An analysis of solar inverter ratios, battery inverter ratios, and their effects on capacity factor and economics of a DC-coupled PV/BESS site

The increase in Solar Generation deployment and the corresponding generation profiles they provide presents many opportunities for different deployment strategies and co-location with other technologies such as Battery Energy Storage Systems. A key design characteristic is the Solar Inverter Ratio, as well as the Battery Inverter Ratio for co-located sites. In this novel set of works, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effects that changing the SIR and BIR can have on increasing the techno-economic performance of a solar installation where it is shown that up to an additional 0.92GWh of energy could be exported from a 5MW solar site by co-locating with a BESS and increasing the SIR. Following this, a first-of-its-kind study is undertaken into utilizing a DC-coupled BESS to provide frequency response services using the otherwise clipped energy from a high SIR site, showing the potential for significant economic improvements.