Control method to coordinate inverters and batteries for power ramp-rate control in large PV plants: Minimizing energy losses and battery charging stress

This work presents a novel control method for multi-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) plants that is able to regulate each plant inverter and the battery system to mitigate PV power fluctuations. The proposed control method makes it possible to implement different PV ramp-rate control strategies based on the use of batteries and the limitation of inverters during positive fluctuations, which have been conceptually proposed in the specialized bibliography, but have omitted how to perform the coordination between PV generators. The dynamic model and the tuning of the control parameters are presented and the method is used to correctly implement different inverter-limitation strategies using 5-second data from a real 45 MWp PV plant. Furthermore, a new control strategy is proposed. This strategy reduces curtailment losses to negligible values and takes into account and addresses the intrinsic asymmetry in the battery charging and discharging capability, an issue that has been overlooked in the specialized bibliography. The results show that the proposed control method can effectively control each of the multiple inverters in order to obtain the desired PV plant operation to regulate the battery charging power, even during highly fluctuating scenarios.

Automated summary

This work presents a novel control method for multi-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) plants that can regulate each plant inverter and the battery system to mitigate PV power fluctuations. The proposed method allows for different PV ramp-rate control strategies based on battery usage and inverter limitation. It also proposes a new control strategy that reduces curtailment losses and addresses the asymmetry in battery charging and discharging capability.