What’s a hybrid project?
A Hybrid Project comes for a combination of different solutions, on a normal situation each of these solutions can really work perfectly by its own, having its advantages and disadvantages, but when you combine them, you can obtain result that maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages of both.
But when you are talking about power engineering, we are referring to Hybrid Power Plants. There are several combinations that we can use to create these kinds of plants, but the one that really combines great and that is becoming one of the most often used is the result of joining a Solar Power Plant and Energy Storage Plant.
The main disadvantage of solar plants is mainly that can only produce during daylight, but because of many reasons most of the plants cannot produce the maximum and need to be curtailed, for this reason and many others adding an Energy Storage Plant to the formula becomes so attractive.
Types of Hybrid projects?
Although we could think that all the Hybrid Projects are really the same with maybe different sizes, the reality is that is very difficult to find 2 projects that are really the same, this happens because each project is mainly motivated by its own goals that can be for example:
1) Maximize the energy dispatch to match the loads only with Renewable Energies.
2) Ancillary services for supporting the grid stability.
3) Ensure energy access to remote locations with low or no connection to the grid, also considering a full night supply if needed.
This new tendency also has a High impact on the Global Sustainability Development Goals (SDG https://sdgs.un.org/es/goals).
Technical Challenge to cover
When you start thinking on the complexity of these systems and on the different goals that were built to fulfill, you automatically think on the control philosophy required to accomplish them. Of course, each site will require specific controls that on some cases will be a combination of others done on other sites, but lots of others will only exist in only one plant.
Apart from the standard controls that we would also see on a standard solar plant, such as:
- Active/Reactive Power Control
- Frequency Control
- Voltage Control
We will also find controls that you would only find on hybrid plants, such as:
- Peak Shaving: That uses the energy stored inside the batteries already charged with the solar plant, to smoothen the irradiance variations produced by clouds passing through.
- Black Start/Island Mode: That uses the PCS (Battery Inverters) to form a grid that will be powered by the PV Inverters.
- Energy Time Shifting: When the system charges the batteries during the day and discharges them on another specific period.
Latest technical developments of GreenPowerMonitor in hybrid projects
GPM has experience with hybrid projects in countries like UK, Bolivia, Congo, Eritrea, Bahrain, India, Chile, Guatemala, South Africa, and many others where there are projects that are being executed right now.
These hybrid projects are diverse, and the only similarity is that they have more than one technology such as: solar PV + Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), solar PV + BESS + Diesel Generators (DG), solar PV + wind.
GPM’s Solution for all these Hybrid plants is the GPM EMS (Energy Management System), that uses the power of the GPM PPC (Power Plant Controller) combined with the versatility of the GPM SB2 (SmartBridge2). Thanks to the fusion of both technologies all these projects can be a success.
At GreenPowerMonitor we are very excited to be able to face this new stage of hybrid projects, because thanks to our range of solutions: GPM PPC/EMS for control, the GPM SCADA for monitoring and the GPM PLUS/HORIZON for portfolios, together with the long experience in the sector and, our experienced energy experts we are confident that we have all the tools to face it with the maximum guarantees.
Contact our experts
If you want to know more about hybrid projects, contact our experts for more information: sergi.bosque@greenpowermonitor.com