Techno-economic and environmental analysis of community energy management for peak shaving

Energy storage (ES) is seen as the key to unlocking the true potential of renewable generation as it potentially supports their integration into the grid by providing capability for services such balancing and frequency regulation. It also has the potential to reduce peak power demand reduction (a form of arbitrage) and this service will be important for distribution companies as it frees capacity on the grid. The first part of this study presents an energy management strategy (EMS) that reduces the peak power drawn from the grid by a community of 60 homes using ES and local generation (in this case photovoltaic panels (PVs)). The EMS is tested on hundreds of cases and shows an average yearly peak reduction of around 30% in the best cases. The second part of the paper tests the economic viability and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions of the cases explored and shows that trade-offs exist between electricity supply costs, peak power reduction, and life cycle GHG reductions. PV generation provides a significant reduction in GHG emissions but makes little contribution to reducing peak demand from the grid. In contrast, community energy storage (in batteries) is effective at reducing peak demand, but at significant additional costs, and may result in a modest increase in GHG emissions due to emissions associated with battery manufacture and roundtrip efficiency. Future cost projections for 2040 for PV and battery, together with longer a battery cycle life, show that considerable reductions in the cost of community electricity generation and storage can be made to encourage the management of peak grid demand