Patent Document ID: 9740803
Application ID: 14223926
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for inferring operational specifications of a fleet of photovoltaic power generation systems with the aid of a digital computer, comprising the steps of: providing a computer with historical power production data measured over an earlier time period for and also locations of a plurality of photovoltaic power generation plants comprised in a photovoltaic power generation fleet; providing the computer with a preexisting configuration for at least one such photovoltaic power generation plant; providing the computer with historical measured irradiance data over the earlier time period for the locations; defining with the computer a plurality of hypothetical photovoltaic plant configurations that each comprise a power rating and operational features hypothesized for the plants; determining with the computer a configuration for each of the plants, comprising: simulating with the computer power output production data for each of the hypothetical photovoltaic plant configurations based on a normalized photovoltaic power generation plant using the historical measured irradiance data for the earlier time period; deriving with the computer a simulated photovoltaic system rating as a function of the historical power production data for that plant and the simulated power output production data; scaling with the computer the simulated power output production data by the simulated photovoltaic system rating over each point in the earlier time period; and inferring with the computer the configuration of that plant from the hypothetical photovoltaic plant configuration that exhibits a minimal error between the scaled simulated power output production data and the historical power production data for that plant; aggregating with the computer the inferred configurations of the plants into a configuration of the photovoltaic power generation fleet; modifying with the computer the preexisting configuration used by a production output controller for the at least one such photovoltaic power generation plant with the inferred configuration for that at least one such photovoltaic power generation plant; and operating the at least one such photovoltaic power generation plant based on the modified preexisting configuration.