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A comparison of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings

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As subsidised feed-in-tariffs for distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation are reduced or abolished in many jurisdictions, there is growing interest in increasing self-consumption to realise greater value from rooftop PV generation. However, deployment of PV on apartment buildings lags behind other residential deployment despite the potential advantages of load aggregation. We present a study of electricity and financial flows in ten 'virtual' Australian apartment buildings under a range of technical implementations and financial arrangements, using real load profiles and simulated generation profiles. Aggregation of diverse household and shared loads, either through an embedded network or 'behind the meter' of individual dwellings, can increase self-sufficiency and self-consumption of on-site generation compared to separate systems supplying common property or individual apartments. While embedded networks can enable access to more beneficial retail arrangements, behind the meter solutions may allow residents to avoid regulatory complexities and additional costs. The relative benefits of each arrangement are dependent on building characteristics and financial settings.
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This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
1
A comparison of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and
1
maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings
2
3
Mike B Robertsa,b,
1
, Anna Brucea,b and Iain MacGilla,c
4
aSchool of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering
5
bCentre for Energy & Environmental Markets
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cSchool of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications,
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University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
8
Abstract
9
As subsidised feed-in-tariffs for distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation are reduced or
10
abolished in many jurisdictions, there is growing interest in increasing self-consumption to
11
realise greater value from rooftop PV generation. However, deployment of PV on apartment
12
buildings lags behind other residential deployment despite the potential advantages of load
13
aggregation. We present a study of electricity and financial flows in ten ‘virtual’ Australian
14
apartment buildings under a range of technical implementations and financial arrangements,
15
using real load profiles and simulated generation profiles. Aggregation of diverse household
16
and shared loads, either through an embedded network or ‘behind the meter’ of individual
17
dwellings, can increase self-sufficiency and self-consumption of on-site generation compared
18
to separate systems supplying common property or individual apartments. While embedded
19
networks can enable access to more beneficial retail arrangements, behind the meter solutions
20
may allow residents to avoid regulatory complexities and additional costs. The relative
21
benefits of each arrangement are dependent on building characteristics and financial settings.
22
Keywords
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Photovoltaics, apartments, embedded network, residential electricity, load aggregation, self-
24
consumption.
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1. Introduction
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An estimated 53% of the world’s electricity is used in buildings (IEA, 2017a), half of it (27%)
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in the residential sector (IEA, 2017b). The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated
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that ‘virtually all’ residential and commercial buildings must achieve net-zero carbon
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emissions by 2040 (IEA, 2016) if the world is to keep average global temperature rises due to
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anthropogenic climate change to 1.5°C, in line with the targets in the COP 21 Paris
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Agreement (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC), 2015).
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In Australia, although overall carbon emissions continue to rise (Australian Government
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Department of Environment and Energy, 2018), the electricity industry is undergoing a
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hesitant transition towards distributed generation and increased renewable energy. This is
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most notable in the residential sector which leads the world in per-capita deployment of
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Abbreviations: BAU, Business as Usual; BOM, Bureau of Meteorology; BTM, Behind the Meter; CES,
Community Energy Storage; CP, Common Property; EN, Embedded Network; ENO, Embedded Network
Operator; CREN, Community Renewable Energy Network; FiT, Feed-in Tariff; GST, Goods and Services Tax;
HVAC, Heating, ventilation and Air Conditioning; NEM, National Energy Market; NPV, Net Present Value;
NSW, New South Wales; PV, Photovoltaic; RET, Renewable Energy Target; SC, Self-Consumption; SS, Self-
Sufficiency; SGSC, Smart Grid Smart City; TOU, Time of Use; VB, Virtual Building
1
Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.roberts@unsw.edu.au
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
2
rooftop photovoltaics (PV) with over 7GW installed on 1.8 million solar households,
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representing a 22% penetration of homes nationally (Roberts, Copper, et al., 2018) and
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exceeding 50% in some areas (International Energy Agency, 2018).
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Initially, much of this rooftop deployment was supported by generous State Government
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Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs). These have now been discontinued in most Australian jurisdictions (as
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in many other countries), although a modest Federal subsidy remains through the Renewable
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Energy Target (RET)(Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy,
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2017). Residential PV in Australia is net metered
2
, with self-consumed PV generation saving
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the consumer their volumetric retail bundled (network and energy) tariff (21-34 c/kWh
45
(AEMC, 2016)) while PV exports to the grid are generally paid a FiT in the range 5-16
46
c/kWh, close to the wholesale market value of the electricity. A high level of solar resource,
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rising retail electricity prices and falling PV system costs have made PV systems an attractive
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investment for many households and kept residential PV deployment rates steady. The
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significant disparity between the value of self-consumed versus exported PV generation (an
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outcome of high, mainly volumetric, network costs that comprise almost half of total
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residential electricity bills), and significant regulatory and pricing barriers to peer-to-peer
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electricity trading create incentives for consumers to maximise self-consumption (SC) of on-
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site PV generation (IEA-PVPS, 2016, Masson and Latour, 2012). The issue is also relevant to
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network businesses, regulators and policy makers, given the technical challenges of high
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residential PV exports, yet also revenue implications of higher SC. Similar circumstances
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exist in many other countries, although regulatory approaches vary considerably (Jäger-
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Waldau, Bucher, et al., 2018).
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Given the interest in increasing SC by better aligning electricity consumption with PV
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generation, it might be surprising that a recent review of techno-economic studies of
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distributed PV (Sommerfeldt and Madani, 2017) found that two thirds of studies did not
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consider building load at all. Now, however, an increasing number of articles ((Dehler, Keles,
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et al., 2017, Hiesl, Lorenzi and Silva, 2016, Luthander, Widén, et al., 2015, Luthander,
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Widén, et al., 2016, Nyholm, Goop, et al., 2016, Vieira, Moura, et al., 2017), for example)
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explore the use of battery storage and/or demand management to increase SC for detached
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houses or commercial premises.
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Meanwhile, a growing population, changing demographics and urban planning strategies are
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driving a sharp global increase in construction of apartment buildings. In Australia, an
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increasing proportion of the population (10% in 2016 (ABS, 2016)) now lives in apartments
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(or units
3
), while a 30% of new dwellings given building approval in 2017 were apartments
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(ABS, 2018). Yet, a range of technical, organisational and regulatory challenges (Roberts,
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Bruce, et al.) in many jurisdictions have hitherto largely prevented most apartment residents
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from participating in the distributed energy transition or enjoying the financial and related
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benefits of generating their own electricity.
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Nevertheless, in an increasingly complex retail electricity market, there may be distinct
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advantages to consumers who can jointly coordinate both their engagement with the market
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and their use of distributed energy resources, including renewable generation and battery
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2
In contrast to the use of this term in some other jurisdictions, “net metering” in Australia denotes an
arrangement whereby on-site generation is first applied to self-consumption, with only the excess exported to the
grid and metered, and where different tariffs are applied for consumption versus exports
3
The terms ‘unit’ and ‘apartment’ are used interchangeably in this paper.
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
3
storage. As industry capacity for commercial rooftop PV installation develops, the large,
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collectively owned roofs of apartment buildings provide opportunities for economies of scale,
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whilst aggregation of diverse and physically proximate loads may create flatter profiles and
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increase self-consumption (Roberts, Huxham, et al., 2016), as well as affording access to
81
more favourable retail arrangements and increasing independence from electricity retailers
82
and networks (an important driver in uptake of PV and storage (Agnew and Dargusch, 2017,
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Agnew, Smith, et al., 2018)). A range of options are emerging to assist residents to utilize
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these opportunities, as explained in Section 2.
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A number of studies have explored the aggregation of load profiles, PV systems and storage
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for multiple detached houses. Lopes, Martins, et al. (2016) found that aggregation of building
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loads from three houses could increase self-sufficiency by 21% and self-consumption by 15%,
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while Freitas, Reinhart, et al. (2018) explored the benefit of aggregating PV generation from
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multiple rooftops with different orientations and tilt in reducing battery storage requirements.
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Additionally, Community Energy Storage (CES) studies (Barbour, Parra, et al., 2018, Parra,
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Swierczynski, et al., 2017) have examined the technical and economic benefits of applying
92
shared battery storage to multiple household loads.
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Detailed analysis of SC in apartment buildings has been constrained, in part, by a lack of data
94
about real apartment electricity loads. Models of PV applied to multi-occupancy residential
95
buildings have utilised, for example, aggregated simulated load-profiles for standardised
96
three-bedroom homes (Musolino, Alet, et al., 2014), demand profiles based on multiples of an
97
energy services model for a single house load with a random time offset (Lang, Ammann, et
98
al., 2016) or the synthetic load profile for an average Finnish residential consumer (Van Roy,
99
Leemput, et al., 2014). Such studies, therefore, do not appropriately account for the particular
100
energy characteristics of apartment buildings.
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Lang, Ammann, et al. (2016) found that PV profitability for four building types, including an
102
apartment building, was dependent on SC, which in turn was dependent on the ratio of PV
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production to building load and on the shape of the daily load profile. Fina, Fleischhacker, et
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al. (2018), using ten real 15-minute apartment load profiles (but no shared or common load),
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found the jurisdictional regulatory environments in Germany and Austria greatly influenced
106
profitability. Sajjad, Manganelli, et al. (2015) found the benefit of net metering (application of
107
PV to the aggregated load) in realising the PV value for a 70-apartment building in Rome to
108
be primarily constrained by regulatory export limits, although the analysis excluded capital
109
costs of the PV. An article on optimal sizing of PV for Swedish apartment buildings
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(Sommerfeldt and Madani, 2016) recommended sufficient PV capacity to supply 30% - 50%
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of total load (for buildings with laundries) or 15% - 35% (for those without) to achieve SC of
112
60% - 80%. Also in Sweden, Kozarcanin and Andresen (2018) found that medium voltage
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grids in multi-apartment areas can accommodate PV generation up to eight times local
114
consumption without overvoltage issues.
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In this paper, we present results from a study of on-site PV generation and electricity
116
distribution in apartment buildings under a number of different possible technical and
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commercial arrangements. Annual load profiles for 500 ‘virtual buildings’ (VBs) have been
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created using real 30-minute load data from a dataset of thousands of apartments, and
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common property
4
load data for ten apartment buildings of varying size and characteristics in
120
4
Common property (CP) load refers to the shared electricity services in an apartment building
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
4
New South Wales (NSW), Australia. These have been combined with generation profiles
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from PV systems designed to fit the real rooftops of the ten buildings, in order to explore the
122
SC achievable under different arrangements and the financial benefits of retrofitting PV to the
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buildings under different commercial settings. The study is novel in its application of real
124
apartment and common load data to simulate 500 VBs, allowing a probabilistic assessment of
125
the value of different levels of PV and storage under entirely individual as well as shared
126
arrangements, as well as in its analysis of multiple implementation models. A realistic
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assessment of PV generation potential based on the actual apartment building footprints that
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correspond to the common property loads is also unique to this study, and allows us to
129
account for the different rooftop characteristics of a range of apartment building types.
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The remainder of the paper is set out as follows: Section 2 gives a brief outline of the
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technical options available for self-consumption of PV on apartment buildings, focusing on
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Australian regulatory and market arrangements. Section 3 introduces the model, the data and
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the method used for the study, while Section 4 explains the range of financial settings tested.
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In Section 5 we present an analysis of the PV self-consumption and electricity self-sufficiency
135
achievable by applying PV to aggregated building loads, and in Section 6 we compare the
136
potential household cost savings under different scenarios. Finally, in Section 7, we present
137
our conclusions and make some suggestions for future investigations.
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2. Technical Arrangements
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Apartment building electricity loads combine individual unit loads with shared or common
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property (CP) loads. The latter are highly dependent on building characteristics and available
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services which may include lifts, carpark ventilation and lighting, water heating and pumping
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for pools and centralised HVAC, water heating for apartments and lighting for stairwells,
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corridors and other common areas. Most Australian apartment buildings are owned under
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Strata Title, whereby the CP and building structure (including the roof) are owned and
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managed by a strata body (the Owners’ Corporation or Body Corporate) on behalf of all
146
owners (Randolph and Easthope, 2007, Sherry, 2008).
147
This ownership system could be seen to lend itself to deployment of a shared PV system, on
148
shared property (the roof) to meet shared common property (CP) load (Figure 1(a)), and this
149
is the most common arrangement on Australian apartment buildings to date. Moreover, for
150
many (particularly high-rise) sites with relatively high CP loads, this arrangement is sufficient
151
to fully utilise the available roof area with 100% SC of generated PV. However, as 60% of
152
Australian apartments are in buildings of three storeys or less (ABS, 2016), potential PV
153
generation often exceeds CP demand (Roberts, Huxham, et al., 2016) and there may be
154
opportunities to use PV to also help offset individual apartment loads. Three possible
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arrangements to facilitate this are shown in Figure 1 and described below.
156
Although installation of independent PV systems behind the meter (BTM) to meet individual
157
apartment loads, and potentially CP, (Figure 1(b)) is relatively straightforward for greenfield
158
sites, the per-Watt installation cost is likely to be higher than for a single larger PV system,
159
and siting individual assets on a shared roof space can create difficulties with permissions and
160
liability. Moreover, while this arrangement avoids the additional infrastructure requirements
161
and regulatory complexity of an embedded network (see below), it risks achieving lower
162
levels of SC and consequently reduced financial benefit for apartment owners and residents.
163
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
5
(a) CP Only
(b) Individual BTM
(c) Embedded Network
(d) Shared BTM
Figure 1: Four possible arrangements for PV on apartment buildings:
Conversely, greater SC can be achieved by applying shared PV generation to the aggregated
164
load of a building. Distribution of electricity throughout the building can be organised via an
165
embedded network (EN) (Figure 1(c)), whereby the strata body or other party acting as an
166
‘Embedded Network Operator’ (ENO) purchases electricity from the grid via a ‘parent’ or
167
‘gateway’ meter and on-sells it (along with onsite PV generation), through a ‘child’ meter for
168
each apartment, to residents. This also allows the strata body to leverage the aggregated
169
demand across the building to access advantageous market arrangements (accessing tariffs
170
available to commercial large consumer rather than residential tariffs) for the grid-purchased
171
electricity.
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At present, however, the Australian regulatory environment relating to energy retailing and
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embedded network operation imposes a high administrative cost on establishing and operating
174
such an embedded network, while a recent regulatory review (AEMC, 2017) has
175
recommended EN operation be restricted to registered electricity retailers. This barrier, as
176
well as the potentially high capital costs of installation (see Section 4.3), may be avoided
177
through alternate arrangements for utilising a shared PV system behind the meter (BTM). In
178
this scenario (Figure 1(d)), a secondary metering arrangement is used to distribute the on-site
179
generation whilst residents continue to purchase off-site generation directly from an electricity
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retailer, through their primary meter. This technical arrangement is new to the Australian
181
market and a number of tentative business models are emerging, either involving strata body
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ownership of the PV and BTM distribution infrastructure, or ownership by a third party,
183
which sells PV generation to apartment residents (and to the strata body for CP load) under a
184
power purchase agreement (PPA).
185
The following section describes the model and dataset used to compare the technical and
186
financial benefits of these arrangements.
187
3. Method: Modelling Electricity Flows
188
3.1. morePVs model
189
This study utilises the Multi-Occupancy Residential Electricity with PV and Storage
190
(morePVs) tool, which models electricity flows and financial transactions in apartment
191
buildings under a range of technical and financial settings. The Python code for morePVs has
192
been made available open source
5
, for transparency and to allow replication of this study and
193
5
The model is available at https://github.com/mike-b-roberts/morePVs
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
6
application to other datasets. Further extension of the model to include community energy
194
schemes, microgrids and peer-to-peer trading in a wider context, as well as addition of an
195
accessible graphical user interface, is underway.
196
Some initial results from the model have been presented previously, comparing the value of
197
PV for apartment buildings under a limited set of scenarios (Roberts, Bruce, et al., 2017) and
198
exploring the distribution of costs and benefits of PV in an embedded network (Roberts,
199
Bruce, et al., 2018). This study builds on the first of these publications, exploring a much
200
wider range of technical and financial arrangements.
201
Inputs to the model include building load profiles, comprising half-hourly load data for
202
apartments and common property over the course of a year, and generation profiles from PV
203
systems over the same period. Electricity flows and financial outcomes are modelled for
204
multiple scenarios with identified technical arrangements (as shown in Table 2), internal and
205
external tariffs, and system capital and operational costs.
206
Outputs include financial outcomes for individual households, retailers and network operators
207
under any of the four arrangements, and can be used to assess the distribution of costs and
208
benefits between different stakeholders within the building (Roberts, Bruce, et al., 2018). For
209
this study, however, we focus on the effect of different PV systems on electricity self-
210
consumption and self-sufficiency, and the combined cost savings for all building residents,
211
under a wide range of technical and financial settings.
212
3.2. Virtual building load data
213
In Australia, deployment of interval meters and ‘smart’ meters has been highly variable
214
between jurisdictions (Dickers, 2016, Victoria State Government, 2015) but, even where high
215
penetrations have been reached, there are considerable challenges to collection of 30-minute
216
electricity load data for all the households in an apartment building. Contestable markets for
217
electricity retailing and metering (AEMC, 2015a) mean that data access requires multiple
218
applications, having first obtained the consent of all householders. The challenges are
219
exacerbated by growing concerns about data privacy and general distrust of the electricity
220
sector (Energy Consumers Australia, 2018).
221
This study therefore uses the novel approach of creating ‘virtual buildings’ (VBs) by
222
combining common property load profiles and apartment load profiles from different sources.
223
A dataset of load profiles, including 2000 NSW apartments, collected for the AusGrid Smart
224
Grid Smart City (SGSC) trial in 2012–15, is publicly available. Details of the trial and the
225
resultant dataset are described in the various SGSC reports (Ausgrid, 2014a, Ausgrid, 2014b,
226
Ausgrid, 2014c, AusGrid, ARUP, et al., 2014), while characteristics of the apartment load
227
profiles are described in a forthcoming article (Roberts, Haghdadi, et al., (forthcoming)). For
228
this study, load profiles for the calendar year 2013 were selected and prepared using a method
229
which involves excluding apartments with more than 10% of missing data and filling gaps in
230
the resultant dataset with data from the timestamp in the period which has the most similar
231
load data across the dataset (Roberts, Haghdadi, et al., (forthcoming)).
232
The common property data, collected for apartment building energy audits at sites across
233
Sydney, is the subject of an earlier study (Roberts, Huxham, et al., 2016). Because the time
234
period of this data did not coincide with the apartment load profiles, buildings with any
235
evident temperature-dependent common load (such as HVAC or swimming pools) were
236
excluded from the dataset, leaving ten sites, ranging in height from three to twelve storeys.
237
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
7
Virtual apartment buildings were created for each site by combining the actual CP profile for
238
the site with a randomly selected sample of SGSC apartment load profiles, one for each
239
apartment in the actual building. It was not possible to ‘match’ apartment load profiles to
240
buildings as only very minimal information on building characteristics, unit size or household
241
demographics is available for most of the apartments in the SGSC dataset. Therefore, for each
242
modelling scenario, load profiles were randomly selected 50 times to create 50 different VBs
243
for each site, and the average of the energy and financial metrics across all these buildings
244
were calculated.
245
Table 1 shows some characteristics of the ten sites as well as average values (across the 50
246
VBs for each site) for total annual load and the proportion of annual electricity consumption
247
serving the common property load, dubbed the ‘CP Ratio’. It can be seen that, although CP
248
ratio is generally higher in high rise buildings (in part, because of lift usage), there is a large
249
variation of values in both high and low-rise buildings, demonstrating the diversity of the
250
building stock and the range of common facilities available across the buildings.
251
Table 1: Virtual Building Characteristics: note that site tags summarise the number of apartments, floors
252
and proportion of load that is CP.
253
Apartments
Floors
Total Demand (MWh/year)
Average Total Daily Demand
(kWh/unit)
Mean CP Ratio
max_pv Capacity
(kWp)
max_pv Capacity
(kWp / unit)
max_pv PV Ratio %
PV Systems Modelled
(kWp/unit)
Self-Consumption of
max_pv for cp_only
Self-Consumption of
max_pv for btm_i_c
Self-Consumption of max_pv
for en_pv or shared btm
Avoided emissions (max_pv)
(kg CO2-e / unit / year)
208
12
1110
14.6
34%
47.3
0.23
5.8
max_pv
100%
92%
100%
240
161
7
900
15.3
38%
90.3
0.56
13.3
max_pv
89%
84%
100%
590
138
9
870
17.3
44%
42.3
0.31
6.5
max_pv
100%
93%
100%
320
104
8
850
22.4
57%
18.8
0.18
3.0
max_pv
100%
97%
100%
190
52
3
250
13.2
26%
141.5
2.72
77.9
1,1.5,2,2.5, max_pv
14%
36%
47%
2880
48
4
180
10.3
9%
52.5
1.09
36.9
0.5, 1, max_pv
9%
51%
77%
1100
44
4
180
11.2
17%
76.8
1.74
54.3
0.5 1.0,1.5, max_pv
13%
44%
63%
1760
34
4
180
14.5
33%
9.5
0.28
7.2
max_pv
94%
90%
100%
300
26
4
160
16.9
43%
78.5
3.02
67.1
1,1.5,2,2.5, max_pv
28%
45%
54%
3200
20
5
110
15.1
36%
31.5
1.58
41.2
0.5 1.0, max_pv
39%
59%
75%
1730
3.3. PV modelling and allocation to apartment loads
254
For each of the ten sites, a visual analysis of the roof area was carried out using multi-
255
viewpoint aerial imagery (Nearmap Ltd., 2015) to assess roof orientation and inclination, and
256
to identify obstructions and sources of shading. Access routes and areas shaded between 10am
257
and 2pm on the winter solstice were excluded from useable roof area, and the maximum PV
258
array (max_pv) for each site was designed by filling the usable area with panels arranged
259
flush to the roof. Table 1 shows the absolute and per-unit peak capacity of these PV systems.
260
Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) satellite-derived irradiance data (Bureau of
261
Meteorology, 1990-2016) for 2013 at each site, along with temperature and wind speed from
262
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
8
the nearest automatic weather station, were used as inputs for the NREL’s System Advisor
263
Model (SAM) (Balir, Gilman, et al., 2013, NREL, 2010) PV Watts module, to give simulated
264
half-hourly PV production for each array over 2013. For each site, the ‘PV Ratio’ was
265
calculated as the ratio of annual generation of the max_pv array to annual building load,
266
averaged across all VBs (see Table 1).
267
An analysis of the impact of PV system size on self-consumption and self-sufficiency under
268
different technical arrangements for each site (Section 5) was carried out by scaling the output
269
of the max_pv system to smaller system sizes in steps of 5kW down to zero. However, for the
270
financial analysis (Sections 4 and 6), for those sites where the max_pv was equivalent to 1kW
271
per apartment or more (See Table 1), smaller systems (in steps of 500W / apartment) were
272
designed by successively excluding roof areas with the lowest insolation, a more realistic
273
approach for a real-world building.
274
For each technical arrangement, PV generation was allocated to apartment and common
275
property loads as shown in Table 2. For the common property only (cp_only) arrangement,
276
the PV was applied only to the common property load, with any excess exported to the grid.
277
For embedded network with PV (en_pv), the PV was treated as a single system connected
278
between the parent and child meters, with the PV energy netted off the aggregate building
279
load. For behind the meter, individual-CP (btm_i_c), a percentage of the total PV capacity
280
equal to the CP Ratio (the percentage contribution of the annual CP load to the annual
281
building load) was first allocated to supply CP, with the remaining capacity allocated equally
282
to separate systems for each apartment, while for btm_i_u (individual-units), the total PV
283
capacity was shared equally between the apartments only. For shared behind the meter
284
arrangements, the PV energy was distributed between all units (btm_s_u and btm_p_u, for
285
strata-owned and PPA arrangements, respectively – Section 4.6) or between apartment and
286
CP loads (btm_s_c and btm_p_c) in proportion to instantaneous demand, with the export of
287
any excess generation allocated in the same proportion.
288
Table 2: PV system configurations for virtual buildings
289
Abbreviation
PV System Configuration
Allocation of PV Generation
To CP
To Units
bau
Business as Usual (no PV)
N/A
cp_only
PV supplying Common Property
only
100%
None
btm_i_u
Individual PV behind the meter
(units only)
None
Equal share of total
capacity
btm_i_c
Individual PV behind the meter
(units + CP)
Proportional to CP Ratio
Equal share of
remaining capacity
btm_s_u
btm_p_u
Shared PV behind the meter
(units only), strata owned or PPA
None
Proportional to
instantaneous load
btm_s_c
btm_p_c
Shared PV behind the meter
(units + CP), strata owned or PPA
Proportional to instantaneous load
en
Embedded network without PV
N/A
en_pv
Embedded network with PV
Proportional to instantaneous load6
6
For en_pv, there is no distinction between energy generated from PV or imported from the grid in assessing
outcomes for the building.
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
9
3.4. Energy metrics
290
Luthander, Widén, et al. (2015) define Self-Consumption (SC) and Self-Sufficiency (SS) as
291
the overlapping part of the generation and load profiles as a proportion of the total generation
292
and total load, respectively, as shown in Equation(1) and Equation(2), where L(t) and G(t) are
293
the instantaneous load and generation. This formulation is useful as it is easily adapted to
294
ensure the correct treatment of efficiency losses in a system with a battery energy storage
295
system (BESS) and we include it here for consistency with our own work in this area
296
(Roberts, Bruce, et al., (forthcoming)).
297
!" #$%&'()*+,-.*+,/0+
$.*+,0+
Equation(1)
!! #$%&'()*+,-.*+,/0+
$)*+,0+
Equation(2)
However, where there is no BESS (or significant energy losses), and load and PV are
298
measured in discrete time periods ti, (determined by the temporal resolution of the relevant
299
meters), the measurable SC can be expressed as the proportion of total annual on-site PV
300
generation that is consumed within the building, and self-sufficiency (SS) as the proportion of
301
the total annual building load that is met by on-site generation. In our model, if the total PV
302
generation in the ith half-hourly time interval ti is given by Gtot(ti) = Gsc(ti)+ Gexport(ti), where
303
Gsc(ti) and Gexport(ti) are the self-consumed generation and exported generation respectively,
304
and the total building load is given by Ltot(ti) = Gsc(ti) + Limport(ti), where Gsc(ti) is the building
305
load met by PV generation and Limport(ti) is the load met by grid import, then the self-
306
consumption and self-sufficiency are given by Equation(3) and Equation(4) respectively.
307
!" #1234*56,
789:;
6<7
12=>=*56,
789:;
6<7 ?@AABC #C12=>=*56,D12EFG>H=*56,
789:;
7<7 C
789:;
6<7 12=>=*56,
789:;
6<7 C? @AAB
Equation(3)
!! #1234*56,
789:;
6<7
1I=>=*56,
789:;
6<7 ?@AABC #C1I=>=*56,D1I6JG>H=*56,
789:;
7<7 C
789:;
6<7 1I=>=*56,
789:;
6<7 C? @AAB
Equation(4)
Note that these measurable metrics are likely to be higher than the true SC and SS as ti
308
increases, because any non-simultaneous imports and exports within the half hour time
309
interval are treated as simultaneous (Marshall, Bruce, et al.).
310
The potential emissions reductions from the modelled PV systems were calculated by
311
multiplying the current indirect (Scope 2) emissions factor for consumption of electricity
312
purchased from the grid in New South Wales (0.83 kgCO2-e/kWh (Department of
313
Environment and Energy, 2017)) by the expected annual energy generation from the system,
314
and subtracting the estimated embodied carbon emissions from the manufacture, installation,
315
operation and decommissioning of the PV system (0.045 kgCO2-e/kWh (Hsu, O’Donoughue,
316
et al., 2012)). These avoided emissions for the maximum PV at each site are shown in Table
317
1.
318
4. Method: Financial Modelling
319
4.1. Financial settings and metrics
320
As commonly used in the literature (Sommerfeldt and Madani, 2017), the Net Present Value
321
(NPV) of annual savings compared to business as usual (BAU) was used to compare the
322
benefits of different technical arrangements and PV system sizes, calculated under a range of
323
financial settings. Note that for this study, the modelling was used to assess overall outcomes
324
for the building, without consideration of the distribution of financial benefits between
325
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
10
residents, owners and the strata body. For transparency, and to avoid dependence on arbitrary
326
projections of future electricity costs, only a single year of operation was modelled with
327
capital expenditure amortised at a discount rate of 6% to calculate monthly repayments.
328
In general, the Net Present Value (NPV) of an initial investment CO after time T is defined as
329
the sum of cashflows Ft for each time period t and is given by Equation(5) for a discount rate
330
d.
331
KLM #CN O5
*@P0,5
Q
5RS TCUV
Equation(5)
If Et,s and Ot,s are the electricity cost and operating cost in period t for scenario s and
UV-W
is the
332
capital cost for that scenario, the NPV relative to the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario is
333
given by Equation(6).
334
Typical residential PV installations in NSW can currently expect payback within five to seven
335
years (Martin, 2017) and there is evidence (Altmann, 2013, Roberts, Bruce, et al., 2019) that
336
the high turnover of apartment owners (ABS, 2016) means that the cost of a sustainability
337
upgrade to an apartment building must be recouped within a few years if it is to be attractive
338
to owners purely on the basis of energy cost savings. However, as discussed in Section 4.2,
339
the lifetime of a PV system (allowing for inverter replacement) is likely to exceed 25 years,
340
which is also a typical mortgage period for purchasing an apartment. The model was therefore
341
tested for sensitivity to amortisation periods for the capital expenditure of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25
342
years.
343
4.2. PV capital and operating costs
344
Average installed costs (after Federal government subsidies and Federal goods and services
345
tax (GST) of 10%) for residential and commercial PV installations in NSW of $1.01 to $1.84
7
346
per Watt (Solar Choice, 2018) were used to calculate the capital costs of the PV systems.
347
PV module lifetimes of 25 years have been assumed, with inverter replacement after ten years
348
included at between $0.31/W and $1.10/W. Other operating costs, including replacement of
349
electrical balance-of-system components and occasional cleaning, are likely to be low in
350
comparison to decreases in inverter costs, and have therefore been omitted from this study.
351
Full details are given in Appendix A.
352
4.3. Embedded network capital and operating costs
353
In Australia, the cost of installing electrical supply and metering infrastructure for greenfield
354
apartment buildings is borne by the developer, who then gifts the equipment to the
355
distribution network service provider (DNSP). For an embedded network on a greenfield site,
356
capital costs are similar to those for multiple grid connections, plus installation of a parent or
357
gateway meter at a cost of around $2000 (Roberts, Personal conversations with embedded
358
network operators, 2017) with ownership passed to the strata body. However, retrofitted
359
embedded networks are likely to require the additional cost of replacing child meters, as even
360
where suitable interval meters have already been installed, they are owned by the DNSP
361
7
All costs in this paper are AU$ where AU$1.00 = US$ 0.754 (Bloomberg, 2018)
KLMW#CNX5-YZ[TX5-W T\5-W
*@P 0,5
Q
5RS TCUV-W
Equation(6)
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
11
which has no regulatory obligation to transfer them to the ENO and may, indeed, have an
362
incentive to resist EN installation. Similarly, DNSP requirements, as well as building
363
characteristics, will influence the level of additional expenditure that may be required for
364
upgrading outdated wiring, switchboards or meter rooms. For this study, sensitivity to capital
365
costs has been modelled using three settings (capex_low, capex_med and capex_high) with
366
costs of $2,000, $20,000 and $50,000 per site, respectively, in addition to $400 per unit for
367
the child meter installations.
368
The operational costs of an electricity retailer in the energy market have been estimated by the
369
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to be $230 (15% of the average
370
customer bill) per average NSW residential customer (ACCC, 2017). In an EN, these costs
371
(meter-reading, billing, marketing, customer-assistance and risk management for bad
372
customer debts) are borne by the ENO with an additional cost for maintenance of the EN. As
373
actual EN operating costs are obscured by commercial confidentiality, a value of $250 per
374
customer has been chosen to align with these estimated retailer costs. A rule requiring ENOs
375
to appoint an Embedded Network Manager (ENM) with responsibility for facilitating EN
376
customers wishing to leave the EN and access the retail market (AEMC, 2015b) has recently
377
come into force but, as there is uncertainty in the possible exemptions to this requirement and
378
the costs associated with appointing an ENM, it has not been possible to include this
379
additional OPEX cost in the study.
380
4.4. Customer tariff structure and rates
381
With hundreds of retail tariffs available in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM),
382
defining ‘Business as Usual’ is not without its challenges. Retail tariffs represent bundled
383
network tariffs and energy costs, along with various additional costs including environmental
384
levies and retailer costs and margins. Two types of tariffs are available to residential
385
customers of one of the 70 electricity retailers (AER, 2018) operating in the NEM. Standing
386
Offer tariffs, once regulated but now set by retailers, generally offer higher rates but greater
387
price certainty and some additional consumer protections compared to the market retail offers
388
taken by the majority of customers. The total bill of a ‘representative customer’ on a
389
‘representative market offer’ in NSW in 2016 was equivalent to a 15% discount off the
390
standing offer tariff (AEMC, 2016). Therefore, for the Business-as-Usual (BAU) and BTM
391
scenarios in this study, all customers were assumed to be paying their retailer a market tariff
392
equivalent to the 2017 standing offer Time of Use (TOU) tariff from the ‘Retailer of Last
393
Resort’ in the relevant network area for the case study (Energy Australia, 2017), with a 15%
394
discount applied to all fixed and volumetric components.
395
All NSW solar feed-in tariffs (FiTs) are currently flat rate and in the range 6-17 c/kWh
396
depending on the particular retailer and general tariff offering, with the majority below the
397
state regulator’s ‘all time benchmark’ rate which is 12.8 c/kWh for 2017-18 and set to drop to
398
8-9 c/kWh for 2018-19 (IPART, 2018). For this study, the sensitivity of PV value to the
399
current FiT rate was tested using FiTs of 12c, 8c and even zero for all customers.
400
4.5. Tariffs at the parent meter
401
A key driver for embedded networks is that the size of an aggregated building load is likely to
402
trigger access to a commercial ‘large energy consumer’ tariff (comprising a regulated network
403
component and a market retail energy component) at the parent meter, with typical rates lower
404
than residential tariffs. In the relevant network area, the network component, which is
405
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
12
dependent on the voltage level, has a relatively high ratio of fixed and capacity to volumetric
406
charges, with the daily capacity charge based on the customer’s peak load in the preceding
407
12-month period. The energy component, determined by negotiation with the retailer and
408
therefore subject to a high degree of variability and to a lack of transparency, is likely to be
409
significantly lower than the estimated 14.63 c/kWh paid by a representative NSW residential
410
retail customer (AEMC, 2018) in 2017/18, and to include a TOU component. We have tested
411
sensitivity to a range of high (‘TOU12’) and low (‘TOU9’) market prices from early 2018
412
(combined with the applicable network tariff) and to FiTs of zero, 8 c/kWh and 12 c/kWh at
413
the parent meter. Full details of these parent tariffs are given in Appendix B.
414
4.6. Costs for PV shared behind the meter
415
Installation of a PV system configured to share generation behind the meter (Figure 1(c)) will
416
also require capital expenditure for distribution and metering infrastructure and will incur
417
operating costs for meter reading, billing, and related services. We modelled two financial
418
arrangements currently being trialled in Australian jurisdictions. For the first (btm_s_u and
419
btm_s_c), capital costs of $4950 per site and $490 per customer are added to the PV capital
420
costs and a monthly metering and billing charge of $4.99 per customer is added to the total
421
bill for the building. These costs could be shared equally between all solar customers or
422
covered by the strata body. In the second arrangement (btm_p_u and btm_p_c), these costs (as
423
well as the PV capital cost) are met by the solar retailer (Allume, 2016) who leases the
424
roofspace from the strata body at no cost. Each customer then enters a rolling power purchase
425
agreement (PPA) with the solar retailer for the purchase of self-consumed generation at
426
around 18c + GST / kWh, and for exported generation at the customer’s FiT rate.
427
4.7. Cost of avoided emissions
428
Although outcomes in the Australian electricity market are currently distorted by the lack of a
429
carbon pricing mechanism, the country is already experiencing the effects of climate change
430
(CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, 2015) and future climate mitigation and adaptation
431
represents a real societal cost. We have therefore included the NPV of avoided emissions
432
using a carbon price of AUD 79.53
8
/tCO2, being the mid-point of the range for a 2020 carbon-
433
price consistent with the Paris temperature target as reported by the High Level Commission
434
on Carbon Prices (Stern and Stiglitz, 2017).
435
8
USD 60.00 (Bloomberg, 2018)
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
13
5. Results: Electricity Flows
436
5.1. Import and export
437
Figure 2 illustrates the effect of aggregation on PV self-consumption over three summer days
438
for a typical VB (at site a44_f4_cp17 in Table 1), showing building load under BAU as well
439
as for the largest possible PV system under different arrangements. Utilising the PV to meet
440
only CP load (comprising 17% of the total building load) only reduces imports slightly and
441
allows significant export, even on a cloudy day. Connecting 17% of the PV capacity to the CP
442
load and connecting an individual 1.4 kWp system to each apartment significantly reduces
443
import and export (as shown by the blue line) but still results in daily periods of simultaneous
444
import and export. Finally, the generation of a single PV system shared between CP and
445
apartments according to instantaneous load (regardless of whether behind the meter or
446
through an embedded network), substantially reduces imports and exports as PV generation is
447
applied to meet aggregated internal building loads.
448
5.2. Self-consumption and self-sufficiency
449
Recall that Table 1 shows the average SC of generation from the maximum PV system at each
450
site, with the PV applied to CP load only, to CP and unit loads as individual BTM systems, or
451
to the aggregated building load, either through an embedded network or behind the meter.
452
Note that, for buildings with a low PV ratio, while SC of 100% can be achieved through
453
applying the PV to aggregated load, this can also be achieved by supplying CP only, while
454
using the available roof space for individual systems to supply apartments as well (btm_i_c)
455
may reduce overall SC. However, where there is a high PV ratio and low CP ratio (a situation
456
common to many older low-rise apartment buildings), SC can be increased up to eight-fold by
457
applying the PV generation to aggregated load rather than CP only.
458
Figure 3(a) and (b) show the variation of SC and SS with PV system size up to the maximum
459
rooftop capacity of each VB, with the PV applied to the aggregated building load. For sites
460
with sufficient roof space, shared PV systems between 1.5 kWp and 3 kWp per apartment can
461
provide around a third of the annual load. Some of the variation in these metrics between sites
462
Figure 2: Total import and export for site a44_f4_cp17 with Max PV (76.75kWp) over two days
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
14
is due to differences in the yield of the PV systems, which has been taken as proportional to
463
the yield of the maximum system for each site and is therefore dependent on the roof form
464
and shading of the building. However, it is also possible to discern a trend of increasing SC
465
with increasing CP Ratio, as CP typically has a higher proportion of daytime load than
466
apartments.
467
Figure 3(c) shows the improvement in both SC and SS that can be achieved through applying
468
a shared PV system (whether BTM or through an EN) compared to individual PV systems for
469
units and common property. Note that for individual systems, SS and SC are highly dependent
470
on CP ratio, with the greatest benefits of shared PV evident for three or four storey buildings
471
with a low CP ratio (for example, a48_f4_cp09 and a44_f4_cp17).
472
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 3: PV System (a) self-consumption and (b) self-sufficiency when applied to
aggregated building loads, and (c) compared with application to individual loads for
each of the VBs up to their maximum system size per unit
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
15
6. Results & Discussion: Financial
473
6.1. Technical arrangements compared
474
Figure 4 shows the NPV of savings relative to BAU averaged across all households in all VBs
475
with the maximum possible PV system installed at each site, under different technical
476
arrangements and with the financial settings shown.
477
Without consideration of avoided carbon emissions, the addition of pv_max applied to CP
478
load has a positive NPV for all sites, but for sites with low CP ratio / high PV ratio the cost
479
savings are marginal. The addition of Maximum PV as individual systems for units and CP
480
(btm_i_c) is less beneficial than CP only for all sites, and, for sites with low CP ratio / high
481
PV ratio, worse than BAU due to the low SC achieved.
482
Figure 4: NPV of average annual household savings under different
technical arrangements for the VBs (ordered by decreasing number
of apartments) with max_pv
Figure 5: NPV of average annual
household savings with 1.0kWp
/unit for the five VBs that have
sufficient roof space for the PV
It can be seen that for larger sites, particularly those with over 100 apartments, the most
483
significant savings are associated with embedded networks. EN benefits are derived from the
484
reduced energy and network tariffs accessed by aggregating electricity loads at a single point
485
of grid connection, and so are sensitive to the (non-regulated) energy component of the tariff.
486
Conversely, for the smallest building, the capex and opex costs of an EN (in the capex_med
487
scenario) exceed the benefits, even when mitigated by the addition of PV. For the (mostly
488
high- or medium-rise) buildings with low PV ratio / high CP ratio, distribution of shared PV
489
BTM is less beneficial than for low-rise buildings and is worse than BAU for some sites.
490
In Figure 5, which shows the same information for PV systems sized at 1.0 kWp/unit for the
491
five sites that have sufficient roof capacity, the benefits of sharing PV BTM over individual
492
systems are more consistently evident. In all the scenarios shown in both charts, the addition
493
of PV to an EN (as discussed in Section 6.2) increases the savings.
494
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
16
If the value of avoided carbon emissions, as described in Section 4.7, are added to the savings,
495
the benefits of adding PV are evident in all scenarios, although insufficient to create a positive
496
NPV for shared BTM systems at the minority of low PV ratio / high CP ratio sites, or for an
497
EN at the smallest site unless maximum PV is applied.
498
6.2. Embedded networks
499
Figure 6(a) shows the dependence of the benefits of an EN (without PV) on the parent tariff
500
and the amortisation period. While large buildings show clear benefit from an EN under most
501
scenarios, short term cost recovery and a high parent tariff can undermine the benefits. Note,
502
however, that the aggregated loads of larger buildings are also more likely to attract
503
favourable retail tariffs at the parent meter than those for smaller buildings. Figure 6(b) shows
504
the range (indicated by the box tails) of average annual household savings across the 50 VBs
505
at each site (but does not include variability between households within each VB). Significant
506
savings can be accessed through retrofitting an EN, even where installation costs are high, if
507
these capex costs can be shared between 100 or more apartments, while for buildings with
508
fewer than 50 apartments the viability of an EN is highly building-specific, with sensitivity to
509
the EN installation costs as well as to the demand characteristics of the building. At these
510
sites, the operating costs, including ENM fees, also become critical to EN viability. However,
511
it is important to note that, for greenfield buildings, the capital costs of an embedded network
512
may not be any higher than for an ‘on market’ arrangement, which would make the EN a
513
favourable option in a wider range of scenarios than for brownfield sites.
514
(a)
(b)
Figure 6: NPV of average annual houshold savings for EN without PV, showing (a) effect of retail
tariff and amortisation period and (b) variability across VBs and between capex scenarios
Adding the maximum possible PV to the EN marginally reduces costs for all sites if capital
515
expenditure is amortised over 20 years (Figure 4), but for the sites with fewer apartments and
516
higher PV ratio, this is dependent on the FiT available at the parent meter, without which the
517
PV system size must be constrained to increase SC and reduce costs. Figure 7 demonstrates
518
that removing the FiT for max_pv systems with low SC can negate EN savings, while
519
increasing it to 12 c/kWh increases benefits. The significance of the negotiated retail tariff is
520
also shown, with the greatest benefits of reduced tariffs accruing to sites with high average
521
demand (see Table 1).
522
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of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
17
Figure 7: NPV of Savings for EN with max PV under different parent tariff and FiT scenarios
523
For the sites with the roof capacity to allow PV systems of 1 kWp/unit or larger, Figure 8
524
shows the financial impact of different PV capacities installed in an EN for different
525
investment periods. For all these sites, adding PV reduces NPV if capital costs must be repaid
526
in five years, but over 10 years or longer, PV systems between 500 W and 1 kW per
527
apartment (likely to achieve 80% self-consumption) can reduce overall costs for all sites, even
528
in the absence of a FiT at the parent meter. With a FiT comparable to the retail component of
529
the import tariff available at the parent meter, larger systems (up to 3 kWp/unit) can be cost
530
neutral or better over 20 years, bearing in mind that, except for the smallest building with 20
531
apartments, these benefits are additional to EN savings.
532
Figure 8: Effect of PV size and financial settings on NPV for EN
6.3. Shared PV behind the meter
533
Figure 9 shows that the benefit of individual PV systems serving all units and CP decreases
534
for systems above 0.5 kWp/unit for these 5 sites in the absence of a FiT (and even with a FiT
535
for some sites). However, a shared BTM arrangement benefits from the reduced capital $/W
536
cost of a larger system (offset against the additional capital cost of the BTM distribution and
537
metering infrastructure) as well as the increased SC afforded by aggregating loads. In the
538
absence of a FiT, the aggregation benefits of a shared system in reducing SC are most
539
pronounced for systems above 1 kWp/unit, but benefits of PV are reduced for both individual
540
and shared arrangements, so systems above 1.0-1.5 kWp/unit (if capex is repaid over ten
541
years) or 1.5-2.0 kWp/unit (if repaid over 20 years) are not financially attractive. However, in
542
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
18
the presence of an 8 c/kWh FiT, shared systems up to 2.5 kWp/unit (where there is available
543
roof space) show significant benefit even over 10 years. It is worth noting, however, that if
544
some scale economies can be realised by installing multiple individual PV systems or a large
545
microinverter system with individual panels applied to different apartment loads, the benefits
546
of sharing the PV are reduced.
547
Figure 9 also presents the NPV of average annual savings if purchasing shared PV generation
548
through a Solar PPA (at 18c/kWh for energy consumed, see Section 4.6) which is preferable
549
to the upfront purchase over the short term and in the absence of a FiT (with the solar retailer
550
therefore making a loss), but will sustain a profit for the retailer over the longer term if a FiT
551
is available.
552
As would be expected, considering that CP often has greater daytime load than apartments,
553
savings for BTM PV systems (whether shared or individual) supplying CP as well as
554
apartments are greater in all scenarios than for systems supplying apartments only, except for
555
the site with a CP Ratio of only 9%, where NPV is equal for some settings.
556
Figure 9: NPV of annual savings for shared BTM and individual BTM for different FiTs and investment
terms
7. Conclusions
557
The findings of our study suggest that the increased self-consumption and self-sufficiency
558
brought about by application of a shared PV system to aggregated loads across an apartment
559
building can be translated into financial benefits for households, in the right circumstances.
560
Behind the meter sharing of PV systems sized at 1.0–1.5 kWp/unit offers a means of avoiding
561
the regulatory complexities of embedded networks and can be preferable to individual
562
systems, provided economies of scale reduce capital costs and the strata body or a third-party
563
retailer is able to manage the risks associated with tariff uncertainty and resident turnover
564
over the longer term. However, larger systems are dependent on ongoing availability of export
565
FiTs for profitability.
566
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
19
For buildings with between 40 and 100 apartments, the relative benefits of individual, EN and
567
BTM arrangements were shown to be highly sensitive to building-specific factors including
568
installation costs, load profile and financial settings. Although the ten buildings modelled
569
cover a diverse range of apartment numbers, floors and CP load, we cannot draw definitive
570
conclusions for the broader building stock from this limited building set. However, the results
571
suggest that embedded networks, allowing access to commercial retail tariffs, are likely to be
572
the most financially beneficial option for buildings with 100 or more apartments, if the
573
regulatory barriers can be overcome. While the most favourable use of PV for these (and for
574
smaller sites with a low PV ratio) is to apply it to CP load only, adding shared PV sized at
575
1.0-1.5 kWp/unit to an EN also shows increased benefits, even allowing for capex recovery
576
over 10 years if a FiT is available and over 20 years with no FiT.
577
With regulatory changes ongoing in Australia (AEMC, 2017), it is not clear how the
578
additional ENM requirement will affect EN costs, nor whether requirements for ENOs to
579
become authorised electricity retailers will disproportionately benefit the large, incumbent
580
retailers who may have little incentive to support collective RE deployment (Roberts, Passey,
581
et al., 2017).
582
As BTM battery storage becomes more prevalent in the residential market, it would be useful
583
to explore how the addition of shared storage to the PV arrangements discussed above could
584
increase self-consumption and self-sufficiency and provide opportunities to reduce volumetric
585
and/or demand charges, particularly under an EN arrangement, and how this would affect the
586
value of shared PV. Note also that the results presented here only address total benefits across
587
the building, and that these benefits will be shared unevenly between customers with different
588
load characteristics and between the owner occupiers, landlords and tenants of the apartments,
589
while the financial settings will also have implications for the profitability of retailers, ENOs
590
and DNSPs. There is a need for detailed analysis of the distribution of costs and benefits
591
between these different stakeholders under a range of financial settings, in order to fully
592
understand the incentives for consumers under these communal arrangements.
593
Acknowledgements
594
The authors wish to thank Gareth Huxham of EnergySmart Strata for the provision of the
595
common property load data used in the study. We gratefully acknowledge support provided
596
for this research by a grant from Energy Consumers Australia, a studentship from the CRC for
597
Low Carbon Living and an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship.
598
Declaration of interests: none.
599
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This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
24
Appendix A: PV Capital Costs
793
Average installed costs (after Federal government subsidies and Federal goods and services
794
tax (GST) of 10%) for residential and commercial PV installations in NSW were used to
795
calculate the capital costs of the PV systems (Solar Choice, 2018) and are shown in Table 3
9
.
796
Although PV panels have expected lifetimes exceeding 25 years (Branker, Pathak, et al.,
797
2011) and 25-year warrantees are now common, inverter replacement is likely during the
798
lifetime of the system and constitutes the largest ongoing cost for a PV system (Branker,
799
Pathak, et al., 2011). In line with other studies (Branker, Pathak, et al., 2011, Heacox, 2010),
800
and given the availability of ten-year warrantees from some manufacturers (2018, Sol
801
Distribution, 2017), a lifetime of ten years for inverters has been assumed, with replacement
802
inverter costs based on median wholesale prices (Solar Juice, 2018) in each range plus
803
estimated installation costs, and a typical retail margin of 24% plus GST. It should be noted
804
that although inverter lifetimes significantly greater than ten years are unlikely to be cost
805
effective in the near future, inverter costs are likely to continue to fall as manufacturing
806
volumes increase (Navigant Consulting Inc, 2006). Other operating costs, including
807
replacement of electrical balance-of-system components and occasional cleaning, are likely to
808
be low in comparison to decreases in inverter costs, and have been omitted from this study;
809
nevertheless, the PV system costs used, particularly for 15- and 25-year lifetimes, may be
810
conservative.
811
Table 3: PV system and inverter costs
PV System Size (kWp)
Installed System Cost ($ / Watt)
Inverter Replacement Cost
Min
Max
Before Subsidy
With Subsidy
($ / Watt)
0
1.5
2.49
1.84
1.1
1.5
2
2.35
1.7
1.1
2
3
2.21
1.56
0.95
3
4
1.9
1.25
0.8
4
5
1.75
1.1
0.83
5
7
1.66
1.01
0.65
7
10
1.73
1.08
0.65
10
20
1.85
1.2
0.65
20
30
1.83
1.18
0.42
30
50
1.81
1.16
0.42
50
70
1.77
1.12
0.31
70
100
1.75
1.1
0.31
100
1.73
1.08
0.31
812
Appendix B: Commercial Tariffs at the Parent Meter
813
The tariff paid by the ENO at the parent meter would comprise a regulated network
814
component and a market retail energy component. In the relevant network area of the study,
815
the network component for a low voltage connection would be EA305 or EA310, depending
816
on annual load. These network tariffs have a relatively high ratio of fixed and capacity to
817
volumetric charges, as shown in Table 4, with the daily capacity charge based on the
818
customer’s peak load in the preceding 12-month period.
819
9
All costs in this paper are AU$ where AU$1.00 = US$ 0.754 (Bloomberg, 2018)
This is a preprint: original submitted version. The published version of the article Mike B. Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, A comparison
of arrangements for increasing self-consumption and maximising the value of distributed photovoltaics on apartment buildings, Solar
Energy, Volume 193, 2019, Pages 372-386, ISSN 0038-092X is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.09.067
25
The energy and retail component, determined by negotiation with the retailer and therefore
820
subject to a high degree of variability and to a lack of transparency, is likely to be
821
significantly lower than the estimated 14.63 c/kWh paid by a representative NSW retail
822
customer (AEMC, 2018) in 2017/18, and to include a TOU component. We have used a range
823
of high (‘TOU12’) and low (‘TOU9’) market prices from early 2018 plus environmental
824
charges of 1.71 c/kWh and GST.
825
Table 4: Commercial tariffs payable at the parent meter
Component
Name
Annual Energy
Use
(MWh)
Fixed
Charge
(c / day)
Peak
Rate
(c / kWh)
Shoulder
Rate
(c / kWh)
Off-peak
Rate
(c / kWh)
Capacity
Charge
(c/kVA/day)
Network
(ex GST)
(Ausgrid, 2017b)
EA305
160-750 MWh
1905.85
4.95
2.27
1.26
35.74
EA310
> 750 MWh
2403.13
4.40
2.11
1.39
35.74
Retail / Energy
(ex GST)
TOU9
9.00
9.00
6.50
TOU12
12.00
12.00
9.00
Environmental Charges
1.71
1.71
1.71
Combined tariff
(inc GST)
EA305_TOU9
2096.435
17.226
14.278
10.417
39.314
EA305_TOU12
2096.435
20.526
17.578
13.167
39.314
EA310_TOU9
2643.443
16.621
14.102
10.56
39.314
EA310_TOU12
2643.443
19.921
17.402
13.31
39.314
Although avoided transmission use of service costs may be paid for embedded generation
826
where network benefit is demonstrated (Ausgrid, 2017a), it is unusual, though possible, for
827
commercial customers to receive a FiT applied to PV export. However, for this study, we
828
have tested sensitivity to FiTs of 8c/kWh and 12c/kWh at the parent meter, in line with the
829
state regulator’s ‘all time benchmark’ rate for retail FiTs in 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively
830
(IPART, 2018), as well as to zero payment for exported generation.
831
832
... As mentioned above, one of the most important goals of designing local energy markets among small-scale prosumers is to bring selfsufficiency which increases the systems' resiliency. In this regard, authors in [12] have investigated three different financial scenarios to increase the self-consumption factor of some PV-equipped apartments through the peer-to-peer (P2P) market. Similar research is conducted in [13] for trading energy among such PV-equipped apartments. ...
... Inequalities (8)- (12) represent that the imported or exported energy carriers by the prosumers are restricted and less than their physical capacity. ...
... (8)-(12) are replaced with (37)-(41) in prosumers' problem. ...
Article
Due to the significant strides made in renewable energy generating units, they are now an appealing choice for supplying energy with various benefits. Furthermore, the aggregation of different energy generators and resources and the rise of energy conversion facilities, like combined heat and power (CHP), have paved the way for a new category of multi-energy prosumers. This research presents an innovative model for a local energy market structure consisting of an aggregator, prosumers, electricity, gas, and heat utility grids, and consumers. The interplay between these entities is handled as an auction model with proposed bidding strategies in which each player participates to maximize their own objective function. The numerical analysis reveals the impact of the pricing strategy on the prosumers' willingness to provide more energy during peak demand periods. Furthermore, the study highlights the potential for mutually beneficial collaborations between prosumers, which leads to reduced energy costs.
... By creating an enabling environment for collaboration and innovation, policymakers can help accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient energy system. According to research by Roberts et al. (2019), the implementation of a shared photovoltaic (PV) system to aggregate loads in an apartment building can provide significant financial benefits, as it can lead to higher levels of self-consumption and self-sufficiency of solar energy [9]. Residents will be able to use more of the solar energy generated on site, reducing their reliance on grid-supplied electricity. ...
... By creating an enabling environment for collaboration and innovation, policymakers can help accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient energy system. According to research by Roberts et al. (2019), the implementation of a shared photovoltaic (PV) system to aggregate loads in an apartment building can provide significant financial benefits, as it can lead to higher levels of self-consumption and self-sufficiency of solar energy [9]. Residents will be able to use more of the solar energy generated on site, reducing their reliance on grid-supplied electricity. ...
Article
Full-text available
Rising fossil fuel costs and environmental concerns are driving the search for new energy sources, particularly renewable energy. Among these sources, solar photovoltaic (PV) is the most promising in southern European countries, mainly through the use of decentralised PV systems designed to produce electricity close to the point of demand and primarily to meet local energy needs. In an urban scenario, a decentralised energy system usually operates in parallel with the grid, allowing excess power generated to be injected into the grid. Solar carports and rooftop systems are excellent examples of distributed photovoltaic systems, which are far more sustainable than large centralised systems because they do not compete for land use. Despite their operational advantages, these decentralised photovoltaic production plants, which are in most cases financed by specific energy efficiency programs, present challenges in a regulated market where the injection of energy into the electricity grid is restricted by law and support programs. The aim of this work is to integrate two different photovoltaic systems within an academic campus where the only PV source currently available is a solar car park, a solution designed both to provide shaded space for vehicles and to produce energy to be consumed within the facilities. Due to legal restrictions, surplus electricity cannot be sold to the national grid, and solar batteries to store the generated energy are expensive and have a short lifespan. Therefore, since the campus has two different grid connections and a 102.37 kWp PV system, the newly designed system to be installed on the library roof must be calculated to support the installed electricity system during the most critical working hours, determining the specific angle and orientation of the solar panels. On this basis, the energy management of a school campus is fundamental to creating a collective self-consumption system, the basis of a local energy community that can meet energy, environmental, and social objectives.
... One of the strategies to promote building energy flexibility is to focus on maximizing SC at community level. This means that energy management strategies optimize the use of locally energy generated from RES, rather than relying heavily on energy storage solutions [16] [17]. Communities that place a strong emphasis on SC are taking a step towards reducing their reliance on external energy sources [18]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Renewable Energy Communities (REC) can largely contribute to building decarbonization targets and provide flexibility through the adoption of advanced control strategies of the energy systems. This work investigates how the role of flexibility sources will be impacted by shifting towards advanced control strategies under a high penetration of variable Renewable Energy Sources, in the following years. A large residential area with diverse energy systems, building envelope configurations, and energy demand patterns is modeled with the simulation environment RECsim, a virtual testbed for the implementation of energy management strategies in REC. Photovoltaic (PV) panels, Battery Energy Storage and Thermal Energy Storage (TES) of different sizes for each household provide a realistic description of a REC which includes both consumers and prosumers. This study explores a scenario in which advanced controllers based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) replace existing Rule-Based Controllers in building energy systems across a significant number of buildings. These control policies are simulated under three different scenarios that consider consumers with different pricing schemes and TES penetration. Efficient control strategies, have demonstrated significant potential, regardless of the presence of thermal storage and ToU pricing schemes, in reducing energy demand by 12.6%, cutting energy costs by 20.8%, and enhancing self-sufficiency and self-consumption, with minimal impact on Shared Energy. Implementing a flat tariff scheme under DRL enables consumers to increase their energy demand during periods of PV generation, which is particularly advantageous in a REC. Also, this approach lowers overall energy demand by 12.6% and boosts self-sufficiency, and it also decreases electricity exports from the REC to the grid by 18.2% compared to a ToU tariff scheme. When using ToU tariffs, thermal storage can be used to achieve cost savings, but total Shared Energy decreases, as do self-sufficiency and self-consumption of the REC. The results indicate that in a REC with high variable renewable energy and decentralized control, consumers using TES and ToU tariffs with peak prices during high irradiance periods may not be beneficial for the grid compliance. In conclusion, the coupling between DRL and thermal storage should be supported by more innovative pricing schemes for RECs and/or coordinated energy management, although it requires advanced communication and monitoring infrastructure.
... The multi-owned buildings have been devoid of renewable energy support both in practice and literature. Roberts, et al. [28] paved the way by focusing on the technical arrangements of solar PV on apartment buildings, while Syed, et al. [29] concentrated on the performance of solar PV systems. Certain studies explored realms ranging from economic utility [30] to policy evaluations [31]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Adopting Renewable Energy Systems (RES) in Multi-Owned Buildings (MOBs) is critical for achieving sustainability goals, yet the equitable allocation of energy from a jointly-owned RES to individual apartments remains overlooked in practice and literature. Current practices, rooted in models of common cost allocation, fail to address the dynamic traits of energy allocation and disregard the energy entitlement of each apartment, necessitating a tailored approach for renewable energy allocation in MOBs. This paper emphasises energy entitlement and introduces a novel, evidence-based decision-making framework assessing nine distinct energy allocation models for their suitability in diverse MOB typologies, characterised by physical and social factors, and presents a ranked list. Our findings reveal extensive variation in model suitability depending on the building typology. Equal energy allocation minimised financial disparities, while demand-based allocation was significantly effective for older, mid-rise buildings with fewer tenants. Conversely, the flat-fee model was found unsuitable regardless of building type. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the suitable model for a building typology may not always align with the objectives of RES installation, thus endorsing an ‘objective proximity’ analysis. The proposed framework serves as a valuable guide for stakeholders, including the owners’ corporations, policymakers, and industries, to make well-informed decisions for a smooth transition to renewable energy. It lays the foundation for potential expansion to other building types while underscoring the necessity for adaptive policies in promoting RES adoption.
... In addition to lower per-unit costs for the solar assets, shared power generation and consumption in energy communities can result in higher cost savings for their members compared to the benefits for individual prosumers [54]. In addition, shared assets, load aggregation [55], and shared storage [56] can further raise self-consumption and autonomy in such communities compared to individual solutions [57]. However, shared self-consumption is not possible in Mayotte at the moment, as the regulatory framework is not fully developed yet. ...
Article
Full-text available
Citizen-driven approaches are promising to overcome the challenges in the energy transition of geographical islands. However, the economic profitability of related activities must be ensured to achieve the intrinsic and sustainable uptake of related solutions in an island’s communities. Here, we investigate the long-term (2020–2054) economic profitability of solar-based prosumption on islands belonging to the European Union (EU), soft-linking energy system modelling and actor-related cash-flow analysis. This combination considerably extends common assessments of the profitability of renewable energy technology and long-term projections of island energy systems. We base our case study on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, discussing household affordability and the socio-economic impact of prosumerism. These topics are relevant to transferability on non-EU islands. The profitability of investments in PV depends on (i) the size of the PV system, with larger systems (>9 kWp) profiting from lower specific investment costs compared to smaller systems; (ii) the time of investment, with more profitable investments to be expected in early periods; (iii) the level of decarbonization of the entire energy sector, with an ongoing decarbonization reducing the compensation or energy-saving possibilities; and (iv) the market behavior, with the practice of feeding in all electricity produced rather than self-consuming energy offering a higher expected return on investment under current feed-in-tariff (FiT) compensation schemes. We introduce various policy measures to improve solar rooftop PV profitability and discuss their trade-offs and effectiveness. While indirect subsidies via FiT are generally effective in improving PV profitability, they undermine efforts to incentivize decentralized self-consumption. From the perspective of harmonizing efforts in the energy transition of African and European islands, we recommend a careful evaluation of the trade-offs in relevant regulations required for the economic incentivization of prosumers to achieve compatibility with the principles of a citizen-driven and just energy transition. Particular attention must be paid to context-specific socio-economic characteristics, including low access to financial resources and non-financial access barriers, including legal status.
... Thus, this framework facilitates individual or collective automation Masson and al., 2022 thus contributing to the spatial occupation of technology, to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but above all it facilitates the improvement of energy efficiency and durability Zakeri and al., 2021. According to Tercan and al., 2022, maximizing self-consumption in PV systems is the most effective way to reduce energy poverty in households and remote areas, since selfconsumption can reduce the effects of regulations and market prices, electricity on users Roberts andal., 2019, Lee and In addition, for the locations of PV modules, it is important to study certain factors that affect the optimal functioning of the latter Nfaoui and al., 2020. Among these factors, the optimal inclination angle and orientation angle of the solar modules remain important points for a better production of the PV systems. ...
Article
Full-text available
This article presents an experimental study of the effect of dust fouling on the electrical performance of a PV module for different angles of inclination in a semi-arid and temperate environment. In this study, five PV modules were installed above the roof of a laboratory at a height of 3.5 m at inclinations of 0⁰, 15⁰, 30⁰, 45⁰ and 60⁰. The exposure time of the modules without cleaning is 6 months between October and April. In order to analyze the performance of the PV modules, the short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage were measured every 5 minutes. The results in this study showed that the greatest loss of energy production due to dust was noted at the level of the 15⁰ inclination with a percentage of daily loss of the order of 46% compared to the production of this same module in the case where the latter is considered clean.
... Collective self-consumption optimizes photovoltaic systems. In specific installations, nearby public and private entities can benefit from energy sharing, especially when consumption profiles differ, enhancing the photovoltaic system's utilization [31,32]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Addressing the urgent need for sustainable energy sources due to the high costs and environmental impacts of fossil fuels, this research explores the integration of decentralized solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in urban Southern European settings. Specifically, we examine the effectiveness of a solar carport PV installation at a higher education institution, focusing on the challenges of energy surplus management within regulated markets that restrict grid energy injection. Our study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative data analysis of energy production with qualitative assessments of regulatory frameworks. The innovative aspect of our method lies in the development of a smart management system tailored to circumvent legal barriers, ensuring optimal use of locally produced energy and fostering the creation of an energy community with shared energetic, environmental, and social benefits. Preliminary results demonstrate that our system not only prevents energy loss but also enhances investment return by enabling the institution to become an energy prosumer within its community. A comparative analysis with traditional energy exercises reveals that our approach significantly improves energy self-sufficiency and sustainability, positioning decentralized PV systems as a viable solution in similar urban contexts.
Conference Paper
O uso de sistemas fotovoltaicos (FV) em edifícios multi-unidades (ERM) tem despertado grande interesse nos mercados, principalmente devido aos contínuos aumentos nas tarifas de eletricidade e à busca por tecnologias de conversão de recursos energéticos renováveis capazes de reduzir as emissões de carbono para atmosfera. Esse artigo tem como objetivo realizar uma revisão bibliométrica sobre a utilização de sistemas de conversão FV para ERM. Procuramos categorizar as áreas de pesquisa nesse campo, identificar benefícios, desafios, aspectos técnicos e econômicos por meio da análise de trinta artigos científicos publicados a partir de 2019, coletados nas bases de dados Elsevier, Scopus e Google Scholar. Dos artigos científicos selecionados, 10% abordam barreiras e facilitadores, 23% concentram-se nas necessidades e disponibilidades energéticas, 10% examinam as possibilidades de mercado, 10% exploram a alocação e negociação dos sistemas, 27% investigam o tema da Fotovoltaica Integrada em Edifícios (BIPV), e 20% se relacionam com as estratégias para instalação de sistemas FV em ERM. Os principais benefícios incluem economia de custos de energia, viabilidade econômica e melhora da confiabilidade do fornecimento de energia dos sistemas elétricos. Os principais desafios incluem custos iniciais, regulamentação, planejamento energético e falta de conscientização. Especificamente para o Brasil, os autores recomendam pesquisas para mapear as fachadas de edifícios residências e comerciais multi-unidades e suas respectivas orientações, a fim de estimar a capacidade de integração de sistemas FV nas grandes cidades do Nordeste.
Article
Since the energy compensation mechanism establishment in 2012, the Brazilian matrix has exceeded forecasts for the expansion of PV application on rooftops. However, even with the net metering policy support, the expansion occurs disproportionately among the different modalities of distributed generation, with multi-unit buildings occupying a secondary role. Such disproportionality tends to continue, since rationalities that guide key institutions are not clear and shared. In such context, the objective of our research is to identify drivers and rationalities by means of the voices of different specialists involved in the diffusion of PV technology in multi-unit residential buildings of Brasilia, Brazil’s capital. Beyond a purely quantitative study or a personal interpretation, our research presents firsthand different viewpoints on the most relevant issues related to PV adoption on Brazilian rooftops. Hence, this research also sheds light on the drivers and strategies for PV diffusion in multi-unit buildings, highlighting potential conflicting policymaking trends in Brazil.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Over the last two decades, grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems have increased from a niche market to one of the leading power generation capacity additions annually. In 2018 the total installed photovoltaic electricity generation capacity exceeded 500 GW. Another doubling is forecasted until the early 2020s. Therefore, the further development is coupled with the question at what prices solar photovoltaic electricity can be provided and delivered to the customers. The installation of PV systems for self-consumption is already now an interesting option for many people but in general limited to those who have access to a rooftop they own or can use. A new envelopment to enable residents of multi apartment buildings to commonly use electricity generated by a PV system (collective self-consumption) is a relatively new development and is still facing a lot of administrative and regulatory challenges.
Article
Full-text available
Understanding of residential electricity demand has application in efficient building design, network planning and broader policy and regulation, as well as in planning the deployment of energy efficiency technologies and distributed energy resources with potential emissions reduction benefits and societal and household cost savings. Very few studies have explored the specific demand characteristics of apartments, which house a growing proportion of the global urban population. We present a study of apartment electricity loads, using a dataset containing a year of half-hourly electricity data for 6,000 Australian households, to examine the relationship between dwelling type, demographic characteristics and load profile. The focus on apartments, combined with the size of the data set, and the representative seasonal load profiles obtained through clustering full annual profiles, is unique in the literature. We find that median per-occupant household electricity use is 21% lower for apartments than for houses and that, on average, apartments have lower load factor and higher daily load variability, and show greater diversity in their daily peak times, resulting in a lower coincidence factor for aggregations of apartment loads. Using cluster analysis and classification, we also show the impact of dwelling type on the shape of household electricity load profiles.
Article
Full-text available
Distributed photovoltaics is playing a growing role in electricity industries around the world, while Battery Energy Storage Systems are falling in cost and starting to be deployed by energy consumers with photovoltaics. Apartment buildings offer an opportunity to apply central battery storage and shared solar generation to ag-gregated apartment and common loads through an embedded network or microgrid. We present a study of energy and financial flows in five Australian apartment buildings with photovoltaics and battery storage using real apartment interval-metered load profiles and simulated solar generation profiles, modelled using an open source tool developed for the purpose. Central batteries of 2-3 kWh per apartment can increase solar self-consumption by up to 19% and building self-sufficiency by up to 12%, and shave overall building peak demand by up to 30%. Although the economic case for battery storage applied to apartment building embedded networks is not compelling at current capital prices, with cost thresholds of AU400AU400-AU750/kWh compared to AU750AU750-AU1000/kWh for individual household systems, there are clear financial benefits to deployment of embedded networks with combined solar and battery storage systems for many sites.
Preprint
Full-text available
This paper reviews opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing photovoltaic (PV) deployment on apartment buildings, with a particular focus on the Australian experience. In 2015, residential loads account for 27% of global electricity use [1], while offsetting these loads with rooftop PV has been significant in developing a commercial global PV market and is critical to achieving COP 21 emissions targets. However, as rapid urbanisation drives increasing housing density, PV penetration in multi-occupancy housing has been limited by comparison with stand-alone housing in many jurisdictions, including in Australia despite its world-leading residential PV penetration. Given the growing commercial attractiveness of residential PV, this also raises equity concerns for apartment households. PV can potentially be installed to supply electricity to common property, to serve individual apartments, or as a resource shared between multiple apartments through embedded networks, local energy trading or ‘behind the meter’ deployment models. Our study undertook a review of the academic literature in this space and of specific Australian arrangements, as well as conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with a range of relevant stakeholders. Barriers identified include the huge variety amongst existing apartment building stock which precludes standardised retrofitting solutions, demographic factors and knowledge issues. However, the Australian regulatory context - including governance of apartment buildings, regulation of the energy market, and electricity tariff policies - also impacts on the options available to apartment residents. New models for deploying PV on apartments are emerging, including initiatives from retailers, developers and community energy organisations. While some issues are specific to the Australian context, or to buildings governed under strata-type arrangements, broader lessons can be taken from the Australian experience, including to inform the design of the regulatory framework required to facilitate widespread PV deployment across all residential housing types.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Despite potential advantages of load aggregation and scale discounts, few of Australia's 2.3 million apartment residents are amongst the country's 1.8 million solar prosumers. However, embedded networks can be used to distribute rooftop photovoltaic generation to households if split incentives and regulatory barriers are overcome. We present a model of an embedded network with PV in an Australian apartment building. Load data from real apartment households are combined with modelled PV generation to describe energy and cash flows over the course of a year. The distribution of costs and benefits between stakeholders is calculated under a range of financial arrangements. Embedded network benefits are highly sensitive to retail and wholesale energy costs at the parent meter and to site-specific capital costs. The addition of PV can, in some circumstances, increase the financial viability of an embedded network and careful tariff design can help incentivise this investment and ensure customer retention.
Technical Report
Full-text available
This short report aims at providing a brief explanation about self-consumption concept without going in-depth into statistical analysis and current status of PV self-consumption in selected countries all over the world. Based on understanding how self-consumption works and parameters to define self-consumption, the comprehensive analysis of self-consumption in keys countries will be presented in the below full report "Review and Analysis of PV Self-consumption Policies"
Article
Full-text available
This paper analyses the profitability and business models of shared, nonsubsidized PV systems’ usage in multiapartment buildings in Austria in the context of legislative amendments which came into force in July 2017. In addition, it compares the Austrian results with those of Germany, where significantly higher retail electricity prices determine the profitability benchmark. To that end, a multiobjective optimization model is developed for the optimal dimensioning of PV systems and energy storage facilities in keeping with different end user objectives, ranging from minimizing annual electricity costs to maximizing self-consumption. The results show that the profitability of shared use of nonsubsidized PV systems is marginal in Austria. This means that, based on individual apartment load profiles, the profitability gap ranges between 0 and 40 euros per apartment, whereas the consideration of the building as total load leads to a small cost-saving potential of about 90 euros for the whole building in the best case and thus profitability. In contrast, significant profitability of shared PV systems in multiapartment buildings can be achieved in Germany, where the renewable energy surcharge results in high retail electricity prices. At present, different business models, accounting and billing concepts, are being tested in these countries to learn about the best-practice concepts.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The growing adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) across Australia may represent the start of a transition of Australia's power system from a centralised generation model towards an interconnected set of embedded microgrid systems. In these systems, local trading of coincident generation and consumption is being explored, with the idea that this would encourage consumer engagement, provide more choice, and incentivise reduced use of networks (via increased balancing of loads and generation locally). However coincidence of generation and load over short time frames, and hence network benefit, can be difficult to determine using existing metering systems. There are many sites undergoing trials to determine how energy flows can be efficiently monitored and accounted for in microgrid systems. At the current time, commercial metering is generally performed on time scales greater than thirty seconds, with most metering systems measuring net flows on half-hourly intervals. This represents a barrier to accurate accounting, since the time at which nodes generate and consume energy within a wide metering period is not known. As a result, end-users may face effective penalties or avoid charges that would accrue to their generation or consumption profile under more accurate accounting. Accurate accounting for the economic benefits of embedded microgrids that result from either reductions in external network use or contributions to improved reliability, rely on sub-second level timing, and cannot be commercially factored (or incentivized) without corresponding metering. In this paper, the coincidence of generation and consumption in a micro-grid setting is examined over different timeframes using a software based simulation, and the impact of different time intervals for accounting is explored using an algorithmic theoretical approach. It is found that there are predictable trends in the way that metering time periods impact the accuracy of 'peer to peer' accounting. For the limited dataset tested, the inaccuracies were found to be small relative to overall energy consumption, however further work is required to determine whether this can be generalized across the majority of schemes.
Article
This paper reviews opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing photovoltaic (PV) deployment on apartment buildings, with a particular focus on the Australian experience. As rapid urbanisation drives increasing housing density, PV penetration in multi-occupancy housing has been limited by comparison with stand-alone housing in many jurisdictions, including in Australia despite its worldleading residential PV penetration. Given the growing commercial attractiveness of residential PV, this also raises equity concerns for apartment households. PV can potentially be installed to supply electricity to common property, to serve individual apartments, or as a resource shared between multiple apartments through embedded networks, local energy trading or ‘behind the meter’ deployment models. Our study undertook a review of the academic literature in this space and of specific Australian regulatory arrangements, as well as conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with a range of relevant stakeholders. Barriers identified include the huge variety amongst existing apartment building stock, demographic factors and knowledge issues. However, the Australian regulatory context - including governance of apartment buildings, regulation of the energy market, and electricity tariff policies - also impacts on the options available to apartment residents. New business models for deploying PV on apartments are emerging, including initiatives from retailers, developers and community energy organisations. While some issues are specific to the Australian context, or to buildings governed under strata-type arrangements, broader lessons can be taken from the Australian experience, including to inform the design of the regulatory framework required to facilitate widespread PV deployment across all residential housing types.
Article
Multiple studies show that large installations of rooftop solar PV in residential low voltage grids, typically with many single family dwellings, may cause overvoltage issues during mid-day when local consumption is low and solar PV electricity generation high. Different so-called smart grid technologies, which often requires additional control, communication and monitoring equipment have been suggested to alleviate these and related problems. In this paper, solar PV integration is studied in the context of multi-apartment buildings where the rooftop potential is significant. To this end, the medium voltage grids of two multi-apartment areas, Bärnstenen and Alabastern in Vaxjö, Sweden are used as study cases. For these areas, it is found that active smart grid control or the introduction of new controllable load is not required. This finding applies to cases with very large solar PV installations corresponding to full coverage of the available rooftops and an annual yield corresponding to about eight times the annual electricity consumption. The conclusion is that multi-apartment residential areas may be ideally suited for large-scale solar PV installations without the need for smart grid infrastructure. These findings are contrary to, but not in disagreement with previous findings for low voltage residential grids.