Findings

ln addition, the socio-economic impacts from a large number of prosumers applying individual optimization strategies on the distribution grid as well as the existing business models of distribution grid providers will be identified and analyzed. 

At the Energy Storage Research Centre in Biel, a Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) test environment was set up which allows the interaction of various hardware components of a prosumer to be tested in a realistic environment. The test bench supports analysis, comparison and development of system components under controlled and reproducible conditions.

Dedicated testing on three commercially available energy management systems (EMS) for typical single-family houses together with home storage battery solutions from different manufacturers was done and evaluated in order to identify potential improvements. It was found that from a purely economic point of view, the use of energy management systems to increase the rate of own consumption is not sensible for single-family households. A correct planning and dimensioning of system components or the implementation of efficient algorithms for heat pump control could better exploit existing optimization potentials. Moreover, the standardization of control interfaces for heat pumps would greatly contribute to exploit the available optimization potential. As far as stationary battery systems are concerned, simple control algorithms such as those integrated directly into household storage solutions today, are fully sufficient to increase own consumption.

Simulations and laboratory measurements were used to investigate how EMS can contribute to maintain or improve the stability of the grid and under which requirements this can be achieved. To achieve this, a BKW sub-grid was simulated and evaluated. The simulations have shown that the rise of the voltage due to the PV power can be damped by almost 6 % with help of the EMS designed for increasing self-consumption (compared to the situation without EMS). With an EMS designed to improve grid stability however, the maximum voltage can be reduced only by up to 3%, depending on the configuration of the EMS.

The socio-economic impacts from a large number of prosumers have been identified by means of dynamic modelling. The model shows that the increasing share of photovoltaic and battery storage systems will decrease the household electricity demand from the grid by 9% in 2050. Furthermore, it is shown that the increase in electric vehicles (EV) potentially increases the household electricity demand from the grid by 8% in 2050.