On the Convenience of Using Simulation Models to Optimize the Control Strategy of Molten-Salt Heat Storage Systems in Solar Thermal Power Plants

Thermal oil has been used as heat transfer fluid in many solar thermal power plants, which also use molten salts as thermal energy storage system. Since the engineering of these plants is relatively new, control of the thermal energy storage system is currently achieved in manual or semiautomatic ways, controlling its variables with proportional-integral-derivative (PID) regulators. Once the plant is running, it is very difficult to obtain permission to try new control strategies. Hence, most plants keep running on these simple, sometimes inefficient control algorithms. This paper explores the results obtained with different control strategies implemented on a complete model of energy storage systems based on molten salt. The results provided by the model allow the optimum control strategy to be selected. Comparison of the results obtained by simulation of these control strategies and actual results obtained from a real plant, confirm the accuracy of the selection made.