Creating Battery Storage Events

General
1

Hello again! I wanted to reach out and ask about battery storage events, because I followed the documentation on how to set one up, but no information is provided on setting up events for them. Specifically, I wanted to set the battery up with an event that will specifically draw power from 2 transmission lines that are currently experience higher loading than the active power they can transmit.

My goal is to try and reduce this line congestion through battery storage at a node where the 2 lines meet. Is this possible, and if not, how would I be able to reduce the line congestion through battery storage?

Thank you!

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Hello @jramirezmalerv !

Thank you for your question and for using SAInt.

I would like to answer your questions, but in reverse order, and from an academic angle and then the angle of SAInt.

My goal is to try and reduce this line congestion through battery storage at a node where the 2 lines meet. Is this possible, and if not, how would I be able to reduce the line congestion through battery storage?

Yes, adding storage systems generally is a method for decreasing congestion on the lines, and they could be used in different mechanisms, but mostly fall under two:

  • Load Side Storage: In this mechanism, the battery is placed near the demand center, after the congested line. The goal is that during off-peak hours when line capacity is more than needed, the battery charges. During peak hours, when demand increases and the line would normally overload, the battery discharges locally. This reduces the amount of power that needs to be imported over the constrained line.
  • Generation-Side Storage: The battery is placed near a generation source (mostly wind or solar generators) before the congested line. If the generators are producing more power than the line can handle, the excess power is stored in the battery instead of being curtailed. Once the demand drops or line capacity frees up, the battery discharges the stored energy into the grid.

However, if placing a storage system on a specific node would certainly help the congestion of the line over a given time period, is the Production Cost Model (PCM) job to decide, and here where SAInt comes into the picture.

The following documentations and guides are helpful to add and integrate an energy storage system:

I wanted to set the battery up with an event that will specifically draw power from 2 transmission lines that are currently experience higher loading than the active power they can transmit.

This is a good method to decrease line congestions. With that being said, the only way to determine if placing a storage system would achieve the desired results is by running the PCM model with and without the storage.

There is not a specific rule/event you could hardcode that would guarantee the placed storage to behave in a certain manner. However, you can create events, change certain characteristics for your installed storage that will make the PCM model more likely to follow a specific behavior.

For example:

  • Increasing the solar/wind generation as outlined in the documentation attached above.
  • Forcing tighter/more relaxed limits on min/max State of Charge (SOC), etc.

Using SAInt for running multiple scenarios would be an effective way to explore for yourself which placement/settings achieve the best overall results!

Best of luck!

Please feel free to ask more at any time! Thanks

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3

Hi Muhy,

Thank you so muhc for your response, as I found it extremely helpful! May I also ask how I can do the same thing, but for adding a PV solar plant object? My goal with this is I wish to increase the amount of renewable energy penetration and focus on how that primarily affects transmission line congestion, fuel prices, and renewable curtailment.

An addition to this, I want to try and export the current data from the original ENET39 scenario so that I may begin modifying the system for my scenarios. How do I go about extracting that data, such as tables or values for a scenario (such as extracting the values from the FGEN table for the MIN_NET_DEMAND_WEEK scenario). I want to begin analyzing the differences in these values as I start changing my system, and I would like to extract the data for each scenario.

Right now, I plan on running the changes using the MIN_NET_DEMAND_WEEK scenario to ensure changes are occurring between base-case and modified scenarios. After that, I will run the yearly simulation and compile those results for my final report.

Thank you for your constant assistance!

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Hello @jramirezmalerv

We are happy to hear back from you!

You don’t have to do this. When you download the ENET39 network file from the Model Ready Datasets page, the downloaded folder will contain inside a directory named “Import Files“ all of the profiles, events, and network attributes that you need.

If you want from the GUI as well, once you load the network and the scenario, you can use the following tutorial as well to extract the network and the scenario: Exporting Network & Scenario Data :: SAInt | Docs

You can add a PV and connect it to its weather profile using the following documentations:

Worth mentioning that SAInt connects you to NSRDB, which is a very widely used database for solar radiation.

One thing to note from my side, is that you mentioned you want to explore its effect on fuel prices. Fuel prices changes has to be forced as either inputs or events, and they are not simulation or output results from SAInt. However, you will be able to extract and monitor the shadow prices (locational marginal prices) of each node in the system as a results of the simulation.

I agree with this method, test if your changes make any effects on scenarios that run quickly, and then when you are more confident with your changes, let the whole year run :smiley: good idea.

Best of luck and we hope to hear from you again!

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5

Hi Muhy,

Thank you once again for providing an amazing explanation over adding PV objects, as well as providing me feedback with my ongoing research process. A question I did want to ask is I have had recent trouble with getting more info than just a weekly view of the generation and curtailment of a solar plant. My view of the plot ends on 1/8 at 12:00am, and I can’t see past that to observe values further down the year.

Is there a specific event I need to setup for the PV plant, so that I can have a full-year view of the generation and curtailment for that plant?

Thank you for your constant assistance, and I look forward to your response!

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Hello @jramirezmalerv

Glad you were able to add the PVs and run the simulation.

I will try to cover more than one angle that could be causing the above.

  • The length of the results will be similar to the length of the scenario, in which the length of your time series data (demand, PV, wind etc) profiles should be compatible with.
    The logging window will indicate the length of the solved scenario in hours.
    So if you created/added new profiles, make sure they are as long as the existing scenario you are editing.
  • With that being said, your issue could be much simpler than this and the plot is only showing you one week. To setup the visualization window, and other visualization tutorials are available on this link: Visualize data :: SAInt | Docs .
  • Also, from your command window, you could view in tabular format the time-series data that you need when you write the required expression. A simple guide on the expressions is found on this link: Functions, Expressions and Conditions :: SAInt | Docs

If you face any issue with writing the expression to get the results that you need, please do not hesitate to ask and we can provide the expressions to view your data.

Thank you and good luck!

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