PVInGrid: A distributed infrastructure for evaluating the integration of photovoltaic systems in smart grid

© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2017 Published by Springer International Publishing AG 2017. All Rights Reserved. Planning and developing the future Smart City is becoming mandatory due to the need of moving forward to a more sustainable society. To foster this transition an accurate simulation of energy production from renewable sources, such as Photovoltaic Panels (PV), is necessary to evaluate the impact on the grid. In this paper, we present a distributed infrastructure that simulates the PV production and evaluates the integration of such systems in the grid considering data provided by smart-meters. The proposed solution is able to model the behaviour of PV systems solution exploiting GIS representation of rooftops and real meteorological data. Finally, such information is used to feed a real-time distribution network simulator

PVInGrid: A Distributed Infrastructure for evaluating the integration of Photovoltaic systems in Smart Grid

Planning and developing the future Smart City is becoming mandatory due to the need of moving forward to a more sustainable society. To foster this transition an accurate simulation of energy production from renewable sources, such as Photovoltaic Panels (PV), is necessary to evaluate the impact on the grid. In this paper, we present a distributed infrastructure that simulates the PV production and evaluates the integration of such systems in the grid considering data provided by smart-meters. The proposed solution is able to model the behaviour of PV systems solution exploiting GIS representation of rooftops and real meteorological data. Finally, such information is used to feed a real-time distribution network simulator

Impact of Small-scale Storage Systems on the Photovoltaic Penetration Potential at the Municipal Scale

AbstractHigh penetration of grid-connected roof-top photovoltaic power plants (GCRT-PV) is restricted by electric energy grid quality requirements and available storage capacities. This study evaluates how far small-scale storage systems can contribute to increment GCRT-PV penetration at municipal scale. To accomplish this, the GCRT-PV potential of a municipality is calculated in high spatiotemporal resolution and various scenarios of storage systems penetration are evaluated with a series of indicators. The adoption of a low share of storage systems improves energy utilisation, variability and reliability indicators; while an increased penetration of storage systems only marginally improves these indicators

Reducing the Costs for Consumed Electricity through the Solar Energy Utilization

The priority development direction of the Rostov region as the largest agricultural producer of Russia is the creation of modern, competitive processing industries. Since the beginning of 2015, despite record harvests of cereals, the wheat flour cost has been steadily increasing and now exceeds the peak values for the previous period from 2008 to 2015. This caused by the high share of payment for consumed electricity in the production costs, which is approximately 30%, and significant increase in tariffs for it in the last 10-12 years due to unjustifiably high costs of equipment maintenance and operation in grid companies, liquidation of cross-subsidizing prices, as well as rising gas prices. Under conditions of the existing high solar energy potential in the territory of the South of the country, the implementation of technologies for its transformation into electricity will reduce energy costs and, consequently, reduce the costs of produced goods and services. The purpose of the presented research was to determine the composition and parameters of the equipment of a solar electrical power plant that provides energy to the lighting system of the flour milling section No. 1 and No. 2 of the processing plant Ltd. "Rostovremagroprom" in Zernograd of the Rostov Region, taking into account the assessment of the solar radiation intensity during the year, the structural features of the building roof and features of the company's load graph. Full solar energy potential (1246.87 kWh / m²) is possible to realize at the facility partly due to the existing technical limitations imposed by the building roof construction. The design and implementation of economically feasible additional power supply system for the lighting system of the flour-milling departments of the enterprise excludes the usage of accumulating devices, allowing to reduce the annual costs for the payment of consumed electricity by approximately 45 thousand rubles by decreasing the cost of each one kilowatt-hour of consumed electricity from 8.1 rubles / kWh to 3.6 rubles / kWh during the period of intense activity of the Sun. Keywords: Solar Energy Potential, Inclination Angle of the Receiving Surface, the Layout of the Solar Power Plant JEL Classifications: O13, O44 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.720

Planning and real-time management of smart grids with high PV penetration in Italy

For planning and development and in real-time operation of smart grids, it is important to evaluate the impacts of photovoltaic (PV) distributed generation. In this paper, we present an integrated platform, constituted by two main components: a PV simulator and a real-time distribution network simulator. The first, designed and developed following the microservice approach and providing REST web services, simulates real-sky solar radiation on rooftops and estimates the PV energy production; the second, based on a digital real-time power systems simulator, simulates the behaviour of the electric network under the simulated generation scenarios. The platform is tested on a case study based on real data for a district of the city of Turin, Italy. In the results, we show possible applications of the platform for power flow forecasting during real-time operation and to detect possible voltage and transformers capacity problems during planning due to high penetration of Renewable Energy Sources. In particular, the results show that the case study distribution network, in the actual configuration, is not ready to accommodate all the generation capacity that can be installed as, in certain hours of the day and in certain days of the year, the capacity of some transformers is exceeded

Assessment of the photovoltaic potential at urban level based on 3D city models: A case study and new methodological approach

The use of 3D city models combined with simulation functionalities allows to quantify energy demand and renewable generation for a very large set of buildings. The scope of this paper is to determine the solar photovoltaic potential at an urban and regional scale using CityGML geometry descriptions of every building. An innovative urban simulation platform is used to calculate the PV potential of the Ludwigsburg County in south-west Germany, in which every building was simulated by using 3D city models. Both technical and economic potential (considering roof area and insolation thresholds) are investigated, as well as two different PV efficiency scenarios. In this way, it was possible to determine the fraction of the electricity demand that can be covered in each municipality and the whole region, deciding the best strategy, the profitability of the investments and determining optimal locations. Additionally, another important contribution is a literature review regarding the different methods of PV potential estimation and the available roof area reduction coefficients. An economic analysis and emission assessment has also been developed. The results of the study show that it is possible to achieve high annual rates of covered electricity demand in several municipalities for some of the considered scenarios, reaching even more than 100% in some cases. The use of all available roof space (technical potential) could cover 77% of the region’s electricity consumption and 56% as an economic potential with only high irradiance roofs considered. The proposed methodological approach should contribute valuably in helping policy-making processes and communicating the advantages of distributed generation and PV systems in buildings to regulators, researchers and the general public

Estimating PV Module Performance over Large Geographical Regions: The Role of Irradiance, Air Temperature, Wind Speed and Solar Spectrum

We present a study of how photovoltaic (PV) module performance varies on continental scale. Mathematical models have been used to take into account shallow-angle reflectivity, spectral sensitivity, dependence of module efficiency on irradiance and module temperature as well as how the module temperature depends on irradiance, ambient temperature and wind speed. Spectrally resolved irradiance data retrieved from satellite images are combined with temperature and wind speed data from global computational weather forecast data to produce maps of PV performance for Eurasia and Africa. Results show that module reflectivity causes a fairly small drop of 2-4\% in PV performance. Spectral effects may modify the performance by up to +/- 6%, depending on location and module type. The strongest effect is seen in the dependence on irradiance and module temperature, which may range from -20% to +5% at different locations.JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficienc

Analysis of Solar Potential Spatial Data for Croatia

Zbog svojeg smještaja, blage mediteranske klime i velikog broja sunčanih sati Hrvatska je pogodna za iskorištavanje solarne energije. Novoinstalirani kapaciteti fotonaponskih sustava i koncentriranih solarnih elektrana zbog zaštite okoliša imaju sve značajniju ulogu u ukupnoj elektroenergetskoj potrošnji. Za potrebe energetskog planiranja te geoprostornih analiza danas je najčešće upotrebljavana mjera solarnog zračenja globalno zračenje na horizontalnoj površini (engl. Global Horizontal Irradiation – GHI). Glavni cilj ovog istraživanja bio je istražiti sve dostupne izvore podataka o solarnom potencijalu za Hrvatsku, s obzirom na to da su podaci o solarnom potencijalu osnovni parametar za energetsko planiranje solarnih elektrana. Pritom su uspoređeni podaci poznatih svjetskih baza podataka solarnog zračenja te je uz već dostupne podatke za Hrvatsku, GHI modeliran primjenom programa GRASS GIS, tj. njegova modula r.sun. Također je provedena usporedba i analiza r.sun podataka u odnosu na podatke solarnog zračenja prikupljene satelitskim mjerenjima te mjerene na zemaljskim postajama Referentne mreže površinskog zračenja (engl. Baseline Surface Radiation Network – BSRN). Istraživanjem izvora podataka o solarnom potencijalu za Hrvatsku uočeno je da ni jedan od dostupnih, nekomercijalnih izvora podataka o solarnom potencijalu ne zadovoljava kriterij velike prostorne rezolucije, stoga se preporuča modeliranje solarnog potencijala. Provedena usporedba vrijednosti GHI-a s različitih izvornika pokazala je kako podaci solarnog potencijala mjereni na MSG (engl. Meteosat Second Generation) satelitu najbolje koreliraju s mjerenjima na postajama BSRN-a. Analizom modeliranih podataka solarnog potencijala utvrđeno je kako su podaci dobiveni modulom r.sun točniji od podataka SoDa (engl. Solar Radiation Data), pogodne su rezolucije te se mogu upotrebljavati u svrhu određivanja optimalnih lokacija za iskorištavanje solarne energije.The Republic of Croatia due to its accommodation and mild, Mediterranean climate and a large number of sunny hours is suitable for exploiting solar energy. The newly installed capacities of photovoltaic systems and solar power plants each year are becoming more important in the overall energy consumption due to environmental protection. For the purpose of energy planning and geospatial analysis, the most commonly used solar irradiation measure is global horizontal irradiation (GHI). The main purpose of this study was to explore all available solar energy data sources for Croatia, given that solar potential data is a basic parameter for solar power plant planning. In the research data from known global solar radiation databases were compared. In addition to the available data for Croatia, GHI has been modelled using the module r.sun program in the GRASS GIS program. Its. Comparison and analysis of the r.sun data were also performed with respect to solar radiation data obtained from satellite measurements and measured at Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) stations. Exploring the solar potential data sources for Croatia, it was concluded that none of the available, non-commercial sources of solar potential data does meet the criterion of large spatial resolution, so solar energy modelling is recommended. A comparison of the GHI values from different sources has shown that solar energy data measured on MSG (Meteosat Second Generation) satellites correlate best with measurements at BSRN stations. Analysing modelled solar potential data has shown that the data obtained by the r.sun module are more accurate than the data of the commercial provider SoDa (Solar Radiation Data) also have suitable resolution and can be used to determine the optimal locations for exploiting solar energy

Comparación de fuentes satelitales, de re-análisis y métodos estadísticos para el mapeo de la radiación solar en el Valle de Lerma (Salta-Argentina)

La radiación solar global es el factor más importante para la determinación del potencial de producción de energía de plantas fotovoltaicas y otras aplicaciones de energía solar. En la Argentina los datos de radiación solar global medidos en tierra son escasos o inaccesibles para el público en general. En muchos casos se recurre a métodos estadísticos o imágenes satelitales para proporcionar un aproximado de la radiación solar global en alguna locación deseada en el país. En el presente trabajo se busca determinar una fuente de datos de radiación solar global para el valle de Lerma con la mejor resolución temporal y espacial posible. Con este fin se estudian los datos de radiación de re-análisis ERA-INTERIM del “European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts” (ECMWF) y los proporcionados por la “Land Surface Analysis Satellite Applications Facility” (LSA- SAF) que son generados a partir de imágenes de MeteoSat de segunda generación (MSG). Estos datos son comparados entre ellos, con mapas generados por técnicas estadísticas y mediciones de un piranómetro. Los resultados demuestran que los valores LSA-SAF presentan un mejor ajuste a las mediciones en terreno y por su alta resolución espacial y temporal se convierten en una alternativa satisfactoria para compensar la escasa disponibilidad de datos para el área de estudio.Global solar radiation is the most important factor to determine the energy generation potential of photovoltaic plants. In Argentina only a small number of ground measured data of global solar radiation exists. Researchers have to use statistical methods or satellite imagery to handle this lack of information and provide an estimation of solar global radiation in a certain location in the country. In this paper we explore global radiation data sources for the Valle de Lerma in order to define a data set for future studies of photovoltaic energy generation potential in the best possible spatial and temporal resolutions. We evaluate the global solar radiation data set from the ERA-INTERIM reanalysis provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the Meteosat second generation (MSG) derived data set from the Land Surface Analysis Satellite Applications Facility (LSA-SAF). These are compared with each other, with maps generated using statistical methods and with data from a piranometer. The results show that the data from LSA-SAF fit better to the ground measurements. This together with a high spatial and temporal resolution makes the LSA-SAF data a satisfactory alternative to compensate the lack of global solar radiation data available for the study area.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES