Control Architectures for Co-Located Hybrid Power Plants

The high expansion rate of renewable generation in the last years was mainly driven by the green transition and the net zero emission targets for 2050. Concerns on the volatility of wind and solar energy, can be mitigated by combining these renewable energy sources with energy storage and operating them coordinately, creating hybrid power plants. Price of batteries has also dropped significantly reaching US$139/kWh in 2023 (battery pack price) and it is expected that by the end of this decade the price will fall below US$100/kWh. Thus, more developers and owners of large renewable plants are looking into their hybridization for both off-grid and grid-connected configurations. The advantages for such a hybrid renewable power plant include complementarity of energy production, better utilization of grid connection while reducing the connection costs, firm capacity of energy production, increase of revenue streams by providing ancillary services, etc. However, the control of a wide range of technologies i.e. wind turbines, solar PV and batteries, from different suppliers poses challenges during their integration into a hybrid power plant.
This paper aims to provide an overview of the most common configurations of co-located hybrid power plants including their control architectures. The advantages and challenges for each configuration are discussed in detail from the perspective of OEMs and system integrators.
The work presented is part of the ongoing activities in the IEA Wind TCP Task 50 on Hybrid Power Plants that aims to provide a systematic framework and guidelines in this area.