RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOAD PROFILES AND GRID PARITY IN THE RESIDENTIAL SOLAR ENERGY

Abstract

In the residential sector, grid parity has been reached or is close to be reached in many countries, which means that the cost of electricity from residential photovoltaic installations is equal to or less than the retail electricity price. However, not all installations are equally profitable. The objective of this paper is to analyze the economic performance of residential self-consumption systems, particularly the effect of electric load profiles in regard to that performance. For this purpose, a simulation model is proposed to perform a comparative analysis of the profitability of different configurations of a grid-connected, residential solar system. The model is applied to several differentiated load profiles, as well as to different configurations of photovoltaic panels and batteries. The analysis shows the impact of different load profiles on self-consumption, autarchy and, ultimately, the grid parity of the installation. Keywords: Photovoltaic systems, grid connection, batteries, techno-economic simulation, load profiles, grid parity