AC and DC Residential System Comparison with Penetration of PV and Battery Storage

The battle between the alternating current(AC) and direct current(DC) can be traced back to the late 19th century. Apparently, it ended up with the victory of AC. However, the growing use of the renewable energy sources that mostly are DC supplier, and the advancement of power electronics lead to the reconsideration of using DC power by public in these decades. In the residential sector, which is a highly energy consuming sector, an increasing number of home appliances operate with DC internally. By installing DC residential system, it not only removes the AC/DC conversion stage by the load side, but also offers the potential to use DC directly from the locally installed renewable energy sources without the requirement of the inverter stage. Therefore, the potential benefits from altering traditional AC residential system to DC version and the impact of the sizing of the renewable energy sources on the performance of the residential systems are of interest.The main objective of this study is comparing the AC and DC residential system with the varying levels of the penetration of the PV and battery storage. Starting from the overview of the original AC and adopted DC residential system with the presence of the PV and battery storage, the main difference between AC and DC system architecture is investigated. Then, the various components such as converters, cables, PV and battery storage system in the residential system are modeled. Based on the modelling, a power management strategy is propsed. By using the load profile and local solar irradiance as the input, the energetic evaluation of both the AC and DC residential system regarding the system losses and energy saving is analyzed with the varying PV and battery storage size. Furthermore, an economic analysis is carried out by considering the electricity tariff, feed-in tariff and investment costs of PV and battery storage system.Electrical Engineerin