Installing energy storage systems in remote solar power plants can increase credits earned by consumers who generate their own energy by more than 60%, according to a study by TR Soluções.
In practice, the analysis shows that each 1 kWh stored during the day and injected into the electricity grid during peak hours can generate enough credits to offset up to 1,61 kWh consumed later during off-peak hours.
The study considered distributed generation (DG) plants connected to subgroup A4 (such as industries and large businesses) and operating under the White Tariff.
In this model, the energy produced throughout the day, when tariffs are lower, is stored in batteries and subsequently injected into the grid in the early evening, when energy prices are higher.
According to TR Soluções, in addition to increasing consumer profitability, the strategy can contribute to the operation of the SIN (National Interconnected System) by shifting the energy supply to times of highest demand and relieving the distribution and transmission infrastructure.
“By storing energy throughout the day and supplying it to the grid during peak hours, the market logic is reversed in favor of the consumer connected to the power plant,” said Helder Sousa, Director of Regulation at TR Soluções and one of the authors of the study.
Under the current rules for energy compensation in distributed generation, these plants operate with an adjustment factor that depends on the values of energy tariffs.
When compensation occurs at the same time the energy was generated, the ratio is 1 to 1. However, when compensation occurs at a different time, the reduction must follow the economic relationship between the energy tariffs of the respective tariff periods.
Numbers
Using the battery as a supply management tool, the study identified that the ratio between the peak-hour energy tariff and the off-peak tariff would be R$ 474,50 to R$ 295,27, resulting in an adjustment factor of 1,61.
"In other words, each 1 kWh of energy stored throughout the day and injected by the plant during peak hours becomes enough credit to offset 1,61 kWh of daytime consumption (outside of peak hours) in the low-voltage units," explained Sousa.
“In practice, storage is ceasing to be a niche technology or a mere contingency mechanism and is establishing itself as the foundation of the economic viability of the modern prosumer,” adds the director of the technology company specializing in pricing.
In addition to the benefit for the consumer, the study points out that the concentrated injection of energy during peak hours relieves the distribution and transmission network infrastructure precisely when it is most in demand, mitigating the effects of the so-called "duck curve" and reducing the risk of nighttime overloads.
"This type of demand response can mitigate the need to contract reserve capacity to meet the power requirements of the SIN," Sousa concluded.
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