Estimating the value of demand-side management in low-cost, solar micro-grids

Varun Mehra, Reja Amatya and Rajeev J. Ram

Energy, 2018, vol. 163, issue C, 74-87

Abstract: Demand-side management has the potential to reduce the cost of solar based community micro-grids and solar home systems for electricity access. This paper presents a methodology for optimal least-cost sizing of generation assets while meeting explicit reliability constraints in micro-grids that are capable of active demand management. The battery management model considers kinetic constraints on battery operation and represents dispatch in the field to regulate the depth of discharge. The model allows consideration of the trade-off between depth of discharge, cycle life, and calendar lifetime in lead-acid batteries. Separate reliability targets for disaggregated, residential load profiles at hourly timesteps are considered to evaluate the performance and cost reduction potential of demand-side management capabilities — with economic results and sensitivity analyses around key input assumptions subsequently presented. We find that demand-side management can reduce the number and cost of requisite solar panels and batteries with the integration of real-time management and controls – a key result for justifying next generation micro-grids for electricity access.

Keywords: Micro-grids; Electricity access; Demand-side management; Reliability; Asset selection; Off-grid; Techno-economic model; Cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544218314993
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:energy:v:163:y:2018:i:c:p:74-87

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.07.204

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

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