Geographic smoothing of solar photovoltaic electric power production in the Western USA

We examined the geographic smoothing of solar photovoltaic generation from 15 utility-scale plants in California, Nevada, and Arizona and from 19 commercial building installations in California. This is the first comparison of geographic smoothing from utility-scale and building-mounted PV and the first examination of solar PV smoothing in this region. Our research questions were (1) how does geographic smoothing of commercial building rooftop PV compare to that of utility scale PV?, (2) is the geographic smoothing found for utility-scale plants the same for the western US as in India?, and (3) how does the geographic smoothing for PV compare to that of wind? By examining the power output of these generators in the frequency domain, we quantified the smoothing obtained by combining the output of geographically separated plants. We found that utility-scale and commercial rooftop plants exhibited similar geographic smoothing, with 10 combined plants reducing the amplitude of fluctuations at 1 h to 18%–28% of those seen for a single plant. We find that combining a few PV sites together reduces fluctuations, but that the point of quickly diminishing returns is reached after ∼5 sites, and that for all the locations and plant sizes considered, PV does not exhibit as much geographic smoothing as is seen for combining wind plants. We present preliminary theoretical arguments for why geographic smoothing of PV plants is less effective than that for wind plants. The slope of the high-frequency part of the PV power spectrum can at best be geographically smoothed (steepen) to an asymptotic spectrum of f−2. This limit for PV has considerably less smoothing than that for wind\u27s geographic smoothing, shown theoretically and from observed data to be f−2.33

Day Ahead Regulation Tool Final Report

Develop test protocols to simulate appropriate earthquake conditions for transformer bushing assembly. Conduct laboratory testing for protocols, evaluate testing procedures, and develop recommendations for a rational qualification procedure to include in IEEE standards for manufacturer certification

THE WIDE-AREA ENERGY STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PHASE II Final Report - Flywheel Field Tests

This research was conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operated for the U.S. department of Energy (DOE) by Battelle Memorial Institute for Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) and California Energy Commission (CEC). A wide-area energy management system (WAEMS) is a centralized control system that operates energy storage devices (ESDs) located in different places to provide energy and ancillary services that can be shared among balancing authorities (BAs). The goal of this research is to conduct flywheel field tests, investigate the technical characteristics and economics of combined hydro-flywheel regulation services that can be shared between Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and California Independent System Operator (CAISO) controlled areas. This report is the second interim technical report for Phase II of the WAEMS project. This report presents: 1) the methodology of sharing regulation service between balancing authorities, 2) the algorithm to allocate the regulation signal between the flywheel and hydro power plant to minimize the wear-and-tear of the hydro power plants, 3) field results of the hydro-flywheel regulation service (conducted by the Beacon Power), and 4) the performance metrics and economic analysis of the combined hydro-flywheel regulation service