Distributed energy storage refers to small-scale energy storage systems located at the end user site that increase self-consumption of variable renewable energy such as solar and wind energy. These systems can be centrally coordinated to offer different services to the grid, such as operational flexibility and peak shaving.
Centralized coordination of small-scale energy storage systems, such as home batteries, can offer different services to the grid, like operational flexibility and peak shaving. This paper investigates how centralized coordination versus distributed operation of residential electricity storage could impact the savings of owners.
The impact of centralized coordination of storage resources on residential consumers' annual electricity costs generally increases with the level of variable renewable generation capacity in the electricity system while inversely related to the level of flexible supply capacity.
Residential consumers can accumulate greater savings with a centralized energy system, ranging from 2-5% when operating no technology, 3-11% with Energy Energy Storage Systems (EES) alone, 2-5% with Photovoltaic (PV) alone, and 0-2% with both PV and EES.
The savings in the centralized coordination compared to the distributed scheme decline for residential energy storage as the consumer operates more onsite technologies.
Centralized scheduling can lead to lower electricity costs, as less aggregated storage capacity implies a lower ability for the system operator to reduce electricity prices. However, the passage does not directly address the electricity costs for residential scenarios.