Control strategies of domestic electrical storage for reducing electricity peak demand and life cycle cost

Electricity grid capacity is often oversized compared to average demand to accommodate for peak demands. In South Australia, 25% of the grid capacity is required for less than 1% of the time. To reflect the cost of peak demand in electricity tariffs, peak demand tariffs consider not only electricity consumption (kWh), but also electricity demand (kW) during a peak period (16:00-21:00), which increases electricity cost compared to conventional tariffs. To reduce the peak demand and the subsequent cost of electricity, four control strategies are developed to charge and discharge a battery, and to export and import electricity from the grid. The strategies are simulated with and without a photovoltaic (PV) system using real-time monitored electricity consumption and gross PV generated electricity of a monitored low-energy house. The results show that using PV with electrical storage and proper control strategies can reduce both the electricity peak demands and life cycle cost. These results are timely given the recent emergence of small-scale storage technologies and the prediction that these may become commonplace in the near future.