One year of power output was simulated at one-minute intervals for each of fourteen hypothetical utility-scale photovoltaic power plants and for the aggregate power output from a large number of distribution-connected photovoltaic systems. For utility-scale plants, the simulation first constructs one-year time series of global horizontal irradiance at one-minute intervals at each plant location, and a performance model translates irradiance and weather information to AC output power. Distribution-connected photovoltaic systems comprise a variety of system configurations: residential-scale rooftop systems at various tilts; commercial-scale flat-roof mounted systems; and commercial-scale ground-mounted tracked systems. For distribution-connected PV systems, the simulation estimates the time series of spatially-averaged irradiance for the region containing the systems, and the performance model is employed to estimate power aggregate power from all systems. The simulation results are validated by comparing statistics for the time series of irradiance with statistics for measured irradiance within the region.
This report describes in-depth analysis of photovoltaic (PV) output variability in a high-penetration residential PV installation in the Pal Town neighborhood of Ota City, Japan. Pal Town is a unique test bed of high-penetration PV deployment. A total of 553 homes (approximately 80% of the neighborhood) have grid-connected PV totaling over 2 MW, and all are on a common distribution line. Power output at each house and irradiance at several locations were measured once per second in 2006 and 2007. Analysis of the Ota City data allowed for detailed characterization of distributed PV output variability and a better understanding of how variability scales spatially and temporally. For a highly variable test day, extreme power ramp rates (defined as the 99th percentile) were found to initially decrease with an increase in the number of houses at all timescales, but the reduction became negligible after a certain number of houses. Wavelet analysis resolved the variability reduction due to geographic diversity at various timescales, and the effect of geographic smoothing was found to be much more significant at shorter timescales.