{"id":16304,"date":"2019-09-12T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T19:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/09\/12\/news-10046\/"},"modified":"2019-09-12T11:00:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T19:00:06","slug":"news-10046","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/09\/12\/news-10046\/","title":{"rendered":"Producing too much solar power? Here\u2019s how you can manage the excess"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Vanya Ignatova| Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 12:00:36 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

In installations with photovoltaic production, the building electrical energy consumption does not always match the photovoltaic production. The degree of this mismatch depends on the building activity and its consumption profile, but it is globally true for a majority of buildings.<\/p>\n

Residential buildings and hotels<\/strong> consume more energy in the morning and in the evening when solar irradiation is low. Load consumption is therefore not synchronized with the photovoltaic power production profile. Under these conditions, photovoltaic self-consumption is effective only if a good portion of end-user usage is shifted to the hours of sunlight.<\/p>\n

Office buildings, schools, and shopping malls<\/strong> generally experience the majority of their electrical consumption during the daytime. However, on weekends or other days off, these buildings have a quite different consumption profile, characterized by lower flat consumption. Moreover, the majority of schools and universities curtail their activities during the summer months and so consume much less energy, or in some cases almost no energy at all.<\/p>\n

\"Office <\/p>\n

Industrial buildings<\/strong> may have generally flat consumption but also experience periods of low demand, depending on the organization of their activities. This is another case where the photovoltaic production profile does not match consumption well.<\/p>\n

Indeed, solar power is characterized by a daily production profile that depends on weather conditions, with no production at night. Combining these considerations with the variability of different buildings\u2019 consumption profiles\u2014including variations due to changing seasons and the days of the week\u2014it is quite difficult to match building consumption with photovoltaic production. Therefore, excess photovoltaic production happens relatively often, even when the photovoltaic system is sized so that it does not exceed the building baseload consumption.<\/p>\n

\"PV <\/p>\n

Alternatives for managing excess solar production<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the locally produced power exceeds the consumption loads, there are several possible options for managing the excess power:<\/p>\n