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PUBLICATIONS

Impact of Electricity Tariff Parameters on Net Zero Home Cost of Energy

Published

Author(s)

Andrew P. Kuo, David Holmberg, Steven T. Bushby

Abstract

Time-varying electricity rates impact the costs of operation and the value of renewable generation and storage resources. This study investigates the economic impact of electricity tariff parameters on the value of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF) and the potential benefits of adding batteries for electrical storage. The NZERTF is a highly energy-efficient house that generates as much electrical energy from the PV array as the house consumes in a year. The Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) was used to determine the homeowner's cost of energy (COE) for three different electricity tariff types (flat rate, time- of-use, and real-time-pricing) and three independent variables (energy storage size, energy sellback rate, and demand charges). The analysis was based on the installed cost of the PV system, measured house electricity consumption, commercially available battery storage system cost data, and published electricity tariffs with cost corrections for the sellback rate and demand charges. The batteries are used to store energy from the PV array or the grid when prices are low and discharge energy when prices are high. This work does not consider the value of batteries to serve various other use cases (e.g., back-up power or voltage regulation). There is no simulation of energy management (load shifting or shedding) in the house.
Citation
Technical Note (NIST TN) - 1892
Report Number
1892
NIST Pub Series
Technical Note (NIST TN)
Pub Type
NIST Pubs

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DOI Link

Keywords

cost of energy, distributed energy resources, demand charge, electricity tariff, HOMER, net- zero energy, renewable fraction, residential, sellback rate, solar photovoltaics
Buildings and Construction, Building economics, Building control systems and Alternative energy

Citation

Kuo, A. , Holmberg, D. and Bushby, S. (2015), Impact of Electricity Tariff Parameters on Net Zero Home Cost of Energy, Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1892 (Accessed April 20, 2024)

Created September 28, 2015, Updated October 12, 2021