Utility Scale PV and CSP Solar Power Plants

Performance, Impact on the Territory

and Interaction with the Grid
















Authors:
Martino Bosatra
Federico Fazi
Pier Franco Lionetto
Luca Travagnin
Foster Wheeler Italiana Milan, Italy





Presented at
Power-Gen Europe 2010
Rai, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
June 8 10, 2010


TP_SOLAR_10_01
Utility-Scale PV and CSP solar power plants
Performance, impact on the territory and interaction with the grid

Martino Bosatra, Federico Fazi, Pier Franco Lionetto, Luca Travagnin
Foster Wheeler Italiana Corsico (Milan- ITALY)
1 ABSTRACT
PV and CSP Solar Power Plants represent today one of the most booming segments within renewable
energy market. Both type of solar plants, boostered by favorable feed-in tariffs, are under
construction in different countries covering a range of size (up to 100MW) commonly reserved to
conventional technologies (thermal or combined cycle power plants). The report analyses the PV and
CSP Plant technologies and compares them with respect to landscape impact, performance and
impact on the grid (both in normal and transient condition). The relationship with the ancillary
services needed by the Grid to ensure
high service continuity and high quality level is investigated and possible future scenarios are
discussed starting from the requests of Grid-Codes.
2 INTRODUCTION
Utility-Scale photovoltaic (PV) plants and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants are becoming a reality.
The uptake of such type of solar plant is expected to accelerate during the next decade especially in regions
such as Southern Europe due to the presence of high solar irradiance and the continuous pressure for the
implementation of numerous renewable energy generation technologies.
The growth of such plant is granted only if unlimited access to the HV and EHV grid is allowed. Besides
this issue, the higher penetration of renewable energies (especially wind and solar) harbors the risk of grid
instability in case the generating plants are not able to properly support the Grid. Thus leads to the search for
new developments with respect to the device design which should be armed with the task of supporting the
grid operation and stability. New interconnection requirements, especially those are related to Utility-Scale
PV plants, are coming into force in several European countries with the aim to serve as a planning document
and decision guidance for the project designer and for the PV equipment Manufacturers.
In the light of the above, a qualitative comparison has been carried out between an Utility-Scale PV plant
and a CSP plant with nominal capacity of about 50 MW, reasonably assumed as reference size for both
technologies (this size looks typical for most of the existing plants of both technologies). At once it has been
necessary to define a specific region (Southern Italy) for which were known solar beam (i.e. irradiance level)
and average ambient conditions, having these aspects huge influence on Plant design.
Then it have been analyzed pros and cons of the two PV and CSP plants in terms of performance, i.e.
efficiency and energy production, and impact on the territory, i.e. how many Hectares are needed and which
is the impact on the regions where installation of such plants seem to be more probable.
This report would also outline which one of these two different solar plants may be nowadays considered as
less impacting on the Grid, which of them may or may not contribute to the grid stability during transients
and finally which would be the technological improvements that may be required to make them compliant
with the mandatory Grid Code requirements. The analysis do not refer to a specific Grid connection point
but refers anyway to the European HV network because the majority of the existing Utility-Scale PV Plants
and CSP plants are nowadays localized in Europe. Therefore the study refers to European Grid &
Transmission Codes and in particular makes reference to the German Transmission Code [1], which was the
first one, within the whole European Countries, had approached the topic of the renewable generating units
and their impact on the Grid.
3 SOLAR ENERGY RESOURCES GROWTH AND GLOBAL INSTALLED POWER
3.1 PV installations overview [1] [2]
The solar PV sector has been booming over the last decade and is forecast to confirm this trend in the
coming years. By the end of 2009 the Global worldwide cumulative capacity was approaching 15 GW.
Today, Europe is leading the way with more than 14 GW representing over 65% of the Global cumulative
PV installed capacity equal to almost seven times the installed power in Japan and ten times that of USA,
confirming as leader in the geographic area of PV installations. The growth in installations in Europe is even
more interesting when compared with the rest of the world, because in terms of market dynamics there was a
significant increase of so-called Utility-Scale PV plants.
However, this Europe leadership is the result of strong inhomogeneous in the growth of the States
composed, with some realities that are confirmed excellent market for PV, other that "marking time" and
others that seem to be well placed to play an important role in the near future.
These differences can be explained by the relative importance of plants segments (i.e. building installations,
industrial installations and multi-megawatt installations), and by policy choices of national governments,
resulting in rules and incentives to promote greater one segment respect to another and by the morphology
of the national territory that might be a limitation especially for larger plants.
3.2 CSP installations overview [3] [4] [5]
After almost 20 years of silence, in the early years of the new millennium, CSP gained interest again and
new plants have been built not only in USA but also in Europe.
At the moment the total worldwide installed power is approximately 655 MW producing 1400 GWh of
electric power in a year. Apart from USA and Spain, other countries where CSP plants are going to be built
or at least in project, are Australia, India, Central Asia, Mexico and the Mediterranean countries like Italy,
France, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Israel.
In contrast to the PV sector, the CSP industry is far less fragmented; with some of Europes best solar
resources and a favorable tariff regime, Spains solar CSP sector is well positioned, 22 projects under
construction for total 1,037 MWe out of the approximate 15 GW planned globally through 2014.
Italy is the first country following Spain to make a significant move in support of CSP projects with FITs. In
2008, Italian Government issued the legislative decree that set a new FIT for CSP; this decree requires that
all CSP plants, including hybrid plants, have to include thermal storage while in Spain storage technology is
allowed but not currently required for system approval.
4 SOLAR POWER PLANT TECHNOLOGIES
4.1 Utility-Scale PV plant
Utility-scale PV plant, sometimes called central station PV, acts more like a concentrated power plant,
producing energy and delivering it to the grid. Traditionally Utility-Scale PV plants use flat PV module
technology of either crystalline silicon (mono or poly-crystalline silicon types) or thin film modules (mainly
of cadmium telluride CdTe type). Such PV modules are characterized by different sizes, i.e. 0.7 m
2
to 1.7
m
2
, by different peak power, i.e. 70Wp to 250Wp, and by different efficiency ranges which typically are
lower for Thin Film PV modules, i.e. from 10% to 12%, than for crystalline silicon PV modules, whose
typical efficiency is in the range of 11% to 16%.
Another PV technology is represented by the concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) plant technology, which is
based on reflection of concentrated sunlight onto highly efficient photovoltaic cells (such as copper indium
gallium diselinide - CIGS, and thin film amorphous silicon). Nowadays such technology is used only in
smaller or prototype PV installations and therefore cannot yet be considered as a viable alternative to other
technologies for bigger Utility scale PV plant installations.
Since the Utility-Scale PV concept is relatively new, so these different technologies are to date competing
with no clear winners even if most of the biggest Utility Scale PV plants (i.e. within the range of 4060
MW
p
) have been realized by fixed system. The cost of PV tracking system is usually greater than the cost of
fixed PV system as well its performance is greater than the performance of the fixed PV system.
PV modules are installed on fixed metallic support structures arranged in long rows, adequately spaced
themselves, facing south (in the Northern Hemisphere) with an appropriate tilt, or deployed on tracking
devices to follow the sun. PV modules are electrically connected together in series and parallel and then
connected by DC cabling to the centralized inverters which convert DC power into AC power. Then the
Inverter are connected together, on a.c. side, to the plant Medium Voltage network, and then the produced
energy is delivered to the HV or EHV Grid by means of one or more step-up transformers.
4.2 CSP plant
All the CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) technologies produce heat or electricity using hundreds of mirrors
to concentrate the suns rays to high temperature (typically between 400C and 1000C).
There are four different main CSP technologies depending if the solar radiation is concentrated on a linear
collector system (Parabolic trough and Linear Fresnell) or on a central focal point (Solar Tower and
Parabolic Dish).
Among the possible CSP Technologies the Parabolic Through seems to be the most commercially proven
and it appears to be, at present time, the favored by CSP plants developers. Though Power Tower lacks in
experience with few plants in operation, in medium to long term this configuration may produce electricity
at a lower cost than parabolic trough plants. On the other hand, Parabolic Dish and Linear Fresnell
systems have not progressed beyond their initial demonstration phase, though these technologies have the
potentiality to produce energy with lower capital cost respect the other two.
The CSP technology taken as reference for this study is based on Parabolic Through technology, mainly
constituted by:
the Solar Field, constituted by the Solar Collectors, which collect and concentrate the solar radiation,
and the by the Solar Receivers, which absorb the concentrated solar energy and convert it to useable
heat for the power block;
the heat Storage, which stores solar energy from solar field and dispatch it to the power block in case
of less solar radiation;
the Power Block (and Grid connection) which uses the heat collected from the sun to produce
electricity and it is constituted by a steam generator and a steam turbine coupled to a conventional
electrical generator (i.e. synchronous generator and excitation system) that generates energy which is
delivered to the HV or EHV Grid by means of its own step-up transformer.
In a parabolic trough system, the solar field consists of hundred of linear solar collector assembly (SCA).
The collectors are horizontal modular array of long rectangular, curved (U-shaped) highly reflective mirrors
disposed in parallel rows. Each modular array are single-axis-tracking (typically North-South to be always
tilted toward the sun during the day) that focus solar energy onto a central receiver tube located along the
focal line of the mirrors where it is absorbed. The receiver tubes are particular high radiation absorbent
devices where in the inside flows a working fluid called heat transfer fluid (HTF), which has the scope to
exchange heat from the solar field to the power block. HTF is usually synthetic thermal oil (byphenil oil)
and it is heated to temperatures of around 400C. HTF pumped through a series of heat exchangers to
generate superheated steam for use in a conventional steam turbine generator or integrated in a combined
steam and gas turbine cycle.
To increase CSP Plant flexibility, the HTF can be stored in two tanks (hot and cold) that provides many
advantages (avoid dumping of solar energy, reduce over-size of the power block, increase CSP plant
operating hours, etc) as detailed in next section. Recent advanced researches are experimenting different
kind of HTF and developing more efficient solar collector and more sophisticated sun-tracking systems in
order to improve plant performance. In spite of solid experience in this technology and more than 500 MW
operating plants, research and development continue to play an important role to drive plant cost further
down.
5 TECHNICAL COMPARISON
The technical comparison between the two solar PV and CSP plants has been performed on the basis of the
following main design bases:
50 MW size, reasonably assumed as reference size for both technologies
both Thin Film and Poly-crystalline PV module technologies, both fixed and tracker systems for
Utility-Scale PV Plant
Parabolic Through technology for CSP Plant
Location: southern Italy.
The main factors used for the comparison have been:
Landscape impact
performance
interaction with the Grid in steady state and transient condition
To compare a 50 MWp Utility-Scale grid connected PV plant with a 50 MWe CSP plant it is necessary to
define common design bases by siting the plant in a specific area with defined irradiation level. For the case,
this report localizes both plants in a southern region of Italy characterized by a yearly averaged Incident
Global Irradiation of approx. 1900 kWh/m
2
year and 2200 kWh/m
2
year, as respectively estimated for a
fixed PV field with an optimum tilt of 30C and for tracker PV s, and a yearly averaged Direct Normal
Irradiation of approx. 1800 kWh/m
2
year.
The yearly averaged Incident Global irradiation is the effective radiation reaching the tilted PV module
plane and it is the sum of incident direct radiation, Incident diffuse radiation (from sky) and incident albedo
radiation for a given reference year.
The yearly averaged Direct Normal Irradiation is the yearly average amount of solar radiation incident on a
surface oriented normal to the solar radiation for a given reference year
5.1 Landscape impact
5.1.1 Utility-Scale PV plant
The key factor in designing the Utility Scale PV plant is to gain, for any specific site, the optimal ground
area occupation ratio (GAOR) without valuable reduction of expected performance ratio.
The GAOR is calculated as ratio between the total surface of the PV modules used to realize the PV field
and the ground area occupied by the PV field. The GAOR is affected by the shed disposition of PV arrays
(i.e. by the distance between the rows of PV modules) which depends by PV array tilt angle and by limit
shading angle. PV array tilt angle mainly depends by physical dimension of PV modules and by their ability
to capture and transform as much as possible diffuse irradiance (thin film modules are usually better than
crystalline silicon modules). As first approximation, the optimal limit shading angle for southern Italy
latitudes corresponds to the angle (approximately around 20) needed to avoid shadows between 10 a.m. and
2 p.m. on winter solstice. PV field performance slightly increased by increasing, for a given tilt angle, shed
distance because thus reduces shadows (especially during winter time) and therefore helps to reduce
mismatch losses.
GAOR typical values, for a fixed installation localized in southern Italy, is in the range of 0.4 0.6, which
corresponds to a tilt angle range of 35 25 (lower tilt are often used for thin-film PV modules arrays due
to their better response to diffuse irradiance) while for the tracker system the GAOR is in the range of
0.20.3.
The corresponding ground area typically required for the same PV field, always localized in southern Italy,
amounts approx. to 2.2 2.5 Ha/MW
p
if thin film PV modules are used, while amounts approx. to 1.7 2.1
Ha/MW
p
if crystalline silicon PV modules are used (efficiency of crystalline silicon PV modules is better
than the efficiency of thin film PV modules; typical values are respectively in the range of 14 16% and
1012%).
On the basis of the above figures, the estimated ground area needed to build a 50MW
p
UtilityScale PV
plant amounts to approx. 120140Ha, for fixed PV field constituted by thin film PV arrays, and to
90110Ha for fixed PV field constituted by crystalline silicon PV arrays.
In case of a tracker PV field, the required ground area amounts approx. to 4 4.5 Ha/MW
p
, if thin film PV
module are used, while amounts approx. to 3 3.5 Ha/MW
p
if crystalline silicon PV modules are used.
Even if these different technologies and arrangements are nowadays competing with no clear winners, it
can be observed that, in terms of land impact, fixed PV field requires about half of the area necessary for a
Tracker PV system and as highlighted above the selection of PV modules may play an important role in
determining the area required by the plant. Therefore it can be concluded that for bigger size of Utility-Scale
PV plant, the fixed PV field arrangement should be preferable when compared in terms of land impact.
5.1.2 CSP plant
The Key factor that affects the CSP plant size, performance and thus land occupation, is the direct normal
irradiation of the site which optimum value should be over than 1800 kWh/m
2
year.
The CSP plants land occupation depends by the total installed collector surface and also by the space
between each solar collector assembly required to minimize shadows and also to allow the maintenance of
the big curved reflecting mirrors.
Additional surface is required for the power block and heat storage, both usually located in the middle of the
plant area and with an occupation much smaller respect to the solar field.
Typical surface required by CSP plant localized in southern Italy as the PV plant above considered, with
Direct Normal Irradiance of 1800 kWh/m
2
year, is in the range of 34 Ha/MW. However each plants solar
field area, in a determinate location with a certain daily average direct normal irradiation, needs to be
optimized respect to solar collector area and heat storage capacity in order to reach the minimum levelized
cost of energy that is usually reached by installing an heat storage of approx. 6 hours.
Therefore the estimated area required for a 50MW CSP plant hypothetically localized in southern Italy and
based on Parabolic Through technology, amounts totally to approx. 160170 Ha
5.2 Performance
5.2.1 Utility-Scale PV plants
To maximize sunlight exposition PV plants are designed by selecting the optimal tilt angle and the azimuth
angle and thus by avoiding, as much as possible, shading between PV arrays. The energy produced by a PV
system depends by:
solar radiation incident on the modules plane, which depends on :
latitude of the installation site
front surface reflectance of photovoltaic modules
exposure of modules: the tilt angle (angle between the horizontal plane and the plane of the
module surface) and the angle of orientation (azimuth angle)
any shade or fouling of photovoltaic modules
ambient temperature
the characteristics of the modules: power rating, temperature coefficient,
mismatch losses, due to inverter mismatch and/or due to non homogeneous module
characteristics connected in series and parallel, etc.;
the characteristics of the BOS such as efficiency of inverter, losses in the cables and diodes,
etc.
Variations in solar radiation and ambient temperature from month-to-month and year-to-year influence the
performance parameters.
The electricity produced by the Utility-Scale PV plant can be determined according to the method defined
by the EN 61724 standard which defines the PV overall system performance with respect to the energy
production, solar resource, and overall effect of system losses. These parameters are the final PV system
yield Y
f
, the reference yield Y
r
, and the performance ratio PF.
The performance ratio PR (dimensionless) is the Y
f
divided by the Y
r
.
Y
f
represents the number of hours that the PV arrays would need to operate at its rated power to provide the
same energy and it is expressed in hours or kWh/kW while Y
r
represents an equivalent number of hours at
the reference irradiance.
Y
r
defines the solar radiation resource for the PV system and it is a function of the location, orientation of the
PV array, and month-to-month and year-to-year weather variability.
The expected performance of a 50 MW
p
Utility scale PV plant, localized in Southern Italy, is shown in the
following table; the tracker PV system produces approximately 20% more energy than a fixed PV filed, on
yearly basis with the same nominal installed power.

Tab.1
Utility Scale PV plant
Performance table
Fixed PV system Tracker PV system
Thin film PV
72.5 Wp
Poly-crystalline
220 Wp
Thin film PV
72.5 Wp
Incident Global Irradiation ~1900 kWh/m
2
year ~2150 kWh/m
2
year
Solar field total surface ~ 500000 m
2
~ 370000 m
2
~ 500000 m
2
Total Plant area ~ 120 Ha ~ 85 Ha ~200 Ha
Installed PV Peak Power 50 MWp
Energy production
(at inverter output terminals)
~ 75 GWh/y ~ 90 GWh/y
PR (yearly average) ~ 0.79
~ 0.83
5.2.2 CSP plant
As per Utility-scale PV plant, performance of a CSP plant is affected by variations in solar radiation,
characteristics of solar collectors, and by geometrical factors such as shadows, etc.
For CSP plants it can be defined an efficiency factor so-called capacity factor of the plant. This is the ratio
of the energy produced by the plant over the course of the year to the output had the system operated at its
nameplate capacity (e.g. nominal size of the steam turbine for 8760 hours).
The capacity factor strongly depends on the solar resource available in a certain location and on the solar
field size, so on the mirrors area. Oversize the solar field allows the plant to provide more thermal energy to
the power block and consequently results in a higher capacity factor but also leads to an increase of
investment cost. On the other hand, if the solar field area is reduced, a consistent part of the potentially
available solar energy is dumped during high solar radiation days: the thermal energy to the power block is
beyond the steam turbine maximum admissible thermal input.
The expected performance of a CSP plant of this size, always localized in the same place of South Italy, is
shown in the following table.
Tab.2 - CSP Plant - Performance table Parabolic Trough
Averaged Direct Normal Irradiation 1800 kWh/m2 year
Solar field (collector surface) ~ 500000 m
2

Total Plant area ~ 165
Thermal Storage 6 h
Thermal input at power block 140 MWth
Net Power Output 50 MWe
Net Solar Electric Energy Production ~ 120 GWhe/y
Capacity factor 27
5.3 Interaction with the Grid in steady state and transient conditions
5.3.1 Solar plants and Grid exploitation constraints
The worldwide liberalization of the electrical power generation has brought the issue of market equilibrium
into the electricity power industry and therefore all the generating firms have to compete by exercising
market power trying to maximize their individual profit but the competition with solar power generation,
especially with Utility Scale PV plants, may affect the bidding strategies of the conventional generating
firms with potential impact on the nodal prices and profits.
The presence of solar power generation gives incentives to the conventional generating firms to exercise
market power in a different way than the case in which the entire generation output is based upon
conventional power plants only, resulting in a different market outcome; in the presence of solar generation,
the conventional generating firms would be forced to decrease their bidding parameters in order to cope with
the increased availability of supply. Hence, since the solar plants are operated in a competitive manner, the
market clearing price is reduced, thus the social welfare is increased. On the other hand, at the time when
there is inadequate solar irradiance for the solar plants to generate power, the conventional generating firms
may take advantage of the lack of supply and alter their bidding strategies in order to force the nodal prices
to increase, thus increasing their profits. Considering that EU has set very ambitious targets regarding the
penetration of renewable power generation, it can be anticipated that the implementation of multi-megawatt
solar plants may cause some problems regarding the market prices.
This issue may be more remarkable if the network to which the solar plants are connected present some
bottle necks causing congestion (e.g. overload of lines that, due to safety reason, obliged connected solar
plants to reduce their output). Furthermore, this effect would be more severe in Southern Europe regions (or
islands without suitable interconnection with the continental Grid) where unfavorable weather conditions
(especially for PV that is affected by temperature) and better irradiance can have a crucial impact on the
produced power.
Large-scale integration of multi-megawatt Solar Plants, especially Utility Scale PV plants, into Grid
operation would therefore lead to new operation constraints (e.g. power is produced during the day, when
the electricity demand is high, thus it is valuable peak current), for the entire HV distribution & transmission
system, that could result unacceptable in the next years in terms of system performance (grid and generating
plant). This fact would requires a rethinking of both the grid exploitation modality and of design of solar
plants, by adding for instance appropriate storage system.
a) CSP plant thermal Storage System
The optimum solution to keep a high capacity factor and a constant power production is to adopt the heat
storage technology.
With the heat storage, the energy excess from the solar field can be stored and dispatch to the power block
during solar radiation lack. Theoretically CSP plant with substantial heat storage can reach 100% capacity
factor and may provide base-load electricity as the conventional fossil fuel plants. In other words if sky is
momentarily clouded or even during first hours of night time, CSP plant may operates at its regime putting
to use the solar energy previously stored.
Depending on the storage medium, the heat storage systems can be either direct (storage medium is the
same HTF circulating in the solar field concentrator, e.g. synthetic oil) or indirect (storage medium is
different from the HTF, e.g. synthetic oil as HTF and molten salts as storage medium).
Advanced heat storage systems are under development. Nowadays the most used and commercially
available heat storage technology for parabolic trough is the two-tank indirect thermal storage.
Two-tank indirect system is based on two tanks typically filled with molten salts (60% sodium nitrates and
40% potassium nitrates): one hot tank and one cold tank. The excess of solar energy from the solar field is
directed to a heat exchanger where cold molten salts are taken from the cold storage tank, heated from
approximately 290C to 390C and then stored in the hot tank. When energy is needed, the system operates
in reverse: the heated molten salts from the hot tank are pumped to the heat exchanger to reheat the HTF.
In the following graph it may be appreciate how during high radiation hours the solar energy is delivered to
the power block and to the heat storage. After filling the hot tank of the heat storage, the excess of energy
has to be dumped. During the first hours of night, when there is obviously no solar radiation, the heat storage
supplies energy to the power block.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour of Day [h]
Direct Normal Irradiation
To steam turbine
Net electric output
Dumped energy
To heat storage
From heat storage
450
300
150
50
D
i
r
e
c
t
N
o
r
m
a
l

I
r
r
a
d
i
a
t
i
o
n

[
k
W
h
/
m
2
d
a
y
]
P
o
w
e
r

[
M
W
]

Fig.1 typical summer day CSP plants performance with thermal storage
b) PV plant battery storage System
PV plants are intermittent resources especially because performances are strictly related to irradiance
condition and ambient temperature which affect power output. Using battery storage which has the
capability to be quickly started or changed from charging to discharging in millisecond time frame, may
help to smooth spikes due to intermittent clouds over a PV system (which cause output to spike widely) and
make them more dispatchable, increasing their capacity factors.
Battery size will depend on the amount of peak shaving desired; if the load profile to be guaranteed doesnt
allow peak shaving beyond a certain limit, the constraints being the depth of discharge limitations on the
battery itself. Of course is not so easy to determine the required daily battery discharge capacity since
producible energy is not constant all over the year and not easy to predict. Less storage may be required to
shave the peak day load shape during summer then what is required for winter peak day load. Although the
batteries have to be available to operate, they do not necessarily have to be operated on a daily
charge/discharge cycle to enhance power output capacity. Thus, relatively inexpensive light-duty batteries
would be adequate to enhance their capacity factors especially during the summer (cycling less than 50
times per year vs. heavy-duty and more costly batteries cycling daily up to 250 times per year).
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
P
o
w
e
r

[
M
W
]
G
l
o
b
a
l

i
n
c
i
d
e
n
t

i
r
r
a
d
i
a
n
c
e

i
n

P
V

m
o
d
u
l
e

t
i
l
t
e
d

p
l
a
n
e

[
k
W
h
/
m

.
d
a
y
]
Hour of Day [h]
Global incident irradiance,
clear sky model
Global incident irradiance
in PV module tilted plane
Net Power at grid
connection Point
to battery storage
from battery storage
6
6.5
7
7.5
8
8.5
9
P
o
w
e
r

[
M
W
]
Time of Day [hh:mm]

Fig.2 typical summer day Utility-Scale PV plants performance with battery storage system
5.3.2 Solar plants and Grid Code rules
Multi-megawatt solar plants have to be connected either to HV or EHV networks. The grid connection point
and the voltage level to which the plant has or can be connected it depends by local network conditions and
also by different rules adopted by different countries; in some cases this can only be determined by a
calculation of the network operator.
In the last couple of years, some new Directives and new Grid-Codes have been released by national
Authorities and by Transmission System Operators; such guidelines are not harmonized and therefore
inhomogeneous requirements are still required at national level (most probably due to the local Grid
situation). Facing the growth of multi-megawatt solar plants (most of them are Utility scale PV plants rather
than CSP) connected to the HV distribution systems, the year 2009 brings fundamental changes for new PV
systems in a number of European countries. While in the past, renewable generating units connected to the
network were commonly not required to take over an active role and had to disconnect at the first sign of
trouble, the new guidelines now require also the renewable generating units to actively support the grid
during normal as well as disturbed conditions. This step is being regarded more and more as absolutely
necessary to guarantee reliability and quality of supply in the mid- to long-term. This new approach has
already been adopted in Germany and France and is being to be adopted also by other countries.
Although the new Directives and new Grid Codes introduced specific requirements for wind and solar
generating plants, CSP plants are not specifically mentioned. It is unclear whether they should be treated as
renewable generating units or should be considered, especially the Parabolic Through technology, in all
respects as conventional generating units (due to behavior of power block which is used to generate
electrical power from the solar field) and therefore have to comply with the relevant specific requirements.
Mandatory requirements specified by German Transmission Code [6] (German Operator is the first one,
within the whole European Countries, that has approached the topic of the renewable generating units and
their impact on the Grid) for renewable generating units are analyzed in the following chapters
a) Active power control (dispatching) and Remote set point control.
To avoid possible network congestion in case of line loss due to electrical fault any renewable generating
unit, such as Utility-Scale PV plant or and CSP plant, shall be able to reduce its power. Therefore the TSO is
in the position to require curtailment of the power output of solar power plants to face with the specific
critical system conditions. Different requirements may be applied for the CSP plants rather than the Utility
Scale PV plants because the CSP looks like a conventional generating plant using rotating synchronous
generating unit, while PV is using static inverter.
Power output of PV generating plants has to be reduced in steps of 10% per minute, under any operating
condition and from any working point to a maximum power value (target value) which could correspond
also to 100% power reduction, without disconnection of the plant from the network.
Such requirement might be applied also to CSP plants if they are considered in all respect as renewable
generating units, otherwise they have to fulfill requirements set for the conventional generating units, which
are required to reduce or to increase - their output with different ramp-rate (e.g. 1%/min. as required by
German Transmission [1]) between the minimum stable generation power and the continuous output.
CSP plants may fulfill the requirement set for the PV generating units provided that the set-point given by
TSO is compatible with the minimum operating load of the boiler and steam turbine. Being the
characteristics of the CSP plant similar to the traditional thermal power plant, the load reduction can reach
values around 40% of the nominal capacity, with limiting factor the stable operation of the heat exchangers.
The advantage of CSP is that, in case of temporary reduction (limited to few hours), the solar energy
captured by solar field is not loosen because could be stored in the thermal storage system (of course it
depends on specific storage capacity, by the actual operating condition, by sun condition, etc).
Also for the Utility Scale PV plants such requirement do not constitute an issue provided that an automatic
power sharing management system is installed and it is capable to modulate the production of the entire
plant, by acting on each inverter, through a communication based solution, by sending new power output set
points or by sending shut down command to disconnect several inverters, or again, by combining the two
controls. Of course if battery storage system is not installed, the amount of reduced power is definitely lost.
So from technical point of view there are no barriers that may prevent CSP and utility Scale PV plants to be
compliant with such specific Grid-Code requirements, while a cost increase it may be envisaged for the PV
plants (rather than CSP plants) to implement the power sharing management system.
b) Automatic reduction of active power generation according to active power droop characteristic in
situations of over-frequency
To avoid risk of unsafe system operation when the frequency rise over a certain value, any renewable
generating unit, such as Utility-Scale PV plant or and CSP plant, shall have the capability to reduce its
power generation when the grid frequency exceeds pre-set value. Reference value for the active power
reduction P would be relative bigger percentage of the currently available power generation value at the
point in time when the grid frequency is equal to 50.2Hz. This active power reference value must be reduced
according to a coefficient of some output percentage per Hz when the grid frequency deviates from the pre-
set value. The German Transmission Code requires, for all the renewable-based generating units, to reduce
the active power with a gradient of 40% of the plants instantaneously available capacity per Hz as shows in
the below fig.3. Requirements, in terms of power output adjustment and time duration, may be different
country by country and mainly depends by local network conditions.

Fig.3 Active power reduction of renewable-based generating units in the case of overfrequency
Furthermore the generating units have to remain connected to the grid (without tripping) if either the grid
frequency increases to values equal to 51.5Hz or decreases to values equal to 47.5Hz; above 51.5Hz and
below 47.5Hz the plants can be disconnected.
These requirements can fairly easily be fulfilled by the Utility scale PV system. A new control scheme has to
be included in each inverter to control the operation point of the PV string and thus the power output. The
inverter will automatically reduce the power output and stays constant until frequency is decreased below
the pre-set value and after will increase automatically the power output switching to MPP (maximum power
point) tracking control.
CSP plants can easily fulfill such requirements and additionally could provide, since could be considered in
all respect as conventional generating units, the primary frequency control, provided that the whole plant
control (steam turbine, steam exchangers and thermal storage) is capable to operate in droop mode and with
the required ramp rate. This coordinated regulation requires the contemporaneous reaction of steam turbine
control system (that acts on the inlet steam control valves) and of steam exchangers control system (that acts
on feed-water flow and hot fluid flow) to meet the fast response and wide variations required by the
frequency control. CSP plant may also provide ancillary services, such as secondary frequency control and
minute reserve, by means of appropriate thermal storage system.
c) Minimum power factor at connection point, reactive power control and set point control for voltage
stability, also remotely by network operator
Slow changes in network voltage have to be kept within acceptable limits. In case of operation requirements
and on demand of the system operator, any renewable generating unit, such as Utility-Scale PV plant or and
CSP plant, has to support network voltage by injecting on the Grid appropriate amount of reactive power, in
accordance with Network operator request.
Utility-scale PV plants nowadays installed are designed to produce active power only. Reactive power is
avoided due to losses in the inverter, lines and transformers. To meet the requirements of the grid codes, the
inverters of the Utility-Scale PV plant have to be designed bigger or a centralized static VAR compensation
system have to be installed. Reactive power has only to be provided during feed-in operation, so there is no
need to provide reactive power during the night. Overall, an increase of PV installation system costs can be
expected.
CSP plants can fulfill the minimum power factor and/or the reactive power control because their generating
units are constituted by synchronous generators equipped with excitation system capable to provide reactive
power as required. Therefore the amount of reactive power that can be delivered to the Grid mainly depends
by size of generator and relevant excitation system as for the conventional generating units.
In addition, CSP plants may be requested, since could be considered in all respect as conventional
generating units, to provide different amount of reactive power during different voltage situations. Apart
from the requirements to provide reactive power supply in the nominal design point of the generating unit
(P=Pn), there would be also requirements concerning operation at an active power output below the nominal
active power (P<Pn). In this case, CSP plant may be requested to operate its generator in every possible
working point in accordance with the generator output diagram. The relevant request can arise according to
the situation on the network and imply that the provision of reactive power takes precedence over the supply
of active power.
d) Behaviour in the event of network disturbances
Any renewable generating unit is required by the German Code to support the Grid also during the
transients.
The Code distinguishes the renewable generating units in two different categories: the ones based on
synchronous generators and all the other generating units. Both the categories are required to contribute,
according to their capability, with different kind of dynamic support. Since the CSP could be considered in
all respect as conventional generating units, they should meet requirement set for the conventional
generating units, while all the other renewable generating units, such as PV system, have to meet specific
requirements as described below.
In the event of network, with consequent voltage drop, any PV plant has to remain connected to the grid and
to inject a certain amount of short-circuit current (agreed case-by case with the network Operator) into the
network; furthermore it shall feed-in the same active power (and to absorb the same or less reactive power)
as soon as the fault is cleared.
The Code specifies the voltage drop that shall be ride through by any PV generating plant (Voltage through
capability) as shown in the following fig.4. Above borderline 1 the generating units must be remained
connected ; above borderline 2 and below borderline 1 generating units have to remain connected even if
not capable to support voltage network. Below the borderline 2, the generating units are allowed to be
disconnected.

Fig.4 Limiting curves of voltage at the Grid connection point in the event of network fault

As shown in the next fig. 5, different fault-ride through capability requirements are specified by different
Grid Codes within European countries [7]. The fault-ride through capability curves are quite similar, but
the dynamic requirements are different, mainly with respect to voltage support during the voltage drop.
.
Fig.5 Comparison of fault-ride through capability required by different Grid Code in the event of network fault

German Transmission Code requires that PV generating plants have to support the network voltage by
injecting additional reactive current during the voltage drop. An appropriate voltage control strategy, as
shown in the below fig.6, has to be ensured by the PV generating units control system and shall be activated
in the event of a voltage drop of more than 10% of the effective value of the generator voltage. This voltage
control must ensure the supply of a reactive current at the low voltage side of the generator transformer (i.e.
at inverter output terminals) with a contribution of at least 2% of the rated current per percent of the voltage
drop. PV generating units must be capable of feeding the required reactive current within 20 ms into the
network. If required, it must be possible to supply reactive current of at least 100% of the rated current.

Fig.6 principle of voltage support in the event of network faults

These requirements do not influence the dimensioning of the PV inverter, but have an impact on control
algorithm.
With respect to CSP generating plants, they can be considered as conventional generating units, especially
those based on Parabolic Trough technology; therefore the voltage support during voltage drop can be easily
achieved by properly designing the generator and the excitation system.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The summarizing conclusion is that, referring to a typical case of 50MW solar plant to be build in Southern
Italy, the Utility-Scale PV plants can be considered as preferable due to the lower foot print (e.g. the required
area by Utility-Scale PV plant of ground fixed type, based on Crystalline-silicon PV modules, is about 50-
55% lower than the area required by a CSP plant with the same nominal power). Furthermore, siting a
Utility scale PV plant is usually easier than siting a CSP plant because doesnt need flat land but can also be
installed in sloped territory. Unlike CSP plant, modular Utility scale PV plant, usually constituted by several
power blocks of 1MW, can be easily expanded as the demand increases.
Finally PV plants can be built in shorter time than CSP Plants: provided that materials (mainly PV panels)
are available and all permits already gathered, the time required to build a 50 MWp Utility-Scale PV Plant is
about 1416 months while to built a 50MWe CSP it would be required 2436 months. PV arrays are fairly
easy and quick to install while CSP really look like as conventional power plant, mainly for the part relevant
to the steam process part.
On the other side, in terms of Grid impact, Utility-Scale PV plants are not naturally suitable to supply
predictable energy and to provide network ancillary services unless special control features or additional
equipment (such as inverters frequency and voltage response capability, battery storage system, etc.) are
designed and installed, with consequent increase in capital cost.
On the contrary CSP generation is highly predictable and since any CSP plant is intrinsically coupled with
thermal storage this enables the CSP plant to easily meet, the load demand curve at any time, day and first
hours of nighttime, and can cover peak hours demand if they are scheduled. Furthermore CSP plants can
easily participate to primary and secondary grid frequency control so that they are able to support Grid
exploitation both during steady state and transient condition.
New grid-codes recently issued in some European countries have to be considered as an important step to
allow a reliable interaction between renewable generating plants and the electrical network, even if these
Grid Codes are not yet harmonized at European level. Different approaches are present with respect to
minimum mandatory requirement and ancillary service, depending on technical needs of the specific
power system, legal and organizational structure of different Transmission System Operator (TSO), which
historically established grid management procedures.
This fact is to day a barrier for the deployment of Utility Scale PV plants, that need, differently from CSP
plants, special and costly design to comply with different grid needs.
As a conclusion of this paper it should be recommended and that all he technical needs are deeply
investigated inside CENELEC technical committees in order to achieve clearly defined and possibly
harmonized rules, at least within the whole European market, capable to bring in line the different interests
of manufacturers, power producers and network operators, minimizing capital costs.
7 REFERENCES
[1] EPIA, Annual Report 2009.
[2] EPIA, Global Market outlook for Photovoltaic until 2013.
[3] Global Concentrated Solar Power Markets and Strategies, 20092020; Emerging Energy Research; April
2009.
[4] Global Concentrated Solar Power: Markets and Strategies, 20092020; Politecnico di Milano; Ed. 2009.
[5] Concentrating Solar Power, Global Outlook 09; ESTELA, IEA SolarPACES, Greenpeace International; Ed
2009.
[6] Transmission Code 2007 Verband Der Netzbereiber VDN e.v. beim VDEW - Network and System Rules of
the German Transmission System OperatorsAugust 2007
[7] Utility Scale PV system: Grid Connection requirements, test procedures and European harmonisation T.
Degner, G.Arnold, M.Braun, D.Geibel & W.Heckmann, Institut fr Solare Energieversorgungstechnick,
Kassel, Germany; R.Brndlinger, arsenal research, Electric Energy System, Vienna, Austria