Dynamic modeling of concentrated solar power plants with the ThermoSysPro library (Parabolic Trough collectors, Fresnel reflector and Solar-Hybrid)

Several dynamic models of concentrated solar power plants were developed. The component models used belong to the ThermoSysPro (Modelica-based) library developed by EDF and released under open source license. The main objective of ThermoSysPro is to provide a generic library for the modeling and simulation of power plants and other kinds of energy systems. The meaning of the word 'generic' is here to be understood as the possibility to use the same components to model different kinds of energy systems (thermal, nuclear, solar, etc.) for different types of studies (design, control system verification, etc.). To that end, the library contains over 200 0D/1D models of components such as heat exchangers, steam and gas turbines, compressors, pumps, drums, tanks, volumes, valves, pipes, furnaces, combustion chambers, linear parabolic trough solar collector, linear Fresnel reflector, solar field and heliostat, etc. In particular, one and two-phase water/steam flow, one phase oil flow, as well as flue gases flow are handled. The library has been validated against several test-cases belonging to all the main domains of power plant modeling, namely the nuclear, thermal, biomass and solar domains. The paper describes the structure of the library. Then the test-cases belonging to the solar domain (both solar and power cycle performance are modelled) are presented: a dynamic model of a Linear Parabolic Trough Solar power plant and a model of a Solar Hybrid Combined-Cycle Power Plant with a Linear Fresnel Field. Several transients are simulated, the objective being to reduce the uncertainty of the prediction on the yearly electricity production (simulation with yearly DNI). (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.