Combine PV + CSP

Hello to the whole community,

Could someone give me an idea, please. I need to have a base generation, constant, through combining photovoltaic energy (PV) and concentration (CSP) from the central tower, giving priority to PV. When PV is not generating enough, CSP supplements the generation, for example at night. Is it possible to do that in SAM? I have tried to do it in the program but I think it is not possible. Maybe using PySAM there is some way? I really appreciate your help and advice.

Modifying the "Grid curtailment" I think is not a good option, because there I would be losing generated energy, or not? The best option, I think, is to limit the work done by the turbine, so that it generates only what is necessary.
Thank you very much in advance,
Francisco

Hi Francisco,

The "Combine Cases" method described in sam.nrel.gov/forum/forum-general/3001 simply adds the electricity output of the PV and CSP system together to calculate the system's total output.

UPDATE: As of SAM 2021.12.02, the Combine Cases macro is replaced by the Calculate generation profiles and nameplate capacity from open cases option on the Power Plant page for the Generic System model and Generic Battery model. See the SAM YouTube channel for a short tutorial .

There is not a way to operate the CSP system in response to the output of the PV system. You would have to do that outside of SAM. You could use SAM to determine the hourly generation profile over one year of both systems, and then try to make adjustments to the CSP output, but I do not have a suggestion of how exactly to do that.

PySAM does not give you access to the internal calculations of the model, so I'm not sure that would solve the problem. It does allow you to set values of inputs, run simulations, and make calculations on output variables.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Fransisco
I am building the same model combing CSP + PV, the way I am trying to model is is do define dispatch control factors for the Solar Tower for each period based on the PV output, so that it will deliver less energy during the day when PV is working and use the storage during evening/night hours. By doing so I am reaching a higher  capacity factor in the range of 85% vs 71% for CSP alone. I have defined the TOD periods (9 periods) and used excel exchange to transfer the values.
Let me know if you want to exchange more data on this.
kind regards
Sabrina