This paper presents a solution to address wear and tear of Run-of-River (RoR) Hydropower Plants (HPPs) providing enhanced Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR). In this respect, the study proposes the integration of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) with RoR HPPs controlled by a double-layer Model Predictive Control (MPC). The upper layer MPC acts as a state of energy manager for the BESS, employing a forecast of the required regulating energy for the next hour. The lower-layer MPC optimally allocates the power set-point between the turbine and the BESS. Reduced-scale experiments are performed on a one-of-a-kind testing platform to validate the proposed MPC- based control considering a comparison with different control strategies and different BESS sizes. The results demonstrate superior performance of the proposed framework, compared to simpler techniques like dead-band control or to the standalone RoR scenario, leading to improved FCR provision, reduced servomechanism stress, and extended hydropower asset lifespan.
@article{arxiv.2309.15660,
title = {Enhanced Frequency Containment Reserve Provision from Battery Hybridized Hydropower Plants: Theory and Experimental Validation},
author = {Francesco Gerini and Elena Vagnoni and Martin Seydoux and Rachid Cherkaoui and Mario Paolone},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.15660},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
Submitted to PSCC2024, Power Systems Computation Conference, Paris, France