower left corner indicates the length of the cable list.

7.5.3.2 Calculation principle of length for string output cables (cable route not defined)

1) First, the string cable point is vertically projected to the terrain faces (if the "buried depth" is set, the software will auto add the setting value), and its length is affected by the array height above ground;

2) Next, the cable will be laid along the X direction (usually the long side direction of the array) for a certain distance, and then turned. After turning, it will be laid along the Y direction (usually the short side direction of the array) to the primary combiner equipment, with a turning radius of 90 °

The cable will be projected onto the ground every 10 meters along the X direction and every 10 meters along the Y direction. This step is used to calculate the 3D length of the cable.

3) Finally, the Cable is vertically connected to the center point of the L1 devices from the terrain surface (if the "Burial depth" is set in Setting, the software will add the setting value automatically).

Please set the size of the L1 combine device in the "Electrical and Code" section of the "User settings". Please set the ground clearance height of the combine devices in the "Location settings" of the "Electrical connection" interface. After setting, users need to click "Relacate all" to apply the settings.

7.5.3.3 Calculation principle of length for string output cables (defining cable route)

It is similar to the principle of calculating the length of cable without defining the cable route, but the cables must be laid along the drawn cable route according to the relevant parameters set by the users. For detailed instructions, please refer to the relevant instructions in "5.20 Viewing Cable Tools" in this manual.

7.5.3.4 Calculation of Cable Voltage Drop

Click "Voltage calculation" button for details.

7.5.4 Export Steps

Users can successfully export the cable voltage drop calculation report and cable list according to the following steps. Generally, each step cannot be skipped.

7.5.4.1 Step 1: Select the electrical configuration

Users can click on the dropdown menu on the right side of "Electrical configuration" to select the corresponding electrical configuration.

When there are multiple electrical configurations in a project, users need to select the electrical configuration one by one and complete the relevant settings for the subsequent steps.The parameter interface of the central cable of "③" will change according to the users's selected electrical configuration.

After the users completes placing the medium voltage grid connection point and drawing the medium voltage cable route, the "Transformer - Substation" option will appear in the drop-down menu. After selecting this option, the parameters of the medium voltage cable can be set.

7.5.4.2 Step 2: Set electrical parameters

Electrical parameters are mainly used to calculate cable sections and voltage drop.

The resistivity of cable materials can be configured in the following two ways:

① Users can set in "Cable related 1" of "User settings". The software here also has a built-in calculator to facilitate users to calculate the resistivity of different cable metal at different temperatures.

② When the impedance of the LV AC cables needs to be considered, the user can click the "Settings" button in the interface to enter the impedance configuration page.

After entering the setting interface, the users can select "Calculate based on resistivity" or "Users defined". When select "Calculate based on resistivity", the software will use the parameters setting in step ①. When "Users defined" is selected, the electrical resistivity calculation parameters in step ① are only valid for DC and MV cable.

Click the "Electrical parameters" button, and the following prompt dialog box will pop up:

When selecting "Yes", the pop-up interface is only used to display the electrical parameters of the relevant devices used for calculating cable sections and voltage drop. Modifying any parameter and applying it is invalid.

If the users wish to modify the relevant calculation parameters, it can be divided into the following two situations:

①When creating the array, the already created PV modules were selected, and when doing electrical connections, the already created inverters were selected. In this case, the users need to modify the device parameters on the selected PV module and inverter related interface.

Modification method: users can find the corresponding modules in the "Create arrays" and "Create inverters" interfaces, modify the parameters, and click "Update".

②If "①" is not meet, the users can select "No" in the pop-up dialog box, modify the relevant parameters, and apply them.

If users want to modify parameters in batches, they can modify any row of data. After completing the modification, click "Apply to", select the left box of the power block number with the same electrical configuration in the pop-up dialog box, and click "OK".

If users only want to modify the parameters of a certain block, users need to modify the parameters in the row where the power block is located. After modification, users also need to click "Apply to". Simply check the box on the left side of the power block number and click OK.

7.5.4.3 Step 3: Set the cable parameters used for each level

1) Parameter settings for low-voltage cables below the transformer level: Taking the example of using electrical configuration 3 in the following figure.

Users can set the "Type, "Metal", "Margin", "Margin factor", "Burial depth", "Section range", and "Max voltage drop" for each level separately.

①"Type": Users can input the cable model used for each level, which will ultimately be displayed in the cable model column of the cable list.

②"Metal": Users can choose from three materials: Copper, Aluminum, and Aluminum alloy. The resistivity of each material can be modified in the "Cable Related 1" section of the "User settings" function.

③Margin: For cable margin, the software provides two parameters: "length margin" and "margin factor".

"Margin" refers to adding the length margin on the basis of base 3D length of cable calculated by the software.

"Margin factor" refers to the factor multiplied by adding "Margin" to the 3D length of cable calculated by software.

The 3D length of cables takes into account: the heights of equipment input/output points, cable burial depth, and terrain elevation changes.

④The "Section range" is needed when the software calculate the section and voltage drop based on the "electrical parameters" in the second step.

When multiple types of inverters are used in a project, the "Settings" button can be clicked to set the minimum section of the output cable for each type of inverter separately.

Note: Setting the minimum section of the inverter separately has a lower priority than setting the "Section range". Assuming the users set the minimum section of a certain model of inverter to 185 and set the maximum section to 150 in the "Section range", the software will select the section as 150.

⑤"Max voltage drop" and "Max cable length": The software provides two different type: "By voltage drop" and "By cable length", users can select it in “Cable related 2” of user settings.

"By voltage drop": auto.select section according to its voltage drop.

"By cable length": Taking "Section range" = "1*4, 1*6", "Max cable length" = "100,200" as an example, it means that when the length is less than 100 m (below), 4 mm² cable is used, and when the length exceeds 100 meters, 6 mm² cable is used; When the length exceeds 200 meters, the mark of the cable in the cable list is red.

The “Maximum length (m)” for the PV string output cable refers to the one-way distance along the cable route from the PV string to the parent device. It does not represent the complete circuit length from the string's positive terminal to the parent device and back to the string's negative terminal.

2）Parameter settings related to medium voltage level

After selecting "Transformer - Substation" in the "Electrical configuration", the relevant cable parameters of the medium voltage level can be set.

As shown in the above figure, users can set the "Type", "Metal", "Margin", "Margin factor", "Section range", "Burial depth", "Cable laying environment", "Reduction factor" and the ampacity under different sections for each leve.

7.5.4.4 Step 4: Export settings, export cable voltage drop calculation report, set cable reels, set 485 cables and calculate cable voltage drop, etc.

7.5.5 Reel calculation

"Reel calculation" can be divided into two methods: "Roughtly" and "Accurate".

"Roughly": It is divided by each power block, according to the order of the cable list, for the same model, from top to bottom, after filling one reel, the next reel is divided.

"Accurate": All low-voltage cables of the same model are divided into different reels without considering its block, and the length of each reel should be as close to the set value as possible.

7.5.6 485 cable

Users can choose whether to export 485 cables.

When selecting "Yes", the users needs to input the corresponding "Type", " Margin" , "Margin Factor" and "Burial depth". The setting method of 485 cable can be found in the relevant instructions of "5.4 Viewing Cable Tools" in this manual.

7.5.7 Voltage calculation report

After version 3.4.1, the software supports exporting low-voltage cable voltage drop calculation report.

Click the "Voltage clculation" button, and the software will calculate the maximum allowable length of each cable section based on all the parameters set above, under the premise of the set "Max voltage drop".

When there are multiple electrical configuration methods in a project, users can choose different electrical configuration to view the maximum length of low-voltage cables under each electrical configuration.

Click the "Export" button to export the low-voltage cable calculation report. The calculation sheet mainly consists of two parts, one is the calculation process and selected parameters, and the other is the calculation results.

7.5.8 Analysis

After clicking the "Analyze" button, If voltage drop of some cables exceeds the set value of "Max voltage drop", the software will pop up the following prompt:

After the analysis is completed, the software can statistically analyze the "average length" and "maximum length" of cables at each level, and calculate the "Aver. voltage drop" of cables at each level under STC and the "Total acer. voltage drop" of the system. This result can be applied to power generation calculation and loss settings in PVsyst.

The software defaults to displaying the calculation results of low-voltage cables. Users can view the calculation results of medium voltage cables by clicking the drop-down menu on the right side of the "Electrical configuration".

7.5.9 Export Settings

Click the 'Export Settings' button to enter the cable export settings page.

The cable list export settings page is mainly consists of four parts:

①Select a preset template;

②Preference settings for each preset template: Users can select the columns that need to be exported.

③Other settings for the cable list that can be exported under each preset template;

④Save, import, and export preset templates.

7.5.9.1 Select preset template

Preset templates are divided into "Default template", "Preset template", and "Custom template".

The "Default template" is the software's default template, which cannot be changed. If any setting in the template is changed and the "Save"' button is clicked, a "Custom template" will be automatically generated.

The "Preset template" is a template set by the users themselves, and the software provides two preset templates: "Preset template A" and "Preset template B".

"Custom template" are generally templates saved after changing the settings of the "Default template" or templates imported from other computers.

"Default template" and "Preset template" cannot be deleted, while "Custom template" can be deleted.

7.5.9.2 Other settings

The cable list exported by the software mainly consists of a cover page, a low-voltage cable list for each power block or a thin/thick cable list for each power block, summary page, blocks summary, and medium voltage cable (if any).

1) Export thick and thin cables to different worksheets or file

Users can choose whether to check the box on the left side of "Export thick and thin cables to different" based on their preferences.

Check	Do not check

When this box is checked, the list related to thick and thin cables for each power block will be generated in two separate sheets(when selecting "file" will be export as two file respectively).

Thin cable list
Thick cable list

When the box is not checked, the parameters related to thick and thin cables of a power block will be generated in one sheet.

Merge cable list

2) Add header

Based on whether the box in 1) is checked, users can choose whether to export the header of each cable list and customize the header name.

Check the box in 1)	Do not check the box in 1)
Merge cable list header styles
Thin cable list header style
Thick cable list header style
Do not export header styles

When the thin cable is a single core cable, if this option is checked, the length of the thin cable displayed in the merged row is the total length, including positive pole, negative pole and cable inside strings (if any); If this option is not checked, the length of the thin cable displayed in the cable list is the length of the cable from one pole to one pole of the parent device or its paired half string array.

The thin cable is a single core cable, do not check this setting
The thin cable is a single core cable, check this setting

When the thin cable is a two core cable, there is only one row of data for each string in the exported cable list, and there is no need to check this option for merging.

4) Separate display of cable model and section

Users can choose whether to display cable models and sections separately based on their own situation.

Check	Do not check

5) Summary by block to 1 page

If this option is checked, a separate sheet (named "Blocks summary") will be generated in the exported cable list to summarize all cables in each block; If this option is not checked, the thin and thick cables of each block will be summarized separately below them in the exported cable list.

Check
Do not check

6) Merge positive and negative cables to summarize

Users can choose whether to merge and summarize positive and negative cables in the summary table of all block cables based on their own situation. If this option is checked, it will also apply to 5) summarizing by block on one page.

Check
Do not check

7) Force same side

Force same side : only for half strings.

Forced same side	Not forced same side

7.5.9.3 Preference settings

According to whether the "Export thick and thin cables to different" box on the left side of "Other settings" is checked, users can select the relevant parameters of the exported cables as shown in the table below.

	No.	Cable No.	Cable type and size	From	To	Installation unit name
Thick cable list	√	√	√	√	√	√
Thin cable List	√	√	√	√	√	√
Merge cable list	√	√	√	√	√	√
	Cable direction	Cable reel	Voltage	Ohm loss	Length	MPPT No.
Thick cable list	√	√	√	√	√	√
Thin cable List	√	√	√	√	√	√
Merge cable list	√	√	√	√	√	√
	String quantity	Spare core	MC4 cable plug	Device number	Real tilt	Real azimuth
Thick cable list	√
Thin cable List		√	√	√	√	√
Merge cable list	√	√	√	√	√	√

Note: "MPPT No." only takes effect when using electrical configuration mode three and electrical configuration mode four. When the users have not set the MPPT number in the "Show cable route" function, if this option is checked to export the cable list, the data in this column will be empty.

7.5.9.4 Import and export templates

After saving the current template, users can export it. Click the "Export" button to export a. json file. This file can be imported to other computers.

7.5.10 Export cable list

Clicking the "Export" button will bring up the following dialog box, where users can choose to export the cable list of all power blocks, or export the cable list of the selected power block.