// Operation of solar power plants to support grid and system

With the increasing generation of fluctuating energy, the demand for an intermediate storage of electricity rises as well. Active use of storage capacities and variable loads in private households are an alternative to large storage systems. Smart grids can combine these to form a virtual power plant or a variable load, controlled from a central control room. Electricity tariffs can be an alternative to controlling consumers via a control room and would give end users an incentive to comply with the current regenerative supply situation.

Given the large number of options and variables, the question arises of how to optimise the operation of generators, loads and storage systems from the perspectives of the user, the utility and the grid operator, respectively. Using the example of a residential area with houses equipped with PV systems, heat pumps, electrical and thermal storage systems, it can be shown that the high proportion of self-consumption of locally generated PV electricity as desired by the user can be combined with a supply-dependent use of electricity from wind power. In the simulation, a model predictive control (MPC) was designed that uses the locally available history of load profiles, solar power and electricity tariffs to calculate a prediction of an optimised operation of storage systems and heat pumps (see the chart).