Transition towards solar Photovoltaic Self-Consumption policies with Batteries: From the perspective of distribution networks

Abstract

The transition towards low-carbon energy systems requires increasing the contribution of residential Photovoltaic (PV) in the energy consumption needs (i.e., PV self-consumption). For this purpose, the adoption of PV self-consumption policies as alternatives to the current net-metering policy may support harnessing batteries to improve PV self-consumption. However, the technical impacts of PV policies on distribution networks have to be adequately assessed and mitigated. To do so, a two-stage planning framework is proposed. The first stage is an optimization approach that determines the best sizes of PV and batteries based on the adopted PV policy. The second stage assesses the impacts of the resulting sizes on distribution networks using Monte-Carlo simulations to cope with uncertainties in demand and generation. The framework is applied on real medium and low voltage distribution networks from the south of Jordan. For the net-metering, the results show that the uptake of residential PV penetration above 40% will result in voltage issues. It is also found that the adoption of batteries for the benefits of customers (i.e., reduce electricity bills) will not mitigate the PV impacts for PV penetration above 60%. Further, the results demonstrate the important role of distribution network operators to manage the uptake of batteries for the benefits of customers and distribution networks. Network operators can support customers to adopt larger sizes of batteries to achieve the desired PV self-consumption in return of controlling the batteries to solve network issues. This facilitates the uptake of 100% PV penetration and improves PV self-consumption to 50%.