Integrated

Wind, Solar,
and Energy
Storage
By Sundar Venkataraman,
Chris Ziesler, Peter Johnson,
and Stephanie Van Kempen

C
Colocating wind and solar generation
with battery energy storage is a concept garnering much
attention lately. An integrated wind, solar, and energy stor-
age (IWSES) plant has a far better generation profile than
standalone wind or solar plants. It results in better use of the
transmission evacuation system, which, in turn, provides a
lower overall plant cost compared to standalone wind and
solar plants of the same generating capacity. IWSES plants
are particularly suitable for regions that have set high targets
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2018.2793478
Date of publication: 18 April 2018
for wind and solar generation but have limited land available
for project development.
The Concept of an IWSES Plant
Separate wind and solar plants connected to the same point
of interconnection do not constitute an integrated wind and
solar plant. In an IWSES plant, wind turbines, photovoltaic
(PV) solar arrays, and a battery energy storage system (BESS)
are integrated into a single plant using state-of-the-art con-
trols. It is ­noteworthy that the integration of wind and PV
solar plants, as well a BESS, can be performed at the wind
turbine/PV array level or the farm level. In farm-level integration,

74 ieee power & energy magazine 1540-7977/18©2018IEEE may/june 2018


balance-of-plant (BOP) equipment such as transformers and
switchgears, as well as the upstream transmission evacua-
tion system, is shared by the wind turbines, solar arrays, and
BESS. In turbine-level integration, each converter may be
potentially shared by a wind turbine, solar array, and BESS.
Benefits of an IWSES Plant
An IWSES plant may offer several benefits over standalone
wind or solar plants of the same capacity, some of which
can be readily monetized while others cannot. If we are to
understand such plants’ economic value, then these benefits
must be quantified. Here, we first present the benefits
may/june 2018 ieee power & energy magazine 75
Designing Plants
with a Better
Generation
Profile and Lower
Overall Cost
©iStockphoto.com/Bigmouse108
of integrating wind and solar generation; we then discuss
the benefits accrued from the addition of energy storage.
Benefits from Integrating Wind and Solar
Generation
The key benefits of an integrated wind-solar plant relative to
standalone wind and solar plants with the same cumulative
capacity are as follows:
✔✔ Decrease in project development costs: For wind and
solar projects, project development studies are re-
quired to determine project feasibility, socioeconomic
impact, and impacts on the market, the environment,
 and the grid itself. Wind and solar projects also ne-
cessitate the fulfillment of legal and regulatory re-
quirements, such as securing permits and licenses,
­land-lease agreements, environmental impact assess-
ments, construction permits, grid interconnection
agreements, and power purchase agreements. A re-
duction in project development costs can be achieved
through efficiencies in project studies and filings with
the statutory bodies because they are the same for
both types of generation.
✔✔ Better use of available land: Colocating wind and so-
lar power plants conserves space and increases the en-
ergy density (i.e., the amount of energy produced per
acre of land). In many wind plants, the land between
the turbines is often left unused. To make better use
of space, wind and solar plants can be colocated, pro-
vided that conditions for both wind and solar power
generation are favorable at the same location. Alter-
natively, if wind and solar plants can be sited adjacent
to one another, they can share the same transmission
evacuation infrastructure.
✔✔ Complementary generation profile: A further benefit
of integrating wind and solar generation stems from
the complementary nature of both the diurnal and sea-
sonal patterns of their generation.
• Diurnal: Figure 1 shows the average hourly genera-
tion during selected months for a wind-solar plant
made up of roughly 500-MW each of wind and so-
lar generation capacity. As the figure makes clear,
in general, wind generation dips during the day and
600
Wind
Solar
400 Hybrid
MW
MW
200
0 0
0 5 10 15 20
(a)
800
600
MW
MW
400
200
0 0
0 5 10 15 20
(c)
figure 1. The average hourly generation of a wind-solar plant made up of 500-MW each of wind and solar capacity.
(a) January, (b) April, (c) July, and (d) October.
76 ieee power & energy magazine may/june 2018
increases late in the evening. On the other hand, so-
lar generation follows the sun and is highest during
the middle of the day. Combining wind with solar
reduces the difference between the generation levels
during daytime and nighttime periods.
• Seasonal: Figure 1 also shows how wind generation at
this site is highest during the monsoon months (June–
September); this is also the period during which solar
generation is at its lowest due to more incidences of
cloudy days.
✔✔ Potential savings in transmission evacuation costs:
An integrated wind-solar plant also has the potential
for savings in evacuation and transmission upgrade
costs. Typically, in a wind or solar plant, the collec-
tor system is designed to carry the maximum output
of the plant. For example, standalone 100-MW wind
or solar plants would each have 100 MW of evacua-
tion capability. However, an integrated plant can make
do with an evacuation capability lower than 200 MW
because wind and solar generation will not peak at
the same time. Figure 2 shows a range of cumulative
hourly generation during selected months for a 1,000-MW
wind-solar plant. Here, the blue line indicates the av-
erage cumulative hourly generation. In addition, the
red and green lines in Figure 2 indicate the bounds
within which the cumulative generation for each hour
would occur 95% of the time. It is, thus, possible to
design the evacuation system with a rating lower than
the sum of the maximum capacities of the wind and
solar plants. In the rare event that the cumulative
600
400
200
0 5 10 15 20
(b)
500
400
300
200
100
0 5 10 15 20
(d)
 generation exceeds the rating of the evacuation sys-
tem, the output of the wind or solar plant could be
curtailed to keep the power flow from exceeding the
transmission limit. ­Similarly, integrating wind and
solar plants can reduce the need for upgrades to the
transmission ­system.
✔✔ Sharing of operations and maintenance (O&M) ex-
penses: Another key benefit of an IWSES plant is
the reduction in O&M expenses. Fewer maintenance
personnel are required to maintain an integrated
wind-solar plant compared with those needed to
maintain separately located wind and solar plants.
The skill sets needed to maintain wind and solar
plants are similar—in particular, the skills required
to maintain power conversion equipment and the
switchyard. On the operations side, savings could
be achieved by sharing the control room, commu-
nication infrastructure, and personnel necessary for
plant operation.
Benefits from Integrating a BESS
A BESS connected to the bulk power system can provide
several generation- and transmission-level services such as
energy arbitrage, reserves regulation, transmission congestion
management, and transmission asset deferral. With aggrega-
tion and suitable regulatory changes, a customer-sited BESS
can perform additional customer-level services as well as
upstream services such as distribution-level and bulk power
system services. However, a BESS integrated with a wind-
800
Avg Hybrid
600 +1.5 Sigma
–1.5 Sigma
MW
400
200
0 0
0 5 10 15 20
(a)
800
600
MW
400
200
0 5 10 15 20
(c)
figure 2. The range of hourly generation for a wind-solar plant made up of 500-MW each of wind and solar capacity.
(a) January, (b) April, (c) July, and (d) October.
may/june 2018 ieee power & energy magazine 77
solar plant can also provide many plant-level services man-
dated by grid codes or regulations or incentivized through
markets. The stacking of plant-level and system-level services
can help derive more value from energy storage. A BESS inte-
grated with a wind-solar plant can provide many of the same
system-level services as those provided by a standalone BESS,
such as the following:
✔✔ Energy shifting: Energy storage is frequently used for
energy arbitrage or load shifting. In the United States,
pumped storage hydro plants were installed mainly to
integrate nuclear base-load power plants, charging at
night when energy prices are low and generating dur-
ing the day when prices are high. Battery energy stor-
age has been used to provide energy during peak load
hours in several niche scenarios. It will be possible to
use battery energy storage to a greater extent as costs
decline in the future.
✔✔ Ancillary services: Frequency regulation (i.e., the rapid
adjustment in generation or load to balance the system
in the seconds-to-minutes time frame) is one of the few
applications that can provide full cost recovery for a
commercial battery storage project. However, ancillary
services such as regulation are not explicitly procured
and compensated for in all systems. BESSs have recently
found a niche in balancing ancillary services such as fast-
frequency response. A BESS can also be used to provide
black-start capability to the system and support voltage
on the bulk power system in addition to balancing ancil-
lary services, as discussed previously.
600
400
MW
200
0 5 10 15 20
(b)
800
600
MW
400
200
0
0 5 10 15 20
(d)
 IWSES plants are particularly suitable for regions that have set high
targets for wind and solar generation but have limited land available
for project development.
✔✔ Transmission and distribution congestion manage-
ment and upgrade deferral: Depending on its location,
a BESS can alleviate transmission congestion by serv-
ing the demand in the transmission-constrained area.
The BESS can be used to defer the need for transmis-
sion or distribution system upgrades by time-shifting
energy from low- to peak-demand periods.
A BESS integrated with a wind-solar plant can provide
additional plant-level services. These plant-level services may
help the plant comply with grid codes or operational require-
ments. While these services can be provided by a BESS that
is not integrated with the plant, more control and coordina-
tion would likely be required to achieve the same results.
✔✔ Compliance with technical standards: The grid codes in
various countries require wind and solar plants to limit
their ramp rates and, in some cases, also provide pri-
mary frequency response. It may be economical for an
integrated BESS to provide these services rather than
curtail the generation of the wind and solar plants for
this purpose.
✔✔ Compliance with operational requirements: In addition
to facilitating wind and solar plants’ compliance with
technical standards, a BESS can also make it easier for
a plant to meet operational requirements, for instance,
in the firming (reducing forecast deviations) of wind
and solar generation. In some countries, wind plants are
penalized if generation deviates from the forecast by
more than a certain percentage. As it r­educes ­forecast
errors, a BESS can be used to lower the penalties im-
posed on wind plants.
Designing an IWSES Power Plant
Recently, a techno-economic feasibility study for IWSES
plants was completed for two sites in India (Ananthpur,
Andhra Pradesh; and Kutch, Gujarat). This study was per-
formed for the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services
Energy Development Company Limited, a developer and
financier of renewable projects in India under a techni-
cal assistance grant from the U.S. Trade and Development
Agency. The deliverables of this study were as follows:
✔✔ developing the technical design of the IWSES plant,
including the transmission evacuation plan
✔✔ developing use cases for integrated energy storage ap-
propriate for the Indian system
✔✔ sizing energy storage to provide multiple plant and
system-level services
78 ieee power & energy magazine may/june 2018
✔✔ performing cost-benefit analyses of IWSES plants un-
der existing and proposed regulations
✔✔ preparing high-level environmental and social impact
analysis guidelines
✔✔ outlining the financing plan for the projects using vi-
ability gap funding and other incentives to support
infrastructure projects that are economically justified
but fall short of financial viability
✔ ✔ recommending regulatory and policy changes re-
quired to integrate energy storage in India
✔✔ conducting a reverse trade mission for Indian regula-
tors and policy makers to learn about the energy stor-
age business in the United States.
The steps related to the technical design of the IWSES
are summarized in the following sections, and examples
from the two project sites are also provided.
Resource Assessment and Siting
of Wind Turbines
To accurately assess the wind resource at a project site, it is
important to obtain on-site measurements of wind speed and
other relevant meteorological parameters. The ideal num-
ber of measurement locations is site specific. For the two
project sites, the monitoring mast data were quality checked,
adjusted to the long-term characteristics, and sheared up to
the turbine hub height. The wind frequency distribution
across the site was determined by combining these data with
a wind resource grid file. This information was used for tur-
bine siting and energy production estimation.
A geog raph ica l i n for mat ion system (GIS) -based
approach was used to identify the buildable area suitable for
siting turbines within the project, based on land use and
other constraints. Offsets were applied to various catego-
ries of land use to define exclusion areas. Depending on
the features within and surrounding the project, the off-
set categories included property boundaries, residences,
roads, transmission lines, wetlands, streams, protected
lands, high slopes, or features that might affect the place-
ment of turbines.
The wind turbines were then optimally placed within
the buildable area to maximize energy and minimize wake
losses after taking the necessary interturbine spacing into
account. The optimization was accomplished using the com-
mercial wind farm design tool Openwind. Upon completion
of the optimization, some turbines were resited to improve
project construction and interconnection.
 To make better use of space, wind and solar plants can be
colocated, provided that conditions for both wind and solar power
generation are favorable at the same location.
In the case of an IWSES, there were some additional con-
siderations made regarding turbine placement to optimize the
placement of the solar array. This is discussed in the section
“Design Considerations for an Integrated Wind-Solar Plant.”
Resource Assessment and Siting of Solar Arrays
Good quality measurement of irradiance data is required
to perform a solar resource assessment. If usable measure-
ments are not available, it is common industry practice to use
high-quality satellite-modeled data sets. For the two project
sites, satellite-modeled data were used to achieve the lowest
resource uncertainty. The long-term period of record from
the SolarGIS database was used to estimate the long-term
resource and create a typical meteorological year (TMY). The
TMY represents long-term resource, temperature, and wind
speed at the site on an hourly basis during a typical year.
Based on available land area, setbacks, site conditions,
and industry-standard practices, optimal configurations were
developed for two PV solar technologies: crystalline and thin
film. A number of parameters were considered in the design,
such as tilt angle, azimuth, collector length, pitch, and dc–ac
ratio. The main objective of the optimization was to maxi-
mize the capacity factor and minimize shading losses, while
still achieving a cost-effective design that would meet the
capacity targets set for the sites.
The first step in the system design was to optimize the tilt
angle to the site latitude. The collector length was sized based
on module dimensions and industry-standard mounting ap-
proaches. The array azimuth was set to true south to optimize
energy production. A pitch/shading analysis was conducted to
determine the optimal design of the PV configurations prior
to energy simulation. The result of this analysis was used to
produce a plot of shading loss as a function of pitch (the space
between rows). The pitch/shading analysis resulted in ground-
cover ratios dependent on the latitude.
Next, the solar arrays were laid out to optimize land use,
minimize intrusion into exclusion zones, and minimize the
potential shading loss caused by proximity to the turbines. The
solar arrays were set back from all exclusion zones and bound-
aries with a 10-m (33-ft) buffer zone. The buffer zones provide
setbacks from sensitive areas and a means of access to the solar
equipment. Roads of 10-m width were outlined through and
around the solar plants to provide access.
A dc–ac ratio of 1.3 was used for the configurations. This
dc–ac ratio represents an industry standard that is value
optimized for current equipment costs to increase energy
may/june 2018 ieee power & energy magazine 79
production and minimize energy cost. The oversized dc
array minimizes the losses upstream of the inverter, which
allows for greater energy production at low irradiance and
increases the ac capacity factor. This initial phase took the
design to the point where the mutual interaction of the wind
and solar equipment required further consideration.
Design Considerations for an Integrated
Wind-Solar Plant
When designing an integrated plant, it is important to ensure
that the interaction between the wind and solar plants is cap-
tured and taken into consideration. There are two principal
types of interactions that must be modeled: 1) the effect of
the turbines on the PV arrays and 2) the effect of the PV
arrays on the wind-flow field.
The Effect of PV Arrays on Wind Turbine Siting
At both project locations, the siting of the turbines was car-
ried out first because the wind resource was more variable
across the site than the solar resource; therefore, the optimum
configuration of wind turbines is more sensitive to their siting
than that of the solar array. The presence of the PV panels can
impact the surface roughness and affect the wind flow through
the turbine array. An array of solar panels can be similar to
other topographic or locational features (trees, buildings, etc.),
in that it alters the surface roughness and affects wind flow
through the array. Increased surface roughness changes the
profile of the atmospheric boundary layer as it flows across the
array, increasing the shear effect.
The approach for roughness modeling, turbine wakes, and
the impact on wind flow is based on a theory advanced by
Sten Frandsen (see “For Further Reading”) that defines wind
farm equivalent roughness. Frandsen stipulates that an infinite
array of wind turbines is represented as a region of uniform
high-surface roughness. The roughness imposes drag on the
atmosphere, causing both a downstream change in the struc-
ture of the boundary layer and a reduction in the free-stream
wind speed at the turbine hub height. Once the equivalent
roughness is defined, it is possible to calculate the hub-height
wind speed deep within the array, where the boundary layer
has reached equilibrium with the array roughness.
At the project sites, the effect was comparable to that of
the local vegetation. The wind-flow field model considered
the local roughness, assuming that the panels would closely
resemble the roughness of local vegetation to account for
this effect. The difference in the comparative hub height of
 further assumed that the reduction in incident irradiation on
table 1. The wind and solar capacity
the solar array was proportional to the energy loss expected
by project phase.
for turbine shading.
Total Energy modeling was then used to calculate the impact of
Wind- the turbine shading on the solar production. Partly because
Wind Solar PV Solar PV
Capacity Capacity Capacity the effect of the shadows was most pronounced at times of
(MW) (MW) (MW) relatively low solar production, it was found that the shading
Phase 1-a Ananthapur 16 25 41 effect of the turbines was lower than 1% of annual produc-
tion. Diffuse irradiation was still present even during times of
Phase 1-b Ananthapur 71 68 139
heavy shading.
Phase 2 Ananthapur 99 91 190
Kutch 18.4 21 39.4 Optimal Wind and Solar Configuration
It possible to arrive at an optimal configuration for both
Phase 3 Ananthapur 345 325 670
the turbine and solar array layouts only after 1) all site con-
Kutch 29.9 41 70.9 straints have been defined and met, 2) the time-dependent
mutual interactions of the turbines and panels have been
Total Ananthapur 531 509 1,040
built into the energy calculations, and 3) the wind and solar
Kutch 48.3 62 110.3 resources have been accurately captured and modeled. The
wind and solar capacity for each phase of the project was
based on the resource assessment. An additional levelized
cost analysis was performed to determine the inverter con-
wind turbines and PV arrays generally yields a small rough- figuration as well as the make and model of the PV panels and
ness effect on the wind turbines by the arrays. Solar panels wind turbines to be employed for each phase. Table 1 shows
may have a significant impact on local roughness if larger the wind and solar capacity by project phase.
foliage (e.g., tall trees) will likely be removed to make room
for solar arrays or if a significant area upwind of the turbines Design of the BESS
in the primary wind direction is expected to be covered with
solar arrays. However, this type of extreme scenario did not Development of Energy Storage Use Cases
apply for this project. The first step in the BESS design process was to identify the
uses of energy storage. Based on a survey of the needs of the
The Effect of Wind Turbines on PV Siting system as well as the expected revenues in the near and long
The most obvious way that solar arrays can be impacted by term, seven applications were identified to be of value. These
the location of wind turbines comes from the shadow that they were then grouped into primary and secondary applications.
cast. This shading effect depends on the time of day and the The primary applications are those for which there is an imme-
orientation of the turbines with respect to the panels. Shadow- diate need for storage or a payment mechanism exists. The
flicker analysis was adapted to assess the level of shading secondary applications are those for which a BESS will add
impact at receptor locations across the solar arrays. Using this value to the system but this value can only be realized based on
customized methodology, the shading fraction at each receptor changes to existing regulations.
was calculated for every hour. The affected equivalent array
time was computed as a function of the distance between tur- Primary Applications
bines and panels, the wind direction affecting turbine yaw, and ✔✔ Penalty charge management under the deviation set-
the sun’s local zenith and azimuth angle. tlement mechanism (DSM): The first primary applica-
The affected equivalent array time was computed to give tion of energy storage addresses financial penalty re-
a turbine-shading loss estimate. Site-specific solar resource duction in the DSM. In India, each state has a state load
data were used to estimate the solar energy loss. The turbine- dispatch center (SLDC) responsible for planning the
shading energy loss also accounts for diffuse light that is still operation of internal generation to meet the forecasted
present during shading at any time of the day, even though load. The SLDCs also coordinate the scheduling of in-
the direct component may be blocked by the turbine. This terstate generators (generators designated to meet the
means that turbine shading does not result in a total loss but load of more than one state) with the help of the region-
only a power reduction during array-affected times. Due to al load dispatch center. Any deviations from day-ahead
the electrical effect of modules in series and the large reach interstate schedules are determined on a 15-min basis,
of a single wind turbine blade shadow, the analysis assumed and penalties and incentives associated with these de-
that a shaded reflector corresponded to the presence of dif- viations are determined according to the system condi-
fuse irradiance on only that portion of the array for the tion (frequency) prevailing at that time of deviation. In
hourly fraction represented by the model. The analysis general, when the frequency is below 50.05 Hz and if

80 ieee power & energy magazine may/june 2018

 the state underproduces or overdraws, there is a penalty. Secondary Applications
Conversely, when the frequency is below 50.05 Hz and The secondary use cases of the BESS include 1) ramp man-
if the state overproduces or underdraws, there is an in- agement of the integrated wind-solar plant, 2) fast frequency
centive. Figure 3 shows how a BESS can be discharged response, 3) primary frequency response, and 4) ramp man-
during periods when the frequency is below 50.5 Hz agement for the system during morning and afternoon ramps.
and the state is withdrawing more than the scheduled
energy, as well as how it can be charged during other Sizing of the BESS
periods to reduce the DSM penalty. The generic BESS design process is depicted in Figures 4–6.
✔✔ Shifting renewable energy to peak demand hours: Figure 4 illustrates the first step in the evaluation, during which
Another primary application of energy storage is application-specific battery power command is developed. As
shifting renewable energy to peak demand hours. an example, from a native wind generation profile and forecast,
This application was identified as key for the state application-specific controls would generate the storage power
of Andhra Pradesh, which has a high target (8,100 MW needed to bring the total (wind and storage) generation closer
of wind and 4,081 MW of solar) for renewable energy. to the forecast. By combining these profiles with local market
During off-peak load hours (8:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.), rules and prices, revenue streams (or avoided penalties) can be
the BESS charges and stores energy, which it dis- calculated for the specific application and market.
charges during peak load hours (6:00–10:00 p.m.). Next, as shown in Figure 5, energy storage technolo-
Thus, the integrated plant supplies a consistent gies are selected and sized by processing the battery power
amount of energy to customers during peak hours command into a use-intensity map. Relying on a database
th rough a combination of wind, sola r, a nd en- of physics-based performance models, the installed cost
ergy storage. to meet the application requirements is calculated for each
✔✔ Forecast deviation reduction for wind and solar plants: technology, including storage and BOP.
Another of the primary ap-
plications energy storage can
provide is forecast deviation
Phase 1-a Example: DSM Charge Reduction
reduction for wind and solar
Frequency (Hz)

plants. The concept is that en- High from 24 January 2015 AP State Data
Zero Rate
ergy storage can be dispatched Frequency
50 Hz
to reduce a renewable energy
plant’s forecast errors and thus Low High Rates
prevent lost revenues. In India,
there is a tiered penalty struc-

Deviation Power (MW)

Storage
ture for deviations in wind and Discharge Extra Penalties
solar generation. For example, Deviation Power
Overdraw
if the wind generation is below
t he scheduled va lue i n a 0 MW
Storage
15-min block by 25%, then a Recharge Underdraw
deviation charge applies: 110% 0 6 12 18 24
Revenues
of the fixed rate for balance Midnight Noon Midnight
energy beyond 15% and up to Time of Day (h)
25% (i.e., there is no deviation
charge for the first 15%). figure 3. The DSM charge management using a BESS.

Native Application-Specific Modified Local Regulations Adjusted

Generation Profile Controls Generation Profile and Market Pricing Revenues
Power Output (MW)

0.9
0.8 100
Power (MW)

Value (US$)

0.7
0.6
0.5 50
0.4
0.3
US$
0.2 0
0.1
0
–0.1 –50
0 500 1,000 1,500 0 500 1,000 1,500
Time (min) Time (min) Various ISOs

figure 4. The first phase of the energy storage value analytics methodology: applications and revenues.

may/june 2018 ieee power & energy magazine 81

 An integrated wind-solar plant also
has the potential for savings in
evacuation and transmission upgrade costs.

Finally, as shown in Figure 6, the asset life is deter- and solar tariffs, the DSM penalty structure, and ancillary
mined from the duty profile, asset type, and size by using service tariffs.
asset-specific calendar and cycle-life models. Combining Based on the technical design and financial analysis, a
all calculations, project economics can be estimated based 10-MW, 15-MWh battery lithium manganese cobalt-oxide
on revenue, initial cost, and life (number of replacements BESS was recommended for the phase 1-a 41-MW integrated
over the project life). wind-solar project. This BESS was designed primarily to per-
This analysis used a database of energy storage technolo- form the DSM penalty reduction function but, when not doing
gies built at GE Global Research for the comparison and eval- so, could also be used for other primary and secondary applica-
uation of various energy storage assets available in today’s tions. BESS sizing for the remaining phases of the project will
market. The underlying asset database includes equivalent- depend significantly on future energy storage-related regula-
circuit models of over 100 energy storage assets spanning a tions and the cost of the BESS. For each of the remaining phases
wide range of technologies and options. These energy storage of the Ananthpur and Kutch projects, the BESS ranged in size
equivalent-circuit models were developed from a combina- from 10–60 MW, with a capacity of 30–280 MWh.
tion of data sheets and follow-up discussions with suppliers
to confirm model results. Design of the Collector System
For the primary and secondary use cases described pre- The collector system was designed using a mixture of indus-
viously, the key input for determining the charge/discharge try best practices for wind and PV collector systems. It
profile of the BESS was the simulated 15-min wind and solar is common practice in India to use overhead conductors for
profiles and the corresponding short-term forecasts for each standalone wind plants and underground cables for PV solar
phase of the project. Other key model inputs include wind plants. A main consideration in the collector design was

Battery Power Use-Intensity Storage Database Installed

Avg. Event Power (MW)
Battery Power (MW)

0.2
Command Map and Metrics Calculator Cost
1 900
0.8 800
0.6 700
0.4 600
0 0.2 500
0
–0.2 400 US$
–0.4 300
–0.6 200
–0.2 –0.8 100
–1 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (h) Event Duration
(min)

figure 5. The second phase of the energy storage value analytics methodology: installed cost.

Battery Life Models Damage-Intensity Map and Mode Estimated Life

Cycles to End-of-Life

1 20 Project
Net Present Value

108
0.8 18
107 0.6 16 Economics
Power (MW)
Avg. Even

LIC 0.4 14
106
Flywheel 0.2 12
105 LTO 0 10
104 LNCA –0.2 8 NPV
NoMx –0.4 6
103 –0.6 4
102 –0.8 2
0 20 40 60 80 100 –1 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Depth of Event Duration Installed
Discharge (%) (min) Battery Size (MWh)

figure 6. The third phase of the energy storage value analytics methodology: asset life. NPV: net present value.

82 ieee power & energy magazine may/june 2018

 In an IWSES plant, wind turbines, photovoltaic solar arrays,
and a battery energy storage system are integrated into
a single plant using state-of-the-art controls.
whether underground cables should be used for the collector
system or a mixed-construction approach using both under-
ground cables and overhead conductors would be prefer-
able. Designs for both cases were compared to evaluate
these options.
For the mixed-construction case, underground cable
was used to feed the PV systems or whenever the conduc-
tor path entered a wind turbine exclusion zone. In this case,
riser poles were used to transition between underground and
overhead construction. All underground design was used for
phase 1-a of the project to account for the tight arrangement
of PV arrays and wind turbine exclusion zones, even though
the cost was slightly higher than with the mixed-construc-
tion approach. For phases with overhead transmission lines,
the routing was designed such that there was no loss of PV
generation due to shadowing from the lines. To evacuate the
power, a 33-KV/220-KV pooling substation was designed
for each phase of the project. The BESS was sited at the
pooling substation and connected to the low-voltage side of
the substation.
Design of Controls and Communication System
The final design step was the design of the controls and com-
munications system that enables the BESS to communicate
with the plant’s wind turbines and solar arrays and also enables
the SLDC and Renewable Energy Management Center to per-
form the various applications. The proposed plant control
architecture consists of three control device types:
✔✔ Plant energy management system: This system orches-
trates all control and communication actions and pro-
vides the interface to the utility and SLDC.
✔✔ Plant master control station: This station is a hardened
computer that hosts critical real-time control services.
Its main function is to compute the set point for the
storage system’s power, i.e. the command for the BESS
charging or discharging cycles. It also computes the
plant-level commands for the wind and solar plants.
✔✔ Plant edge control station: The edge plant-level con-
trollers are hardened industrial controllers located at
the BESS as well as at each wind or solar plant. These
units control the actual power flow at the point of in-
terconnection based on local measurements and com-
mands received from the master-level controller. The
plant edge controllers are typically multifunction con-
trollers that provide the physical interface to the lower
inverter-level controllers and sensors.
may/june 2018 ieee power & energy magazine 83
Next Steps for the IWSES Project in India
The next step is to develop the 41-MW IWSES plant as a
grant-funded pilot project. The lessons learned from the
demonstration project can be used to develop the techni-
cal design, commercial arrangements, and energy storage-
related policies and regulations that will have a strong influ-
ence on future energy storage projects in India.
Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the support provided by the U.S. Trade and
Development Agency (USTDA) and Raj Budhavarapu [for-
merly with the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services
(IL&FS) Energy Development Company, Ltd.] in the execu-
tion of this study.
For Further Reading
“Technical assistance for the integrated wind, solar and energy
storage project,” Rep. for Task 1–10. Activity Rep. 201531004A,
USTDA (available on request from the USTDA).
M. Brower, Wind Resource Assessment: A Practical
Guide to Developing a Wind Project. Hoboken, NJ: Wi-
ley, 2012.
J. Burton and B. Sharpe, Wind Energy Handbook, 2nd
ed. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley, 2011.
S. T. Frandsen, “Turbulence and turbulence-generated
structural loading in wind turbine clusters,” Risø-R-
1188(EN), Risø National Laboratory, Jan. 2007.
T. M. Letcher, Wind Energy Engineering: A Handbook for
Onshore and Offshore Wind Turbines. New York: Aca-
demic, 2017.
V. Badescu, Ed., Modeling Solar Radiation at the Earth’s
Surface: Recent Advances. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Ver-
lag, 2008.
A. Luque and S. Hegedus, Eds., Handbook of Photovoltaic Sci-
ence and Engineering, 2nd ed. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley, 2011.
Biographies
Sundar Venkataraman is with GE Energy Consulting,
Phoenix, Arizona.
Chris Ziesler is with AWS Truepower, a UL company,
Albany, New York.
Peter Johnson is with AWS Truepower, a UL company,
Albany, New York.
Stephanie Van Kempen is with AWS Truepower, a UL
company, Albany, New York.
p&e