Economic Dispatch for DC-Connected Battery Systems on Large PV Plants

Falling costs of energy storage combined with an increasing need to mitigate variable generation integration issues is leading to more PV projects that include batteries. Large PV plants that include batteries face challenges optimizing the value of the power they produce, especially when the batteries are DC-coupled and otherwise clipped power (due to high DC/AC ratio) is available. Multiple charging times and sources must be considered, including: grid charging, charging from PV that would otherwise be exported to the grid, and charging from clipped PV power. Then discharge schedules must be optimized against time-of-day pricing. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with Southern Company has developed a heuristic algorithm in the System Advisor Model (SAM) which strategically charges the battery from PV and discharges the battery depending on the time-of-day prices of the PPA, the forecast PV production, and the estimated wear cost of the battery. The algorithm and case study results from a generic plant will be presented with recommendations for future work.