7 research outputs found
Quasi-dynamic Load and Battery Sizing and Scheduling for Stand-Alone Solar System Using Mixed-integer Linear Programming
Considering the intermittency of renewable energy systems, a sizing and
scheduling model is proposed for a finite number of static electric loads. The
model objective is to maximize solar energy utilization with and without
storage. For the application of optimal load size selection, the energy
production of a solar photovoltaic is assumed to be consumed by a finite number
of discrete loads in an off-grid system using mixed-integer linear programming.
Additional constraints are battery charge and discharge limitations and minimum
uptime and downtime for each unit. For a certain solar power profile the model
outputs optimal unit size as well as the optimal scheduling for both units and
battery charge and discharge (if applicable). The impact of different solar
power profiles and minimum up and down time constraints on the optimal unit and
battery sizes are studied. The battery size required to achieve full solar
energy utilization decreases with the number of units and with increased
flexibility of the units (shorter on and off-time). A novel formulation is
introduced to model quasi-dynamic units that gradually start and stop and the
quasi-dynamic units increase solar energy utilization. The model can also be
applied to search for the optimal number of units for a given cost function.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted at The IEEE Conference on Control
Applications (CCA
Reliability of Dynamic Load Scheduling with Solar Forecast Scenarios
This paper presents and evaluates the performance of an optimal scheduling
algorithm that selects the on/off combinations and timing of a finite set of
dynamic electric loads on the basis of short term predictions of the power
delivery from a photovoltaic source. In the algorithm for optimal scheduling,
each load is modeled with a dynamic power profile that may be different for on
and off switching. Optimal scheduling is achieved by the evaluation of a
user-specified criterion function with possible power constraints. The
scheduling algorithm exploits the use of a moving finite time horizon and the
resulting finite number of scheduling combinations to achieve real-time
computation of the optimal timing and switching of loads. The moving time
horizon in the proposed optimal scheduling algorithm provides an opportunity to
use short term (time moving) predictions of solar power based on advection of
clouds detected in sky images. Advection, persistence, and perfect forecast
scenarios are used as input to the load scheduling algorithm to elucidate the
effect of forecast errors on mis-scheduling. The advection forecast creates
less events where the load demand is greater than the available solar energy,
as compared to persistence. Increasing the decision horizon leads to increasing
error and decreased efficiency of the system, measured as the amount of power
consumed by the aggregate loads normalized by total solar power. For a
standalone system with a real forecast, energy reserves are necessary to
provide the excess energy required by mis-scheduled loads. A method for battery
sizing is proposed for future work.Comment: 6 pager, 4 figures, Syscon 201
Site Assessment and Layout Optimization for Rooftop Solar Energy Generation in Worldview-3 Imagery
With the growth of residential rooftop PV adoption in recent decades, the problem of effective layout design has become increasingly important in recent years. Although a number of automated methods have been introduced, these tend to rely on simplifying assumptions and heuristics to improve computational tractability. We demonstrate a fully automated layout design pipeline that attempts to solve a more general formulation with greater geometric flexibility that accounts for shading losses. Our approach generates rooftop areas from satellite imagery and uses MINLP optimization to select panel positions, azimuth angles and tilt angles on an individual basis rather than imposing any predefined layouts. Our results demonstrate that shading plays a critical role in automated rooftop PV optimization and significantly changes the resulting layouts. Additionally, they suggest that, although several common heuristics are often effective, they may not be universally suitable due to complications resulting from geometric restrictions and shading losses. Finally, we evaluate a few specific heuristics from the literature and propose a potential new rule of thumb that may help improve rooftop solar energy potential when shading effects are considered