Performance of a shared solar and battery storage system in an Australian apartment building

• Published in: Energy and buildings 2020-10, Vol.225, p.110321, Article 110321
• Main Authors: Syed, Moiz Masood, Hansen, Paula, Morrison, Gregory M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Apartment buildings; Battery energy storage system; Buildings; Distributed generation; Empirical analysis; Energy; Energy consumption; Energy performance analysis; Energy storage; Onsite; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Renewable energy; Residential areas; Residential energy; Roofs; Self-sufficiency; Shared energy microgrid; Shared energy system; Solar power; Solar PV
• ISSN: 0378-7788; 1872-6178
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110321

•Empirical analysis of a solar PV and battery storage system in apartment building.•Shared energy microgrid achieving 75% self-sufficiency using PV and battery.•Shared system may be more effective than separate supply connections.•Analysis of apartment’s energy consumption and shared energy microgrid performance.•Enabling Australian apartment buildings to access PV and battery storage. This study presents the energy performance of a three unit apartment building in Perth, Western Australia equipped with a shared energy microgrid. Although there has been a dramatic growth of residential rooftop solar PV across Australia, apartment buildings and their occupants are rarely able to access the benefits associated with onsite renewable energy generation and consumption. To address this, an apartment building in Perth was fitted with a PV and battery energy storage system, with metering architecture. The microgrid configuration enabled the sharing of energy between the apartment units. A one year dataset (December 2017-December 2018) obtained from onsite pulse meters was analysed. Load profiles were assessed and grid minimisation was evaluated through self-sufficiency metric. The three unit apartment showed a 22% reduction in average yearly energy consumption against the benchmark. The findings demonstrated an overall 75% dependency of the microgrid on renewables; and suggest that a shared energy microgrid may be more effective than separate supply connections.