Hybrid park load profile analysis with battery storage and grid
Hybrid park load profile analysis: we assess generation, consumption and grid load and design battery storage and grid connection to fit.
In a hybrid park, photovoltaics, wind power and often a battery storage system meet at the same grid connection. The load profile analysis shows how these components behave together. We analyse your consumption and feed-in profiles in detail, including load peaks, daily patterns and seasonal fluctuations. On this basis we assess the actual need for battery storage and identify loads on the grid. The load profile describes the course of power at the grid connection point over time at fine time resolution. Only when generation and consumption are overlaid over time does it become visible in which hours the connection actually reaches its limits and when it remains unused.
The fact that generation profiles complement each other is the core of the hybrid park: wind power delivers more in winter, photovoltaics in summer, and both rarely reach their peak output at the same time. The sum of the installed capacities therefore does not have to fit in full at the grid connection point. With control, surplus power can be curtailed or directed into storage. A battery storage system can also shift the midday surplus of photovoltaics into hours of low generation, instead of losing it to curtailment or negative prices; how far this succeeds depends on state of charge, efficiency, prices and grid limits. Because a grid connection including substation is built once and used by several technologies, the design decides the economic viability of the entire park.
The aim is a stable, efficient and economical overall system. To this end we calculate load flow, short circuit, loss optimisation and thermal dimensioning and assess grid compatibility on the basis of grid perturbations. We include necessary substations and battery storage in planning early. This lets you make better use of the grid connection capacity and identify possible savings before investments are made. Comparing several variants is particularly revealing, for example with and without storage or with different connection capacities, because it allows connection utilisation and possible savings to be set side by side. The variants can then be discussed with the grid operator, because the analysis makes transparent which capacity is actually drawn at which times.
In Austria, the contractual side must also be clarified. If a PV plant is connected to the existing connection of a wind farm, an additional agreement to the grid access contract may regulate shared use; contracting parties, responsibilities and permissible feed-in capacity are to be clarified with the grid operator. The agreed total feed-in capacity must not be exceeded, which a controller for the hybrid park can ensure technically. The results of the load profile analysis feed into hybrid park planning and electrical engineering planning. Load profile analysis is also available specifically for photovoltaic hybrid parks and for wind farms. The grid connection is specified in the preliminary design for wind farms and in the pre-development for photovoltaics. Ownership and responsibility for the grid connection lines should also be clarified early; they are to be determined on a project-specific basis and clarified contractually with the grid operator.
