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System Advisor Model (SAM)

Dispatch Control not working on physical trough at night times

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Luca S
Topic Author

13 Feb 2018 15:09 #6055 by Luca S

Dispatch Control not working on physical trough at night times was created by Luca S

Dear Sam team,

I am modeling a physical trough system with a thermal storage, that should be filled on daytime and discharged at nighttime (7pm until 11pm). In the Daytime no power production is needed an the power cycle should stand still.

To achieve this, I tried to use the dispatch control for the TES as shown in the attached screenshot.
Turb. out. fraction = 1; Storage dispatch w/ & w/o solar = 0 for the times from 7pm until 11pm.
At these times there is no irradiation and the "field thermal power absorbed" is zero.

My guess would be that SAM's internal controller, starting the power cycle is depending on the value of "Field thermal power absorbed" for a certain period, and this condition can never be fulfilled if a dispatch of the TES is only allowed after sunset.

Anyway with my model the TES is filled once on January the 1st and never releases any Energy to the power cycle, thus never producing any power at all. Curiously the absorbed energy by the Collector field is not even dumped.

Is there any regular way, to get a simulation running with power cycle operation solely from TES at nighttime?

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pgilman

13 Feb 2018 17:11 #6056 by pgilman

Replied by pgilman on topic Dispatch Control not working on physical trough at night times

Dear Luca,
In my test, the model seems to work as you expect. These are results for the default system (100 MWe nameplate, 6 hours of storage, solar multiple of 2, Tuscon Arizona) with the storage dispatch periods and schedules defined as in your image:

I would be happy to review your file if you can attach it to your original post above by editing it, or use the contact form to email it to me.
Best regards,
Paul.

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