Optimal sizing and operation of hybrid renewable power plants participating in coupled power markets with different execution times

Abstract

The increasing limitations in the use of fossil fuels due to their limited availability and pollution have increased the use of renewable energies and storage systems for electricity generation. To achieve the goals of the integration of renewable energy, sizing and management methods for hybrid plants are needed to make investments profitable and attractive in these resources. This work presents an optimization method for the sizing and operation of hybrid plants with storage, choosing the best combination of technologies based on resource availability, installation costs and market prices, maximizing an economic index such as the net present value. One of the main contributions of this work is to reduce the oversizing that occurs in traditional methods through a penalty term for lost energy, encouraging investment in batteries to store excess energy above the point of interconnection (POI). In addition, it is intended to cover gaps such as the operation in coupled markets with different execution periods to maximize the benefits of the investment made and to contemplate different generation alternatives together with storage. The presented method is tested through sizing and operation simulations to demonstrate its potential. The presented method is tested through sizing and operation simulations to demonstrate its potential. In scenario A, the best combination of solar energy, photovoltaic energy and storage, is chosen. In scenario B, it is shown how the curtailment of the oversizing is reduced in some months by more than 5%. In scenario C, for daily operation in coupled markets, it is possible to improve the benefits from 0.7% to 37.04% in the days of the year.