New design alternatives for a hybrid photovoltaic and doubly-fed induction wind plant to augment grid penetration of renewable energy

Abstract

Reducing carbon emissions is essential to stop climate change. The grid-share of renewable generation plants is increasing, being wind and photovoltaic plants the most common ones, whereas conventional plants are the only ones that provide the necessary services to maintain the grid stability and keep the generation-demand balance. However, with the aim of achieving carbon-neutral generation, conventional plants are being dismantled. This leads to the imminent need of providing these services with renewable plants. Due to this challenge, this proposal analyses a hybrid plant composed by wind and photovoltaic generation with two types of storage, lithium-ion batteries and a thermal storage system based on volcanic stones. In order to compare both strategies, a techno-economic methodology is explained that allows to optimally size the plant, using the current prices of each technology. The most cost-competitive proposal turns to be the hybrid plant with thermal storage, composed by 623.9 MW installed power and 21.9 GWh of storage, which could replace a 100 MW, 24/7 conventional power plant, with an LCOHS (levelized cost of hybrid system) of 118.38 €/MWh, providing identical grid services and an equivalent inertia in a way committed with the environment. This is in turn a zero-carbon emissions solution perfectly matched to a second life plan for a conventional power plant.