Managing residential solar photovoltaic-battery systems for grid and life cycle economic and environmental co-benefits under time-of-use rate design

Abstract

The residential time-of-use (TOU) rates have been increasingly discussed or implemented by the US power utilities. The TOU rate design can potentially promote residential battery installations targeting increased selling or utilization of solar energy during the on-peak hours. However, our understanding in terms of the design and management of solar photovoltaic (PV)-battery systems for economic, environmental, and grid co-benefits under the TOU design remains limited. This study integrated system dynamics modeling with life cycle assessment to investigate the peak load reduction, life cycle cost, as well as life cycle climate change, water depletion, and fossil fuel depletion effects of residential grid-connected PV-battery systems under a TOU rate design. A residential prototype house in the Boston-Logan area, MA was selected for model simulation. Our study found solar PV-battery systems that maximize the on-peak grid selling can achieve the highest on-peak load reduction and economic benefits. However, they may not result in the highest environmental benefits, as on-peak hours have lower carbon emission and fossil fuel depletion factors as compared with the mid-peak hours in the New England grid. This suggests a potential tradeoff between the need of on-peak load reduction, economic saving, and environmental protection. Installing a PV system alone presents relatively strong economic and environmental performances, but its on-peak load reduction is limited. Installing a battery system but without an effective control strategy might result in relatively weak peak-load reduction, economic, and environmental outcomes. This highlights the importance of effective battery control in the implementation of solar PV-battery systems.