A Review of Methods for Estimating the Power Generation of Invisible Solar Sites

Abstract

With the growth of PV power generation in power systems, the information about the total PV generation is critical. If there is no accurate PV generation data, it will be a difficult task to ensure the stability of the power system. Invisible solar power generation is the PV generation that is unknown to the power system operator, it could affect the stability of power system operations. Hence, it is important to estimate the PV generation of invisible solar sites. With available data of visible PV sites, different approaches have been developed to estimate the invisible solar generation. For instance, several approaches use the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) data with statistical methods to estimate invisible PV generation. Several approaches estimate the invisible PV generation by considering the local solar irradiation or using the selected representative sites with artificial intelligent technologies. Other approaches also include data-dimension reduction engines with a mapping function. This paper presents a literature review on the common approaches of estimating the power generation of invisible photovoltaic sites and compares the state-of-the-art estimation methods.