Control strategies of energy storage limiting intermittent output of solar power generation: Planning and evaluation for participation in electricity market

Renewable energy generation cannot be consistently predicted or controlled. Therefore, it is currently not widely used in the electricity market, which requires dependable production. In this study, reliability- and variance-based controls of energy storage strategies are proposed to utilize renewable energy as a steady contributor to the electricity market. For reliability-based control, photovoltaic (PV) generation is assumed to be registered in the power generation plan. PV generation yields a reliable output using energy storage units to compensate for PV prediction errors. We also propose a runtime state-of-charge management method for sustainable operations. With variance-based controls, changes in rapid power generation are limited through ramp rate control. This study introduces new reliability and variance indices as indicators for evaluating these strategies. The reliability index quantifies the degree to which the actual generation realizes the plan, and the variance index quantifies the degree of power change. The two strategies are verified based on simulations and experiments. The reliability index improved by 3.1 times on average over 21 days at a real power plant.