Abstract
This paper presents a methodology to assess the technical and economic viability of grid-tied battery energy storage for a student residence under a time-of-use tariff structure. Battery as a storage medium can take advantage of the price arbitrage between peak and off-peak period under favourable conditions. To investigate the impact of different pricing regimes, summer rate was implemented, and the results were compared with that of winter rate on yearly basis. At base case conditions, neither a prevailing summer nor winter pricing tariff favours the use of battery energy storage. A 0.4656 R/kWh price differential between peak and off-peak period for a summer pricing regime was not sufficient for the battery energy storage system to break even. Implementing a year-round winter pricing regime with a price differential of 2.1171 R/kWh between peak and off-peak period requires a minimum of 866 battery cycle life to break even. Probabilistic analysis using Monte Carlo simulation indicated that to make battery energy storage system attractive, at least 110% increase in the peak price of electricity for summer is needed. The study concluded that the price differential among the different time-of-use tariff regimes impact on the extent of profitability of using battery energy storage.
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- \({\text{PrEl}}_{\text{peak}}\) :
-
Price of electricity at peak TOU (R/kWh)
- \({\text{PrEl}}_{\text{stand}}\) :
-
Price of electricity at standard TOU (R/kWh)
- \({\text{PrEl}}_{\text{offpeak}}\) :
-
Price of electricity at off-peak TOU (R/kWh)
- \(E_{\text{TOU}}\) :
-
Energy consumed during each TOU regime, i.e. \(E_{\text{peak}}\), \(E_{\text{stand}}\), and \(E_{\text{offpeak}}\) (kWh)
- \(I_{\text{batt}} (t)\) :
-
The current in/out of the battery (A)
- \(I_{\hbox{max} }\) :
-
Maximum current to charge the battery without damage (A)
- \({\text{SOC}}\) :
-
State of charge of the battery
- \({\text{Cap}}_{\text{batt}}\) :
-
The battery capacity (kWh)
- \(P_{\hbox{max} }\) :
-
Maximum absorbable power from the AC grid (kW)
- \(P_{\text{load}} (t)\) :
-
Average demand over hour t
- \(\eta_{{\frac{\text{AC}}{\text{DC}}}}\) :
-
AC–DC converter, the rectifier, efficiency
- \(\eta_{{\frac{\text{DC}}{\text{AC}}}}\) :
-
DC–AC converter, the inverter, efficiency
- \(\eta_{{{\text{batt}}_{\text{ch}} }}\) :
-
Battery charging efficiency
- \(\eta_{{{\text{batt}}_{\text{disch}} }}\) :
-
Battery discharging efficiency
- \(P_{{{\text{bi}}\_{\text{dir}}}}\) :
-
The rated power of the bidirectional converter (kW)
- \(V_{\text{DC}}\) :
-
The DC bus voltage (V)
- \(P_{{{\text{from}}_{\text{batt}} }} (t)\) :
-
The load demand met by the battery during hour t (kW)
- \(P_{{{\text{peak}}_{\text{dir}} }} (t)\) :
-
The load demand not met by battery during peak hours
- \(\delta\) :
-
Self-discharge rate
- \({\text{life}}_{k}\) :
-
Life of component k (years)
- \({\text{life}}_{\text{pro}}\) :
-
Life of project (years)
- \({\text{DoD}}\) :
-
Depth of discharge
- \(R_{k}\) :
-
Number of replacement of component k within project life (#)
- \({\text{NPC}}_{k}\) :
-
Net present cost of component k (R)
- \(N_{{{\text{cycles}} @ \% {\text{DoD}}}}\) :
-
Number cycles at depth of discharge
- \(E_{{{\text{from}} - {\text{batt}}}}\) :
-
Load met by the battery (kWh/day)
- \({\text{cost}}_{k}\) :
-
Cost of component k (R)
- \(E_{{{\text{peak}}\_{\text{dir}}}}\) :
-
Daily load during peak hours not met by the battery purchased from the grid (kWh/day)
- \(g_{k}\) :
-
Yearly inflation rate for cost of component k
- \(i\) :
-
Annual interest rate
- \({\text{NPC}}_{{{\text{O}}\& {\text{M}}}}\) :
-
Net present cost for operation and maintenance (R/kW-year)
- \({\text{cost}}_{{{\text{O}}\& {\text{M}}}}\) :
-
Unit operation and maintenance cost (R/kW)
- \(g_{{{\text{O}}\& {\text{M}}}}\) :
-
Yearly operation and maintenance cost inflation rate
- \(g_{\text{PrEl}}\) :
-
Yearly inflation rate for price of electricity
- \({\text{NPC}}_{{{\text{wout}}_{\text{ES}} }}\) :
-
Net present cost for system without battery energy storage (R)
- \({\text{NPC}}_{{{\text{with}}_{\text{ES}} }}\) :
-
Net present cost for system with battery energy storage (R)
- \({\text{NPV}}_{\text{savings}}\) :
-
Net present saving defined as \({\text{NPC}}_{{{\text{with}}_{\text{ES}} }} - {\text{NPC}}_{{{\text{wout}}_{\text{ES}} }}\) (R)
- \({\text{LCOE}}\) :
-
Levelized cost of electricity (R/kWh)
- \({\text{IRR}}\) :
-
Internal rate of return
- \(E_{\text{stand}}\) :
-
Daily energy consumption over the standard period TOU (kWh/day)
- \(E_{\text{peak}}\) :
-
Daily energy consumption over the peak period TOU (kWh/day)
- \(E_{\text{offpeak}}\) :
-
Daily energy consumption over the off-peak period TOU (kWh/day)
- \({\text{cost}}_{{{\text{fixed year}}}}\) :
-
Annual fixed service and demand charges (R/year)
- \(d\) :
-
Day of the year (1–365)
- \(t\) :
-
Hour of the year (0–8759)
- \(h\) :
-
Hour of the day (0–23)
- \(\Delta t\) :
-
Time step of simulation (1 hour used)
- \({\text{NPC}}_{{{\text{all}}\_{\text{comp}}}}\) :
-
The sum of NPC of all k components and the O&M cost (R)
- \({\text{NPC}}_{{E\_{\text{from}}\_{\text{batt}}}}\) :
-
The NPC of energy to charge the battery (R)
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the University of Johannesburg-University Research Committee for providing the grant (Grant Number: R1INT1-UJ-URC-201339837) for this research work.
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Masebinu, S.O., Akinlabi, E.T., Muzenda, E. et al. Techno-economic analysis of grid-tied energy storage. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 15, 231–242 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1414-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1414-z