Supervisory Control of Hybrid Power Plants Using Online Feedback Optimization: Designs and Validations with a Hybrid Co-Simulation Engine

Abstract: This research investigates designing a supervisory feedback controller for a hybrid power plant that coordinates the wind, solar, and battery energy storage plants to meet the desired power demands. We have explored an online feedback control design that does not require detailed knowledge about the models, known as feedback optimization. The control inputs are updated using the gradient information of the cost and the outputs with respect to the input control commands. This enables us to adjust the active power references of wind, solar, and storage plants to meet the power generation requirements set by grid operators. The methodology also ensures robust control performance in the presence of uncertainties in the weather. In this paper, we focus on describing the supervisory feedback optimization formulation and control-oriented modeling for individual renewable and storage components of the hybrid power plant. The proposed supervisory control has been integrated with the hybrid plant co-simulation engine, Hercules, demonstrating its effectiveness in more realistic simulation scenarios.