Techno-economic analysis of grid-tied energy storage

This paper presents a methodology to assess the technical and economic viability of grid-tied battery energy storage for a student residence under a time-of-use tariff structure. Battery as a storage medium can take advantage of the price arbitrage between peak and off-peak period under favourable conditions. To investigate the impact of different pricing regimes, summer rate was implemented, and the results were compared with that of winter rate on yearly basis. At base case conditions, neither a prevailing summer nor winter pricing tariff favours the use of battery energy storage. A 0.4656 R/kWh price differential between peak and off-peak period for a summer pricing regime was not sufficient for the battery energy storage system to break even. Implementing a year-round winter pricing regime with a price differential of 2.1171 R/kWh between peak and off-peak period requires a minimum of 866 battery cycle life to break even. Probabilistic analysis using Monte Carlo simulation indicated that to make battery energy storage system attractive, at least 110% increase in the peak price of electricity for summer is needed. The study concluded that the price differential among the different time-of-use tariff regimes impact on the extent of profitability of using battery energy storage.