Performance of a shared solar and battery storage system in an Australian apartment building

Abstract

This study presents the energy performance of a three unit apartment building in Perth, Western Australia equipped with a shared energy microgrid. Although there has been a dramatic growth of residential rooftop solar PV across Australia, apartment buildings and their occupants are rarely able to access the benefits associated with onsite renewable energy generation and consumption. To address this, an apartment building in Perth was fitted with a PV and battery energy storage system, with metering architecture. The microgrid configuration enabled the sharing of energy between the apartment units. A one year dataset (December 2017-December 2018) obtained from onsite pulse meters was analysed. Load profiles were assessed and grid minimisation was evaluated through self-sufficiency metric. The three unit apartment showed a 22% reduction in average yearly energy consumption against the benchmark. The findings demonstrated an overall 75% dependency of the microgrid on renewables; and suggest that a shared energy microgrid may be more effective than separate supply connections.