FRED: The Flexible Renewable Energy System Dispatch Optimizer

Due to their thermal storage capability, concentrated solar power (CSP) plants have flexibility on electricity dispatch, being able to participate in balancing power markets. The development of an optimum electricity delivery schedule should be fast to react to updated forecast and the dynamic electricity markets, apart from considering best operational practices, as it brings significant cost reductions and improvement in plant performance. Therefore, dispatch optimization tools should combine financial and operational optimization with acceptable computational time. In this context, an innovative dispatch optimization algorithm used to derive a CSP plant operation schedule is presented. FRED is a heuristic rule-based algorithm used to optimize financial income while considering plant best operational practices. Simulations performed with a CSP plant tower model following FRED optimization strategy show the possibility of improved financial results with fast dispatch planning, ensuring the importance of this technology in the pathway to a highly renewable energy mix.