Technical Cost of Operating a Photovoltaic Installation as a STATCOM at Nighttime

Autor(es)

Normandia Lourenco, Luis Felipe ^[1] ; de Camargo Salles, Mauricio Barbosa ^[1] ; Monaro, Renato Machado ^[1] ; Queval, Loic ^[2]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Polytech Sch, Lab Adv Elect Grids, BR-03178200 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] UPMC, UPSud, Cent Supelec, Grp Elect Engn Paris, CNRS, UMR, F-75005 Paris - France

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY; v. 10, n. 1, p. 75-81, JAN 2019.
• Citações Web of Science: 1

Resumo

Reactive power support of photovoltaic farms has been under discussion in several countries. This kind of operation has been proposed because the photovoltaic farm converter is an expensive asset that is often used well below its power rating. This paper proposes a methodology for estimating the reactive power support capability and the associated technical cost of operating a photovoltaic installation as a STATCOM at nighttime. The technical cost is related to the need for buying active power from the grid to compensate for power losses. A precise estimation of this cost is of interest to both photovoltaic farm owners and grid operators to be able to evaluate the economic feasibility of this kind of operation. In order to illustrate the proposed methodology, a 1.5-MWp photovoltaic farm is considered. By evaluating the losses of each component (converter, tie reactor, filter, and transformer), a reactive power support capability map integrating the technical cost for each point of operation is obtained. The analysis outlines key points to operate a PV farm as a STATCOM at nighttime: the system must include a blocking diode, the capability map is asymmetric, an operation with variable dc-link voltage is desirable and can lead to savings of up to 8.9% in comparison with operation at fixed nominal dc-link voltage. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 14/05261-0 - Integração de energia eólica intermitente em sistemas de potência utilizando sistemas de armazenamento em baterias
• Beneficiário: Mauricio Barbosa de Camargo Salles
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Exterior - Pesquisa