Net energy metering tariffs have encouraged the growth of solar PV in the distribution grid. The additional variability associated with weather-dependent renewable energy creates new challenges for power system operators that must maintain and operate ancillary services to balance the grid. To deal with these issues power operators mostly rely on demand load forecasts. Electric load forecast ha...

In this study a model-based control designed for the operation of a solar power plant is discussed. The simplified physically based model of the plant was developed on the basis of the energy balances including the solar insulation as an input, the heat transferred by the flow of the oil as a working media and the overall heat loss from the plant. The outlet temperature of the collector field i...

This work presents a hybrid scheme combining the potentialities of neural networks for approximation purposes with the well-know theory and widespread industrial application of PID techniques. The neural network is trained based on measured data from the plant providing a way of scheduling between a set of PID controllers, a priori tuned in different operating points by means of Takahashi rules...

As interest for clean renewable electric power technologies grows, a number of parabolic trough power plants of various configurations are being considered for deployment around the globe. It is essential that plant designs be optimized for each specific application. The optimum design must consider the capital cost, operations and maintenance cost, annual generation, financial requirements, an...