Incorporating Thermal Storage Into a SEGS Plant Using TRNSYS: A Status Report

Two new preliminary component types were developed for the transient simulation program TRNSYS with IISiBat that models three different types of sensible thermal storages for analysis with use in a solar electric generating system (SEGS) simulation. One component containing a fully mixed, a stratified and a plug flow tank model options has been developed such that the input and parameter specifications are similar so that all three models could be easily placed into one component type. A single, cylindrical direct storage tank with one inlet and one outlet that evaluates fluid properties as a function of temperature is representative for all three models. The second component is a storage controller that passes along pertinent charging, dwell or discharging information to the storage and integrates the storage into a given SEGS model. Results were generated for each storage tank integrated into a SEGS VI simulation model for temperature distribution and power generation.