Power ramp rate control for renewable variable power generation systems

Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems and methods for controlling power ramp rates in renewable variable power generation systems. According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for limiting power ramp rates. The method can include regulating collective power output of a plurality of variable energy sources (104) by monitoring (102) collective power output of the plurality of variable energy sources (104), predicting collective available power levels (116, 118) of the plurality of variable energy sources (104) based at least in part on ramp rate limits (108, 112), modifying the predicted collective available power levels (116, 118) based at least in part on limiting (204, 310) the rate of change of the of the predicted collective available power levels (116, 118), determining a power regulation setpoint (149), generating a net power command signal (156) based at least in part on the power regulation setpoint (149) or the modified predicted collective available power levels (134), generating a plurality of power control signals (166) based at least in part on the net power command signal (156), and controlling collective power output of the plurality of variable energy sources (104) with the plurality of power control signals (166).