A mutually beneficial approach to electricity network pricing in the presence of large amounts of solar power and community-scale energy storage

B.C.P. Sturmberg, M.E. Shaw, C.P. Mediwaththe, H. Ransan-Cooper, B. Weise, M. Thomas and L. Blackhall

Energy Policy, 2021, vol. 159, issue C

Abstract: Electricity distribution networks that contain large photovoltaic solar systems can experience power flows between customers. These may create both technical and socio-economic challenges. This paper establishes how these challenges can be addressed through the combined deployment of Community-scale Energy Storage (CES) and local network tariffs. Our study simulates the operation of a CES under a range of local network tariff models, using current Australian electricity prices and current network prices as a reference. We assess the financial outcomes for solar and non-solar owning customers and the distribution network operator. We find that tariff settings exist that create mutual benefits for all stakeholders. Such tariffs all apply a discount of greater than 50% to energy flows within the local network, relative to regular distribution network tariffs. The policy implication of these findings is that the, historically contentious, issue of network tariff reform in the presence of local solar power generation can be resolved with a mutually beneficial arrangement of local network tariffs and CES. Furthermore, the challenge of setting appropriate tariffs is eased through clear and intuitive conditions on local network tariff pricing.

Keywords: Distributed energy resources; Community-scale energy storage; Electricity tariffs; Local network tariffs; Local energy models; Energy storage; Battery optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421521004651
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:159:y:2021:i:c:s0301421521004651

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112599

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().