Impact of battery storage on residential energy consumption: An Australian case study based on smart meter data

Abstract

Advanced metering infrastructure has been widely recognized as a key enabling factor for delivering a range of benefits to the electricity industry as well as to energy consumers. The data is commonly used for billing and to educate consumers so they can make economically optimal decisions on choosing between electricity retail plans. More importantly, an in-depth analysis of this data can drive the development and implementation of new energy technologies and to enable evidence-based policy decisions to be made. In this paper, an Australian case study is presented on how residential battery installations lead to behavioral changes in the way energy is consumed. Furthermore, data-informed recommendations to both distribution network operators and policy-makers are also provided. The data comprises more than 5000 energy consumers with either distributed generation systems such as Photovoltaics (PV) and Energy Storage Systems (ESS), or without. The methodology focuses on the analysis of energy consumption of consumers with PV and ESS energy consumers and compares them against consumers without ESS. In addition, an economic analysis on the benefit of installing ESS is presented using payback period and internal rate of return. The main finding is that residential energy storage systems provide a range of benefits to the distribution network. It is recommended that Governments should continue supporting the rollout of such systems by subsidy programs and implementing necessary policy directives.