A PV ramp-rate control strategy to extend battery lifespan using forecasting

•A ramp-rate control strategy is proposed to use minimum storage and reduce battery degradation.•The proposal and three benchmark strategies are simulated with 2-year real data of a multi-megawatt PV plant.•PV power forecasting, based on real publicly-available numerical weather prediction (NWP) series, is used to reduce battery cycling degradation.•Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) analysis shows that the proposed strategy is the most cost-effective among the evaluated techniques.