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Effects of time resolution on finances and self-consumption when modeling domestic PV-battery systems

Sun, S.I.; Smith, B.D.; Wills, R.G.A.; Crossland, A.F.

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Authors

S.I. Sun

B.D. Smith

R.G.A. Wills

A.F. Crossland



Abstract

When modeling a renewable energy system, the timestep to use is an important consideration. Timestep, or time resolution, can have an impact on results, influencing the sizing of the system and whether or not to invest at all. In this work, real measured data for an entire year at 15-s resolution from a rooftop PV array and 8 household loads in the UK are used. The PV and load time series are averaged to lower resolution: 1-min, 5-min, 30-min and 1-h, and the results from using them as input to a 25-year simulation of PV-only and PV-battery systems are compared to the 15-s resolution results. Load resolution is confirmed to be more important than PV resolution for improving accuracy of self-sufficiency and cost metrics; the presence of a battery is confirmed to reduce the errors of using low resolution compared to PV-only. However, these findings only apply to the commonly tested Greedy algorithm but not the newly developed Emissions Arbitrage algorithm. A wider range of metrics are calculated here than in previous work, finding consistency in that low resolution overstates the benefits of PV-battery, but variation in percentage difference across the metrics used. Further aspects not studied before include: the diminishing returns in computation speed when time resolution is lowered, and the effect of time resolution on the tipping point when certain configurations become more attractive propositions than others. Time resolution of input data and modeling are issues not only for researchers in academia and industry, but from a consumer protection perspective too.

Citation

Sun, S., Smith, B., Wills, R., & Crossland, A. (2020). Effects of time resolution on finances and self-consumption when modeling domestic PV-battery systems. Energy Reports, 6, 157-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2020.03.020

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 22, 2020
Online Publication Date May 21, 2020
Publication Date 2020-05
Deposit Date Jun 17, 2020
Publicly Available Date Jun 17, 2020
Journal Energy reports.
Print ISSN 2352-4847
Electronic ISSN 2352-4847
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 6
Pages 157-165
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2020.03.020
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1268664

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