Implementation of Digital Twin for Increasing Efficiency of Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the instability of the electricity generation of renewable energy sources (RESs), specifically Digital Twins of RESs. The first part deals with the analysis of RES electricity generation around the world and Ukraine. The following chapter describes features of functioning power grids in modern conditions in Ukraine and ways to ensure the balance reliability in the power system for conditions of high-grade RES integration. The rapid increase in electricity generation RESs causes control problems of distributed power supply in the power grid. A mathematical model of the parameter controls in normal mode electric power systems for conditions with high integration of RESs is proposed in the second part. The study investigates components of the optimality criterion at the control of normal mode parameters of the electric power system with RESs. In general, digital transformation helps decarbonize the energy supply, decrease dependency on fossil fuels, and integrate renewables into power systems. A model Digital Twin (DT) of a photovoltaic system, or an exact 3D visualization, analyzing the accumulator system depending on load and generation, are presented. The problems of Digital Twin are very widely discussed, but many papers and studies are general without any practical implementations. The main part of this paper focuses on research and deals with daily electricity generation from different kinds of RESs, namely mini-hydropower stations, photovoltaic power stations, and wind power stations. Measured data of electricity generation from photovoltaic power plants, wind power plants, and mini-hydropower plants and obtained meteorological factors were used for the calculation of Spearman’s, Kendall’s, and Pearson’s correlation rank coefficients. The main contribution of this research is to determine the main metrological factors for each kind of studied RES. In the future, it will help to decide the task of forecasting power generation more presciently. Additionally, the presented model of DT RESs allows the installation and operation of grids with higher efficiency, because it can help to predict all influences, from shading up to the optimization of the battery storage system.