How to prioritize whether PV power goes to load or battery

Good day

I am running a model involving a PV and battery system. Currently the simulation prioritises sending PV power to load rather than charging the battery. Is there a way to prioritize sending PV power to the battery (until the battery is fully charged) before sending it to the load? With the grid being used to supply the load during that time?

Hi Ayesha,

The behind-the-meter dispatch options use PV power to meet the load before charging the battery to minimize electrical losses associated with charging and discharging the battery.

Can you tell me more about how you would like the battery dispatch to work?

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul

Thanks for the quick response. Because the price of PV is much lower than power from the grid at certain times where we are, we would like to store the cheaper energy to use during the peak tariff periods and lower the price of energy. I found that in the 2017 version under the battery dispatch you have the options to:

• charge battery before meeting load, or 
• meet load before charging battery

Does the 2020 version have this sort of functionality?

Regards
Ayesha

Hi Ayesha,

That option is not available in the current version of SAM (SAM 2020.11.29). I'm looking into why we removed it, I think it was not working properly. I will follow up when I learn more.

Thanks,
Paul.

Hi again,

We will consider restoring the "PV priority" battery dispatch option in a future version of SAM. See this GitHub issue to track progress on this feature request:

github.com/NREL/SAM/issues/658

Best regards,
Paul.