Analysis of the influence of operational strategies in plant performance using SimulCET, simulation software for parabolic trough power plants

Four different operational strategies were compared. In all of them, the yearly amount of gas used was the maximum allowed for a solar PT power plant to be considered eligible to receive the benefits of the Spanish feed-in tariff legislation. Differences in gross electric energy output larger than 10% and differences in yearly gas consumption of up to 15% were obtained during the simulation of the PT power plant running for a year under each one of the four operational strategies considered. The results of these simulations make clear the need for further techno-economic optimization of the operational strategies defined, since revenues, costs and other operational factors depend not only on the amount of gas used, but also on when this gas is burned.