Optimizing the control strategy of molten-salt heat storage systems in thermal solar power plants

Abstract

Many thermal solar power plants use thermal oil as heat transfer fluid, and molten salts as thermal energy storage. Since the engineering of these plants is relatively new, regulation of the thermal energy storage system is currently achieved in manual or semiautomatic ways, controlling its variables with proportional-integral-derivative (PID) regulators. This paper explores into the results obtained with different control strategies implemented on a complete model of energy storage systems based on molten salt. By doing so, the optimal control method can be identified.