Optimal Selection of Small-Scale Hybrid PV-battery Systems to Maximize Economic Benefit Based on Temporal Load Data
Continued advances in PV and battery energy storage technologies have made hybrid PV-battery systems an attractive prospect for residential energy consumers. However the process to select an appropriate system is complicated by the relatively high cost of batteries, a multitude of available retail electricity plans and the removal of PV installation incentive schemes. In this paper, an optimization strategy based on an individual customer's temporal load profile is established to maximize electricity cost savings through optimal selection of PV-battery system size, orientation and retail electricity plan. Quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization is applied as the underlying algorithm given its well-suited application to problems involving hybrid energy system specification. The optimization strategy is tested using real-world residential consumption data, current system pricing and available retail electricity plans to establish the efficacy of a hybrid PV-battery solution.