Feasibility Analysis of a Photovoltaic/Battery Energy Storage Hybrid System: an Hourly Estimation Based Approach and a Real Life Case Study

Abstract

This study has been undertaken to develop a consumer-oriented feasibility method for a hybrid photovoltaic (PV)-battery energy storage (BES) system by analyzing a real life house in Istanbul, Turkey, as a case study. The hourly electricity demand of the house was estimated by carrying out a detailed survey of the life style and daily habits of the household. No algorithm of any kind was used for the estimation of the energy demand with the exception of relating the lighting requirement to the daylight hours and the heating and cooling requirements to the seasonal weather changes. The developed method estimates the annual demand with an overall error of 8.68%. The net grid dependency and the feasibility of the PV-BES system was calculated for different combinations of PV and BES system sizes. It was found that when the maximum available roof area is used for PV installation and when the BES system size is increased, it is possible to achieve almost zero net grid dependency, and it is estimated that houses that are in regions with more abundant solar radiation and/ or with lower annual electricity consumption, can reach zero net grid dependency. However, the feasibility indicator, which is the payback period, turned out to be no less than 25 years in any of the scenarios. The reasons for the infeasibility are the high prices of PV and BES systems as well as the current restriction in the regulations in Turkey, which prevents BES system owners from participating in unlicensed energy generation schemes and selling excess electricity back to the grid. In order to overcome this situation, regulations should be updated to allow BES system owners to benefit from feed-in-tariff schemes, thereby increasing the popularity of both PV and BES usage in Turkey.