DefinePK

Abstract

The integration of high penetration photovoltaic (PV) system at low voltage (LV) distribution network has begun to introduce many challenges for electricity utility companies from the technical and economic aspects. In Malaysia, the NET-metering scheme is implemented with the aim to encourage the in situ solar energy consumption before exporting any excess to the grid. Nevertheless, during the high PV generation and low load consumption period, the excess power can be stored in a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to enable higher operation flexibility for network operators. Thus, the BESS needs to be sized properly based on the consumers’ type of premises and capacity of PV generation system. This is to ensure optimum BESS operational efficiency. Hence, this paper investigates BESS sizing for a typical Malaysian double-story house with 4kW rooftop PV system. The load profile is captured from the group of normal house and PV generation profiles are taken from real data captured at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. The results show that different sizes of BESS have significant impacts on the net load profile of the houses after connecting the battery. The optimum sizing of the battery reduces the maximum demand and smoothen the net load profile by storing the excess generation and dispatch it at the time of high demand. The Load Factor (LF) and Variability Index (VI) are the two-main metrics that have been considered in the study. The results show significant improvement of these metrics after the optimum BESS integration.