Modeling of Solar and Wind Power Plants in West Virginia Using System Advisor Model (SAM)

West Virginia is currently highly dependent on fossil fuels for its energy production and consumption. However, the state presents a strong capability for wind and solar energy systems. To continue to expand renewable energy infrastructure in West Virginia, the feasibility of these systems must be studied. This project was conceptualized to study the System Advisor Model (SAM) capabilities in modeling renewable energy systems and conducting feasibility studies. In particular, the objective in this project is to model renewable energy generation for solar and wind power plants in West Virginia using SAM to provide a foundation for such feasibility studies.

In this study, six wind energy plants located in West Virginia and one solar energy plant near the border of Maryland and West Virginia are modeled using SAM. Relevant weather information from the NREL Wind Toolkit or the National Solar Radiation Database and plant specifications are used to simulate plant operations in SAM. To check the accuracy of the power generation models, monthly power generations (in MWh) are compared against the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) reported monthly power generation for each plant, and average monthly errors were calculated. After analyzing the developed SAM models for all of the wind and solar power plants studied, the results indicate that the SAM models produce consistent trends and relatively low errors (23% on average) when compared to EIA real-time monthly energy generation data for a given year. By modeling renewable energy systems with SAM, feasibility of these systems can be determined with regard to performance and financial considerations. In particular, due to the accuracy of these produced SAM models, such models could be combined with fossil fuel power plants to develop a real-time optimization framework for the local energy grid and provide realistic ramping rates for advanced control studies of fossil fuel power plants.