Supervisory optimal control for photovoltaics connected to an electric power grid

Abstract

The following research presents an optimal control framework called Oxtimal that facilitates the efficient use and control of photovoltaic (PV) solar arrays. This framework consists of reduced order models (ROM) of photovoltaics and DC connection components connected to an electric power grid (EPG), a discretization of the resulting state equations using an orthogonal spline collocation method (OSCM), and an optimization driver to solve the resulting formulation. Once formulated, the framework is validated using realistic solar profiles and loads from actual residential applications.