Facing challenges in operating small-scale solar power sources, engineers of the National Load Dispatch Center have taken the initiative to intensively study and learn from developed countries' experiences in order to work out effective supporting solutions for the power system operation. By 2020, the solution of forecasting and monitoring small-scale solar power sources of each Power Corporation has brought high efficiency to the system operation and load dispatching.
Interface of the small-scale solar power monitoring and forecasting system deployed for Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation
In 2021, when requirements for operation management, monitoring and forecasting of small-scale solar power sources became more and more obvious and specific, with a wider scope, imposed on each power company (under power corporations), each 110kV substation, A0's engineers further improved and upgraded the solution on the basis of adding new and more updated input data.
Specifically, as for the monitoring work, the actual meteorological parameters are calculated directly from the data collected by the Japanese geostationary satellite Himawari 8 in real-time (this is a collaborative product of A0 with specialized meteorological research organizations, to apply the results of a state-level scientific research project that has been accepted and completed in 2021). Since then, A0 has mastered a 2km x 2km radiation grid map for the entire territory of Vietnam in real-time. This map combined with data on installed capacity, generation capacity of some sample points within the geographical areas of 110kV substations allows for establishing a calculation model of real-time generation capacity at 110kV substations with 15 min/data point resolution.
As for the forecasting work, meteorological data will be collected from prestigious meteorological agencies in the world such as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) through commercial suppliers. Using trained models from the monitoring problem, combined with meteorological forecasting data, A0 can forecast generation capacity at many timeframes such as in-day forecast, next-day forecast, forecast for the next 14 days with detailed resolution up to 15 minutes. At the same time, A0 has also developed algorithms to correct forecast data according to real-time errors to improve the accuracy of forecast results.
The forecasting has been successfully piloted at Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation with the provision of solutions and tools to forecast for the next 14 days, combined with the use of satellite images to calculate the inverter terminal generation capacity of small-scale solar power sources for 60 110kV substations.
In the coming time, A0 is further deploying and building a platform to serve the management, forecasting and monitoring of small-scale solar power sources in a unified manner among regional load dispatch centers and load dispatchers of power companies, operating on the FTP server at A0 and using EVN WAN connection line. The system has been successfully installed and tested at the Central Load Dispatch Center and 4 power companies under the Central Power Corporation including Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Dak Lak.
At present, the system allows the dispatching levels to monitor the operating capacity of small-scale solar power sources of power companies and each 110kV substation in real-time, using radiation data calculated from satellite images; monitoring forecast data according to the scale of each power company and each 110kV substation till the end of the operation day, updated every 15 minutes/newsletter; monitoring forecast data for the next 14 days of power companies and each 110 kV substation, updated twice a day.
This platform also allows the regional dispatching level to approve changes in the configuration of 110kV substations made by dispatchers of power companies. With the design of decentralized information management by account, the system allows quick data setting for new substations and facilitates scalability.
In addition, the National Load Dispatch Center is also developing and completing a Web-based version to provide this tool to all power companies on the system, contributing to the common goal of securing the safe, stable, reliable and economical operation of the power system.