Customer Bill Management Using Thermal and Virtual Electricity Storage

A significant portion of the annual residential electricity bill in areas that offer variable rates is associated with the summer on-peak period. Customers can reduce their bills by controlling flexible loads, and those with PV systems can achieve extra savings by installing a battery energy storage (BES) system, but this latter is often not economical due the high capital cost. In this article, a lease an energy storage block from a front-of-the-meter utility-owned storage system - known as Energy Storage as a Service (ESaaS) is proposed instead. Potential cost savings from air conditioning (AC) load control in addition to leasing an ESaaS block are evaluated for different block sizes and leasing costs using a heuristic optimization method. The approach is illustrated by analyzing the electricity bill of a residential customer with a PV system and a controllable AC load, using time series smart meter load data, and local Time-Of-Use (TOU) utility rates.