Towards grid code compliance of hybrid power plants with power management systems

Hybrid power plants (HyPPs) integrating renewable generation and storage are able to cope with many of the challenges related to the renewable energies-based future electricity generation. To fully leverage their advantages over conventional mono-technology power plants, a correct coordination and optimal scheduling of the setpoints for each subplant becomes essential. In this paper, a novel power management system (PMS) is presented to coordinate the operation of a HyPP consisting of a wind power plant, solar PV power plant and a battery energy storage system (BESS). The design of this PMS is oriented towards the compliance of the Spanish Grid Code, which imposes several technical requirements to allow the connection of the HyPP to the grid. To validate and test the PMS, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) approach is used, using an industrial PLC and communicating with an OPAL-RT digital simulator running a model of the HyPP in real-time.