A DC side energy storage management for one-day-ahead power profile control of concentrator photovoltaic power plants

In the present paper, a concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) power plant integrated with an Energy Storage System (ESS), which is controlled in order to schedule one-day-ahead the electricity production, is presented. The proposed control algorithm is characterized by the predictive definition of output power shapes. The daily estimation of the ESS State of Charge (SoC), jointly to the measurement of its actual evolution, is used for implementing a hysteresis real-time control devoted to adapt the power profile for compensating unpredictable power fluctuation. In order to develop the proposed energy management system with an existing CPV power plant, a DC side ESS control system, characterized by the use of a bidirectional DC-DC buck-boost converter, is considered. The feasibility of the proposed CPV energy management system is verified by means of a simulation study, which is carried out using on-site CPV prototype measurements.