An Improved Photovoltaic System Output Prediction Model under Limited Weather Information

Abstract

The customer side operation is getting more complex in a smart grid environment because of the adoption of renewable resources. In performing energy management planning or scheduling, it is essential to forecast non-controllable resources accurately and robustly. The PV system is one of the common renewable energy resources in customer side. Its output depends on weather and physical characteristics of the PV system. Thus, weather information is essential to predict the amount of PV system output. However, weather forecast usually does not include enough solar irradiation information. In this study, a PV system power output prediction model (PPM) under limited weather information is proposed. In the proposed model, meteorological radiation model (MRM) is used to improve cloud cover radiation model (CRM) to consider the seasonal effect of the target region. The results of the proposed model are compared to the result of the conventional CRM prediction method on the PV generation obtained from a field test site. With the PPM, root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) are improved by 23.43% and 33.76%, respectively, compared to CRM for all days; while in clear days, they are improved by 53.36% and 62.90%, respectively.