Realistic coordination and sizing of a solar array combined with pumped hydro storage system

Abstract

This paper presents a realistic coordination and sizing of a photovoltaic (PV) plant connected with pumped-hydro storage (PHS) system at King Talal dam (KTD), Jordan. KTD is proposed to serve as the upper reservoir of the PHS. Two scenarios are investigated. First, both recombination loss in the two-diodes PV power and effective head loss in the PHS plant are not considered. Second, those two losses are considered, so the output power of the system's components is accurately modelled. Data of system demand, air temperature, water flow rate and solar irradiance are collected from different formal institutions in Jordan. This paper employs particle swarm optimization to find the optimal value of the index of reliability (IR). Results show that the optimal values of the IR are 99.67% and 99.90% for the first and second scenarios, respectively. The required number of PV panels (NPV) and the volume of the lower reservoir (VLR) are 44,063 panels and 69.348 M.m3, respectively. In the second scenario, these decision variables are decreased by 14.33% and 5.39%. Uncertainty analysis, on the measured inputs, is performed to assess the system's effectiveness. The proposed methodology is recommended anywhere to get reliable renewable systems with true-sizes and realistic performance.