SMART INTEGRATION OF FUTURE GRID-CONNECTED PV SYSTEMS

1 2
B. Azzopardi , Student Member, IEEE and J. Mutale , Senior Member, IEEE
Electrical Energy and Power Systems Group
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University Of Manchester, UK
1 2
brian.azzopardi@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk, j.mutale@manchester.ac.uk

ABSTRACT
Up until now smart integration of grid-connected
photovoltaic (PV) systems is a concept that has been
neglected in part due to the availability of subsidies.
These subsidies given under different forms of national
incentive schemes have made PV the fastest growing
energy source in the last few years. In the future, as
direct financial incentives and other types of subsidies to
PV systems are gradually phased out, smarter grid
interface will become an essential feature of future PV
systems design. This paper therefore explores future
design issues, under dynamic export tariffs in which the
objective is to minimize financial costs and maximize
revenues for the domestic user, as a net electricity
buyer or seller. The analysis model developed applies
Mixed Integer Programming time-series simulation. The
current typical scenario is depicted with recent time-
series of electricity prices used as export tariffs under
different household load categories within a UK climate
setting. The results suggest that energy storage in a PV
system still has only a marginal benefit under smart grid
interface. Furthermore with smart integration of PV
systems, the micro level objective to minimize costs
while maximizing revenue will be achieved with much
lower PV module efficiencies. This analysis provides an
important insight into PV micro-generator system
behavior and the potential for growth of the market for
emerging lower cost and lower efficiency PV devices.
INTRODUCTION
System upgrades to ensure efficient energy
delivery under flexible pricing regimes is becoming an
important element of electric utilities investment
portfolio. The need for micro-generator owners to be
net buyers or sellers of electricity at different times and
tariffs is on the agenda for future integration of
renewable energy sources. A number of electricity
suppliers are counting on distributed generation as part
of their supply portfolio. Therefore smart meters shall
include control and monitoring functions of consumer
devices including micro-generators. The deployment of
smart metering will probably reach 46% in Europe by
2012 whereas in North America it will increase up to
89% [1].
This is a dynamic era for utilities as distribution
systems will evolve to include renewable sources
integrated as smart micro-generator systems. This
paper investigates future grid-connected PV systems
that are planned for a dynamic interface with the grid in
the context of so called smart integration. Although it is
highly unlikely that micro-generators will have the
possibility of participating in bidding or influence market
price, PV systems will have to interact with prices and
find the best operating option. Therefore the paper
introduces the novel concept of smart integration of
future grid-connected PV systems. At present, this
dynamic interface scenario is neglected mainly due to
the subsidies currently available to cushion the high
capital costs of PV system. Thanks largely to these
subsidies PV has been the fastest growing energy
source during the last five years [2].
New designs for hybrid solar cells using
inexpensive materials and production processes are
under investigation within a consortium between the
University of Manchester and Imperial College London.
The aim of the project is to develop affordable solar
cells [3]. By sacrificing efficiency in favor of lower cost,
it is envisaged that less efficient, cheaper solar cells
with a perhaps shorter life expectancy than current
crystalline modules, may prevail.
Some work on the financial scenarios and cost
boundaries for these future solar cells has already been
undertaken and some technical boundaries identified by
lifetime-adjusted calculations considering different
lifetimes and module efficiencies [4, 5].
This paper uses an optimized time-series similar to
the model concept described in [6], establishing the
most feasible operation of a PV micro-generator with
and without energy storage, which includes any
combination of energy import, export, generation and
even storage for best financial outcome within a variable
export tariff. The assumed energy flow configuration for
a PV micro-generator is shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Energy Flow Diagram of a household with a PV
micro-generator [6]

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 METHODOLOGY
A number of studies [7-11] have optimized the
integration of PV systems in rural stand alone hybrid
systems. Many performance evaluation studies have
been carried out on grid-connected PV systems [12-15].
On the other hand an optimal unit sizing method has
been adopted using a probabilistic approach [16].
However the investigation to integrate PV systems
under dynamic electricity tariffs is still hindered by
current energy policies and support schemes availed to
high cost PV systems. The micro-level objective of PV
micro-generators, which is to maximize the benefit of
investing in a PV system by lowering the annual cost of
electricity was solved using multi-objective optimization
weighting technique subject to the constraint that there
is no export when local demand exceeds energy supply
from PV and / or storage at any particular time [6].
Hence using the same proposed concept with a Mixed
Integer Programming approach, this paper investigates
the impact of dynamic export tariffs on smart integration
of future PV systems. The problem is formulated as
follows:
Min: CostImports + CostPV + CostStorage − RevenueExports
1444442444443 14 4244 3 (1)
Annual Costs Annual Income
subject to:
- energy flow constraints illustrated in Fig. 1,
and
- only one of the imports and exports energy flow
is non-zero (using separable programming).
where:
§ the cost / revenue is the annual financial
calculation calculated by the product of the
annualized unit energy cost and the summation
of the respective yearly energy flows.
The Market Index Price (MIP) reflecting the price of
wholesale electricity in Great Britain in the short-term
market; is taken as the export price. The MIP is divided
in 30 minute segments. Hence the data was averaged
for every two segments to represent an hourly price
[17]. Fig. 2 shows the daily means and standard
deviations of yearly export tariffs based on the available
data in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The import price,
considered as fixed, is the current retail electricity price
Fig. 2 Market Index Price hourly means and standard deviation of a day
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[18]. Year 2006 had the most deviations in electricity
prices with high and low prices during a whole day,
recording higher prices than 2005 and 2007 even during
the day. In fact the electricity prices may be said to
follow a pattern, having the lowest prices during the
night hence PV generation can benefit from higher
tariffs when fed back to the grid.
The analysis requires a typical meteorological year
o
obtained from SoDa [19] (adjusted for 30 tilted south
facing roofs). Load profiles obtained from UKERC [20],
are used to evaluate smart integration of PV systems as
micro-generators. The UKERC load profiles were
filtered, sorted and averaged in hourly time steps under
4 different categories:
a. 2 Bed G & E – 2 bedroom household having
electricity and gas energy sources
b. 3 Bed G & E – 3 bedroom household having
electricity and gas energy sources
c. 3 Bed E only – 3 bedroom household having
electricity energy source only, and
d. 4 Bed G & E – 4 bedroom household having
electricity and gas energy sources
These load duration curves, shown in Fig. 3,
illustrate that domestic loads tend to have very low
demand levels (less than 500W) for the most of the
year. In the case of 3 Bed E only, the main
consumption would be storage heaters during the night
and hence the consumption during the day is very
minimal.
Fig. 3: Load Duration curves for UKERC load profiles
002365
 CASE STUDY: RESULTS and DISCUSSION Table 1 PV energy contributions

The results are based on a current typical scenario

for the UK setting. The evaluation is performed with
fixed and variable export tariffs.

Case Study Assumptions

The numerical study is based on the following main
assumptions:
- PV system operational cost of 6p/kWh: This cost
is a future target for the PV industry and claims
of systems reaching grid parity has been
announced by some companies.
- The import tariff cost at 7.12p/kWh: as
suggested for UK energy household assessment
[18].
- The export tariff cost is considered dynamic and
taken from the UK Market Price Electricity Index
[17].
2
- Available active PV module of 50m which is a
typical available area on a UK roof pitched
0 0
between 17 and 44 .
- The PV module active area facing south at a tilt
0
angle of 30 .

Case Study
All household categories had comparable ratios of
PV output usage with respect to Load, Export and
Storage. Fig. 4 shows typical annual ratios of the PV
output usage of a 3 bedroom household having
electrical and gas energy sources with energy storage
facilities. The annual PV micro-generator electrical
energy contributions to Load, Export and/or Storage for
the four household categories are tabulated in Table 1.
No energy storage facilities are suggested under
fixed tariffs and energy storage under variable export
tariffs is insignificant. It is worth noting that under Similarly all household categories had comparable
variable electricity export tariffs and with the minimum ratios of input type sources (Imports, PV and/or
efficiency boundaries, for emerging PV technologies to Storage) to meet the Load energy demand. Fig. 5
contribute favorably to the objective, households with shows typical annual ratios for Load energy flows of a 3
PV micro-generation will have at least 80% of the PV bedroom household having electrical and gas energy
energy supplied to the load under the two cases namely sources with energy storage facilities. These annual
with and without energy storage. This indicates that ratios for Load energy flows from Imports, PV and/or
there is minimal export to the grid and most of the Storage for the four household categories are tabulated
energy generated is used at source. in Table 2.

Fig. 4: Typical annual ratios of the PV output usage. Fig. 5: Typical Load energy flows.

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Table 2 Load energy demand flows

Fig. 6 Percentage of Exports from Energy Storage

Table 3 Energy exports flows

Although most of the PV output is used by the load Higher electricity tariffs will lead to higher PV
at source, the bulk of the load demand is still imported module efficiencies, more energy storage and higher
from the grid. This suggests that under smart grid renewable energy used by the on-site load.
arrangements without subsidies and with the minimum The results suggest that with smart integrated PV
efficiency boundaries, for emerging PV technologies to systems the micro-level objective can be achieved with
contribute favorably to the objective, households with lower minimum PV module efficiency boundaries, as
PV micro-generation will have more than half of their shown in Fig. 7 for systems without energy storage.
energy supplied by the grid. In fact the PV output is
supplying less than 20% of the load at source. For
households using electricity only as energy sources the
PV percentage is even lower and goes down to less
than 10% due to the higher loads during the night within
these households. It is therefore unlikely that national
renewable energy targets of electricity supply will be
attained with PV micro-generators alone under current
or future scenarios with smart grid-interface. Therefore
either a renewable energy mix will be required or
subsidies will have to remain in place for the short and
medium term in order to reach the national goals for
renewables.
Most of the stored energy is used to supply the load
at source. Fig. 6 shows typical percentage of exports
from energy storage of a 3 bedroom household having Fig. 7: Suggested PV Module Efficiencies for optimal
electrical and gas energy sources with energy storage Micro-Objective (without energy storage)
facilities. These annual percentages of exports from
energy storage facilities for the four household Furthermore, energy storage in a PV system still
categories are tabulated in Table 3. has only a marginal benefit under smart grid interface

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with a further slight increase in the recommended PV
module efficiency (Fig. 8). In fact the maximum
suggested energy storage at any time is not higher than
0.5 kWh as illustrated in Fig. 9.
Fig. 8: The difference in suggested PV Module
Efficiency between systems with energy storage to
systems without energy storage
Fig. 9: Suggested Maximum Energy Storage Capacity
for optimal Micro-Objective
CONCLUSIONS
This paper has presented a case study for smart
integration of PV systems to assess the benefit of
investing in emerging PV micro-generation with respect
to efficiency and storage requirements.
Due to the data limitations, the results are intended
solely for the purpose of illustrating the novel concept of
smart integration of a PV micro-generator.
The study suggests that incorporating energy
storage into grid connected PV systems reduces the
electrical energy cost by only a very small margin. Grid-
connected PV systems with energy storage will always
require higher solar cell efficiencies than systems
without energy storage. In this study the optimal
module efficiency difference is insignificant. This
suggests that under current electricity tariffs, with smart
grid interface and optimistic PV and energy storage
costs, low module efficiencies are viable. In reality, low
efficiency of PV technologies signifies lower cost and
hence solar cell development may be attained faster.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank The Royal Academy of
Engineering and the UK Engineering and Physical
Science Research Council (EPSRC) for their financial
support under Grant EP/E036287/1-341/1.
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