Potential of Grid-Scale PV and Storage Facilities to Participate in Capacity Markets

Abstract

The recent FERC Order 841 has provided an opportunity for grid-scale PV and battery facilities to participate in the capacity market providing ancillary services. Order 841 combined with steadily decreasing PVand battery costs and increasing demand for renewable energy, gives high potential for a PV and battery facility to be economically viable. In this study, an analysis tool is developed as an auxiliary to the PV + Storage + Control + Grid (PSCG) simulation to estimate the megawatts (MW) of dispatchable capacity that can be reliably offered by a PV and storage facility. Limits are based on grid connection, power electronics, and battery energy capacity, and are impacted by variable insolation, load, and system state. The analysis tool visualizes these limitations and economic potential using a Weibull distribution confidence for the results. The study presents a solution that optimizes the PV and battery sizing along with state of charge reserve to give the highest yield given the adjustable parameters with a modular design that can be fitted to look at numerous other parameters that would affect the outcome.