SunShade enabling software-defined solar-powered systems

The electric grid was not designed to support the large-scale penetration of intermittent solar generation. As a result, current policies place hard caps on the solar capacity that may connect to the grid. Unfortunately, users are increasingly hitting these caps, which is restricting the natural gro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:2017 ACM IEEE 8th International Conference on Cyber Physical Systems (ICCPS) pp. 61 - 70
Main Authors: Singh, Akansha, Lee, Stephen, Irwin, David, Shenoy, Prashant
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 18.04.2017
Series:ACM Other Conferences
Subjects:
Applied computing > Physical sciences and engineering > Engineering > Computer-aided design
Buildings
Computer systems organization > Embedded and cyber-physical systems > Sensors and actuators
Generators
Hardware > Power and energy > Energy distribution > Power networks
Inverters
Power quality
Prototypes
Real-time systems
Resource management
Software-defined Solar
Weighted Power Point Tracking
weighted power point tracking
software-defined solar
ISBN:9781450349659, 145034965X
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The electric grid was not designed to support the large-scale penetration of intermittent solar generation. As a result, current policies place hard caps on the solar capacity that may connect to the grid. Unfortunately, users are increasingly hitting these caps, which is restricting the natural growth of solar power. To address the problem, we propose Software-defined Solar-powered (SDS) systems that dynamically regulate the amount of solar power that flows into the grid. To enable SDS systems, this paper introduces fundamental mechanisms for programmatically controlling the size of solar flows, including mechanisms to both enforce an absolute limit on solar output and a new class of Weighted Power Point Tracking (WPPT) algorithms that enforce a relative limit on solar output as a fraction of its maximum power point (MPP). We implement an SDS prototype, called SunShade, and evaluate tradeoffs in the accuracy and fidelity of these mechanisms to enforce limits on solar flows. For example, we quantify the effects of variable conditions, such as clouds, passersby, and other shading, on the fidelity of a search-based WPPT algorithm, which must periodically deviate from its cap to discover changes in the MPP that affect the cap's accuracy.
ISBN:9781450349659
145034965X
DOI:10.1145/3055004.3055013