Optimal Aggressive Level-based Offering Method for Hybrid PV Plants

Over the past few years, the penetration of solar power plants increased dramatically. Unlike traditional power plants, the uncertainty of Photovoltaic (PV) generation makes the offering process very challenging for PV plant operators. The uncertainty can be addressed by using the worst-case-based robust optimization. However, the solution to this method may be overly conservative. On the other hand, the battery energy storage system (BESS) is commonly used in PV plants, which can be used to reduce the uncertainty of PV generation. In this paper, a day-ahead offering method for the PV plant operator is proposed. As part of the proposed method, the optimal aggressive level of the offering decision is calculated by a data-driven method. Two scenarios that include a PV-only plant and a hybrid PV+BESS plant have been considered in our study. This paper also analyzed the potential advantage of pairing a BESS to a PV plant in the offering process. We found that the BESS can generate more revenue while reducing the risk of paying an under-generation charge under some conditions.