Business Models and Grid Impact of Energy Storages and Controllable Loads for PV-Self-Consumption at Prosumer Level

Abstract

Many countries are experiencing rapidly increasing distributed generation (DG) of renewable energy sources (RES). Electricity self-consumption is currently replacing feed-in-tariffs (FIT) as one main driver of this development. A prosumer, who is a consumer and producer of energy through his own DG, like photovoltaic (PV), can save costs through the self-consumption of his PV energy. The attractiveness of this business case is mainly based on the decreasing levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of PV systems as well as the difference between the decreasing FIT and the increasing costs of electricity consumption from the public grid. Utilizing local energy storages like batteries or power-to-heat (PtH) can increase both self-consumption and earnings. Noticing this tendency, electricity suppliers and industrial manufacturers offer new business models, in which small local storages of prosumers can be substituted with district storages or even virtual storages. This contribution presents an economic comparison and grid impact analysis of different self-consumption business models (i.e. home storages, PtH, district storages, virtual storages), considering the perspectives of prosumers as well as electricity suppliers. For realistic results, assumptions have been made based on the data of a real grid area near the city of Ulm. The results show that home storages, district storages as well as PtH systems are currently significantly less profitable for prosumers compared to pure PV-systems, if only selfconsumption is targeted as a business case. District storages are not attractive as a business model as well, whereas cloud storages can yield a quite good return at least for the electricity suppliers. However, an analysis of a future scenario indicates a better economic potential for storage business models. The grid impact analysis demonstrates a possible reduction of load and voltage through storages. Yet, for an efficient use of storage systems in regard to the electricity grid, financial incentives are necessary to support a grid-friendly operation of storages. Keywords—Home Battery Storage, District Battery Storage, Power-to-Heat, Self-Consumption, Business Models, Grid Impact