A Comparative Evaluation of Community-Used District and Individual Battery Storage Systems for Photovoltaic Energy Systems

The significant expansion of renewable energies has led to an increased importance of storage systems. Decentralized storage solutions, including Home Battery Energy Storage Systems (HBESSs) and District Battery Energy Storage Systems (DBESSs), play a crucial role in this context. This study compares individual HBESSs with a community-used DBESS regarding the grade of autarky and self-consumption, specifically focusing on a planned residential area consisting of 36 single-family houses. A simulation tool was developed to conduct load flow simulations based on household electricity consumption, wallbox profiles for electric vehicle charging, and photovoltaic generation data across various battery capacities and system boundaries. The results demonstrate that the DBESS, compared to individual HBESSs with equivalent cumulative battery capacities, can achieve a maximum increase in the grade of autarky of up to 11.6%, alongside an 8.0% increase in the grade of self-consumption for the given use case. In terms of capacity, the DBESS allows for a saving of up to 68% compared to HBESS to achieve similar results for the studied neighborhood.