Control Strategies Performance in Islanded PV Diesel System

On May 9th, 2018, Steadysun presented the results on the performance evaluation of control strategies in PV-Diesel Systems at the 3rd International Workshop on Hybrid Energy Systems. It was an opportunity to show how solar forecasting can optimize the control of hybrid systems.

This work was realized in partnership with the French National Institute of Solar Energy (CEA-INES). In the frame of this work, innovative modelling tools for hybrid systems (SPIDER software) have made it possible to evaluate the performance of control strategies using PV forecasts, in a PV-Diesel system. This approach has been validated by experimentation on a real test platform.

Several types of systems have been modelled (from 100 kW to several MW). Different control approaches have been tested: simple strategies, without intelligent control, and an anticipative strategy with the use of solar power generation forecasts provided by our SteadyEye imaging technology. The results showed that the solution improves the management of hybrid systems by enabling significant reductions in operating costs, increases penetration of solar energy, and reduces battery size in case of implementation of an energy storage system.