Influence of Different Degrees of Complementarity of Solar and Hydro Energy Availability on the Performance of Hybrid Hydro PV Generating Plants

Alexandre Beluco, Paulo Kroeff de Souza, Arno Krenzinger

Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

DOI: 10.4236/epe.2013.54034                

Abstract

The complementarity of energy resources used in hybrid power generation can result in optimization of power capacity and reservation capabilities. This article is dedicated to the study of hybrid hydro PV systems. The goal is to establish the relationship between system performance and complementarity of energy resources. The study was carried out with computer simulations based on a method that uses ideal functions developed to describe the energy resources and determines a limit of performance. The results confirm expectations that performance, as measured by the total time of failure to meet demand, will be better as energy resources are complementary. Charts relating energy complementarity with failures are presented. The subsequent research work shall proceed to at least two different phases. In the first one, the method exposed in the present work shall be applied to real data and compared to the operation of existing hybrid plants. In the second phase, results shall be confronted with design parameters of hydro PV plants based on complementary resources. A next stage would be the enlargement of the method applied in this work for systems based on other energy resources, such as wind energy and ocean wave energy.

Keywords

Hybrid Energy Plants; Energetic Complementarity; Performance Analysis; Computational Simulation; Software MATLAB

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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