Batteries
Solesca has the ability to add batteries to your solar array! Like our solar energy simulation, Solesca uses NREL's System Advisory Model (SAM) as the backend on how to have the battery intake and dispatch energy.
On any design click the battery icon in the top-left corner of the screen or type b to open a screen to
input your battery data. When you have batteries added, you can use this same workflow to select the battery you
want to inspect or change.
General
For SAM to run simulations with a battery addition, each battery needs to be connected to a single wiring zone. This way SAM knows
which solar to smooth or to take energy from to then dispatch to the grid. Clicking on Filds/wiring zones allows you to select a single
field or wiring zone to attach this battery to. If you select a field do not worry, we will automatically turn that field into a wiring zone
for you.
Here you can also select the Coupling Type. AC and DC coupled batteries have different loss profiles and DC can even charge from clipped power.
The power and capacity are assumed to be in whichever units you select as the coupling. If AC coupled the power and capcaity are assumed to be in AC, if DC in DC. This affects the efficiencies of the battery and the subsequent loss profile and performance ratio of the system.
Battery
Any organization-selected battery will show up in the battery dropdown box. If none are showing, simply add some batteries from the library to your organization.
You can also set the number of batteries, ideal system power, and system capacity. System power and capacity will always round-down to the nearest multiple of number of batteries and the battery-specific unit power and capacity.
Charge options
Charge options allow for you to customize how the battery charges and discharges. We currently have two major options, PV Smoothing and Charge from grid.
When PV Smoothing is toggled on, the alogirthm will try to best smooth the ramp-up of the solar system as well as make the production more consistent throughout the day. SAM recommends that with PV Smoothing enabled that sub-hourly data is used. You can upload 5 or 15minute weatherfile data with our custom weatherfiles function. We recommend this when PV Smoothing is enabled.
When PV Smoothing is toggled off, the algorithm will take the utility rate selected and do its best energy arbitrage. This is a fancy way of saying that it will charge (from solar or from the grid if charging from the grid is enabled) when the rates are cheap and discharge when the rates are expensive.
Charge from grid allows the battery to charge not only from the solar system but also from the grid. This is highly dependent on the utility and is recommended to be off unless you have explicit permission from the utility you are interconnecting to that this is allowed.
For users outside of the US or in remote areas where there is no available rate data you can still run batteries. However, the run options are limited to PV Smoothing only with no charging from the grid.
Retail rate
If you are in the US you can select a specific utility rate to optimize the dispatch of the system. We show the nearby available utilities which are sourced from OpenEI's Utility Rate Database (https://openei.org/wiki/Utility_Rate_DatabaseSelecting (opens in a new tab)).
We locate utilities based on a 10 mile radius around project location to give you access to all nearby available rates. Selecting a utility will show the current rates provided by that utility. Selecting a rate will use that rate's energy and demand time of use charges to optimize for charging and discharging your battery system.
Battery discharge based on utility rates only works when there is opportunity for energy arbitrage. If the rate you select has a net-metered policy or no appreciable difference in the time of use rates, you will see that the battery does not charge and discharge much (if at all). When there is no opportunity to buy low and sell high, the battery (when PV Smoothing is off) may not be useful.
Visualization
If the battery is AC-coupled we allow for you to visualize it on the map. Once you have selected all the parameters for your battery system you will be prompted to draw a battery field. This allows you to see in 2D and 2.5D what the battery looks like and present that location to clients.
Inspector Panel
When selecting on a battery either via the map visulaization, layers panel, or the battery icon you will see the battery inspector panel
on the right-hand side of your screen. There you will see the count, total power and capacity, and can modify the battery and height. If you want to
change the detailed settings, click Battery settings to modify.