Energy storage for photovoltaic power plants: Economic analysis for different ion-lithium batteries

Energy storage has been identified as a strategic solution to the operation management of the electric power system to guarantee the reliability, economic feasibility, and a low carbon footprint. In this sense, this article analyzes the economic feasibility of a storage system using different Li-ion batteries applied to a real case of the photovoltaic power plant at Alto Rodrigues, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The System Advisor Model software was used to simulate the systems which allowed showing the difference between the revenue obtained from energy sales and the total generation cost. According to the results, the viability of the energy storage system can be achieved in different ways. The first way would be to reduce current investment costs in storage systems. In the second way, the energy sale price is higher than the current sale price. The third and fourth ways are a combination of cost storage reduction and the increase of energy sale price in different annual proportions.

Automated summary

This article analyzes the economic feasibility of an energy storage system using different Li-ion batteries applied to a photovoltaic power plant in Brazil, and proposes different ways to reduce the cost of the storage system and increase the energy sale price.