Internal active power reserve management in Large scale PV Power Plants

Active Power Reserves (APRs) provided through curtailment (iAPRs) or through auxiliary storage systems (aAPR) with Large scale PV Power Plants (LPVPPs) becomes a reality in the near future with high penetration levels of Photovoltaic (PV) power into the grid. Therefore, this paper analyses the solutions for iAPR fulfilment in central inverter based - LPVPPs in terms of their layout, configuration and control architecture. During iAPR supply, the LPVPP has to operate under its Maximum Power Point (MPP), which means that the MPP algorithm has to undergo several changes. For this purpose, the paper proposes to supply iAPRs by means of a sweep function distributed over the PV inverters used in the central inverter station which has the potential to guarantee a maximum energy extraction along with a secured supply of the APR in any given meteorological condition.