Model to evaluate the system-wide impact of residential and commercial photovoltaic and storage units intended for self-consumption

Abstract

This study presents a model to analyse the effect of an increasing level of residential and commercial photovoltaic and storage devices, intended for self-consumption, on a power system. A whole year is focused and modelled through a set of selected representative days. A 24-h two-stage stochastic unit commitment is solved for each representative day and expected results are weighted to achieve annual expected results. This optimisation problem includes appropriate representation of the day-ahead and on-line operations and an adequate representation of the uncertainty associated with renewable sources and demand. The main contributions are: (i) the definition of a single model in which customers are price-makers and large-scale and customers’ installations are appropriately modelled, therefore bridging the current macroscopic and microscopic modelling approaches, and (ii) the division of customers into four non-overlapping groups, which allows a sensitivity analysis of the effect of each group. Five main results are focused: net demand, CO2 emissions, load factors, system operation cost, and customer savings. The model is applied to a case study based on the Spanish power system to show the model capability to quantify the effect of an increasing level of these promising technologies on a power system.