Optimized Dispatch of a Residential Solar Energy System

Recent state and provincial mandates for requirements that new generation be partially in the form of renewable energy have led to considerable interest in distributed solar generation. Some percentage of this effort may be in the form of residential photovoltaic solar energy. The electric utilities across North America are considering the effects of these distributed renewables. It is not expected that solar residential generation will have appreciable storage capability. However, it is possible to dispatch some other resources and control certain elements of the load. In this paper, the issues of when to use the dispatchable sources to fully utilize the solar energy available while minimizing the cost to the consumer will be addressed. Optimal dispatch strategy is calculated using the method of linear programming. A tool has been developed to perform a cost analysis of equipment and performance. The concept is that this study is done off-line, and the information gained is used to identify the ratings of the solar source, the energy storage medium, and the required electronic converter. Examples are shown.