Storage size determination for grid-connected photovoltaic systems (original) (raw)

In this paper, we study the problem of determining the size of battery storage used in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems. In our setting, electricity is generated from PV and is used to supply the demand from loads. Excess electricity generated from the PV can be stored in a battery to be used later on, and electricity must be purchased from the electric grid if the PV generation and battery discharging cannot meet the demand. The objective is to minimize the electricity purchase from the electric grid while at the same time choosing an appropriate battery size. More specifically, we want to find a unique critical value (denoted as E c max ) of the battery size such that the cost of electricity purchase remains the same if the battery size is larger than or equal to E c max , and the cost is strictly larger if the battery size is smaller than E c max . We propose an upper bound on E c max , and show that the upper bound is achievable for certain scenarios. For the case with ideal PV generation and constant loads, we characterize the exact value of E c max , and also show how the storage size changes as the constant load changes; these results are validated via simulations.

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact