| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1550213 | Solar Energy | 2014 | 8 Pages |
•Ramp-rate control is simulated for smoothing PV power fluctuations.•The control is modified in order to optimize storage requirements.•A validated method to determinate storage capacity in any PV plant size is proposed.•Energy managed through the storage system is in practice very low.•PV peak power aggregation reduces battery power and capacity requirements alike.
Short-term variability in the power generated by large grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) plants can negatively affect power quality and the network reliability. New grid-codes require combining the PV generator with some form of energy storage technology in order to reduce short-term PV power fluctuation. This paper proposes an effective method in order to calculate, for any PV plant size and maximum allowable ramp-rate, the maximum power and the minimum energy storage requirements alike. The general validity of this method is corroborated with extensive simulation exercises performed with real 5-s one year data of 500 kW inverters at the 38.5 MW Amaraleja (Portugal) PV plant and two other PV plants located in Navarra (Spain), at a distance of more than 660 km from Amaraleja.
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