Optimal Battery Size for Grid Connected Rooftop Solar
Photovoltaic Systems in South Australia
Vanika Sharma Mohammed H. Haque
School of Engineering
University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, Australia
Abstract— Recent reduction in feed-in-tariff makes the
installation of residential rooftop solar photovoltaic system
unattractive without having suitable battery energy storage
system. This paper describes a technique of determining the
optimal size of battery storage for a typical residential home in
South Australia with grid connected rooftop solar photovoltaic
system. An optimization problem is carefully formulated to
determine the optimal size of the battery while minimizing the
total life cycle cost of the system. Hourly load data as well hourly
solar output data for various ratings of the PV systems are used.
The optimal size of battery is also determined for different retail
prices of grid electricity. The results obtained are then carefully
analyzed and discussed. It has been found that, with current retail
price of electricity in South Australia, installation of battery
storage is becoming more beneficial and crosses the economic
breakeven point.
Index Terms—Battery Energy Storage System, Optimization, PV
generation, Life cycle cost.
I. INTRODUCTION
The electrical energy system has been continuously
changing over the last few decades. At the beginning, mainly
fossil fuels were used to generate electricity, which cause
greenhouse gas emissions. The adverse effects of greenhouse
gases and limited supply of fossil fuels forced to use renewable
energy sources to generate electricity to meet the ever-growing
demand. One of the problems of renewable sources is
intermittency and thus cannot generate electricity on demand.
However, this problem can be solved by using suitable energy
storage systems. In fact, energy storage can be an economical
option for a power system when the degree of penetration of
renewable sources exceeds 50% [1]. According to Australian
Energy Market Operator (AEMO), South Australia (SA) has
derived 53% of its electricity from solar and wind in the past
12 months and it is one of the highest renewable energy
penetration in the world [2]. Thus, energy storage has become
an economical option for SA and therefore, the Government of
SA has declared the 100 MW (129 MWh) energy storage
project in its new energy plan of 2017 [3].
South Australia is blessed with abundance solar energy and
with the generous government subsidies in the past; the
number of rooftop PV system has increased significantly.
Syed Mahfuzul Aziz
Initially the utility offered a very good feed-in-tariff (FIT)
which was more than the retail price (RP) paid by the user [4].
However, the scenario has now completely changed. The FIT
for solar energy to the utility has dropped drastically and it is
giving almost nothing to the PV owners. The new PV owners
are now looking for energy storage option. There are various
energy storage technologies, such as flywheels, capacitors,
super capacitors, pumped hydro, compressed air, thermal and
batteries. Flywheels and capacitors are mainly used to address
power quality problems at substation level. Pumped hydro can
be used at large scale especially for grid management but
suitable only for some specific locations [5]. Recent
advancements in battery technology has made it the most
effective, inexpensive and efficient energy storage technology
for small-scale applications.
Various types of battery are available, such as gelled,
flooded, lead acid, Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) and lithium
ion. Gel batteries are not preferable for homes and flooded
batteries need more care. Lead acid batteries are very sensitive
and AGM batteries have low life cycle. Other important
features of batteries to be considered are the lifetime,
efficiency, cycling ability, energy density, power density, and
energy dissipation rate. By considering all aspects, the lithium
ion battery is found to be the most suitable energy storage
option for homes and small-scale applications. Their wide
range of power and energy densities and competitive costs
make them more attractive energy storage solution than other
existing technologies.
For a given load pattern, optimal sizes of both energy
storage and PV system are required to meet the demand at the
lowest possible cost. A number of works has been reported on
modelling and sizing of solar PV systems. In [6] and [7],
strategies to extract the maximum PV power is explained
through equivalent model. However, a more robust model that
can provide accurate and consistent results for a given
geographical area is required. It is very difficult to model time
varying solar power output because of its dependency on
variable and complex weather system. A mathematical model
presented in [8] meets the requirements of calculating
consistent PV output energy for Europe and North America but
may not be appropriate for Australia. Reference [9] explained
a model, developed especially for Australian conditions. This
model is a universal model and valid for both northern and
southern hemispheres.
Reference [10] determined the optimal PV system and the
battery size for residential applications using sensitivity
analysis. The method used system data at one-minute interval,
which is computationally very demanding. In addition, solar
irradiance and load data at one-minute interval may not be
available for all locations. A method to produce hourly PV
output is introduced in [11] using MERRA and MERRA-2
global meteorological analyses. The best outcome of [11] is the
interactive web platform (renewables.ninja) where PV and
wind data and hourly simulation results are available. In this
study, the hourly PV results are obtained from [11].
Figure 1. Typical configuration of a grid connected rooftop solar PV system
In [12], optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy system with battery storage.
with battery storage is investigated to electrify a remote area in
Karnataka state of India. The total net present cost and cost of A. Load
energy was minimized to obtain optimal size of each
renewable energy source. A similar work is done in [13] to find The load data of the house has been derived from the load
the optimal life cycle cost of an off-grid hybrid renewable profile of SA available on AEMO website. The load profile
energy system. References [12] and [13] explained the data of 2014 is scaled down to match the residential
economic aspect of using battery storage with PV for off grid requirement. This load profile is published from Market
applications, while [14] and [15] provide an economic view of Settlement and Transfer Solution (MSATS) for National
a grid connected PV system with battery storage. In [14], Energy Market and it consists of various profile areas. Only
battery storage was used with rooftop solar PV system to Net System Load Profile of UMPLP area is considered in this
reduce the peak demand of SA region by load levelling case as it is under SA Power Networks [18]. The load data is
process. An energy management system is introduced in [15] given at half-hour interval but converted to an hourly interval
to reduce the power injection into the grid to mitigate the over to make consistent with solar data. The hourly load data of the
voltage problem caused by reverse power flow and maximize house under investigation is shown in Fig. 2. The mean,
the daily economic benefit. It is found that the system would minimum and maximum load of the house are 0.7083 kW,
be economical if the peak hour selling price of battery energy 0.0113 kW and 2.5387 kW, respectively. The daily average
is higher than the off-peak utility price. Reference [16] energy consumption of the house is 17 kWh.
provides the optimal battery size and PV system based on
future retail and wholesale prices of the electricity, which are 3

very difficult to predict. In [17], optimal storage size is

determined using coincidence between PV generation and 2.5
local demand obtained through smart meters. The authors used
dynamic programming to determine the optimal storage 2
operational strategy but the technique is time consuming and
Load, kW

complex in nature.
1.5
This paper determines the optimal size of battery storage
for a given load pattern and rooftop PV size to minimize the 1
life cycle cost of the PV-Battery system. Various retail prices
are considered in determining the optimal battery size. A cost 0.5
analysis during project life is also conducted to check the
feasibility of the system for residential applications.
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Time, hours
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION Figure 2. Hourly load variation of the house.
In this study, a grid connected residential house with
rooftop solar PV system and associated converter is B. Solar PV Generation
considered. A meter is connected to the grid side to measure It is considered that the candidate house is located in North
the energy feed into/taken from the grid. A battery with Adelaide (Latitude 34.92⁰S and Longitude 138.60⁰E).
associated converter is also connected to the ac side (ac According to Bureau of Meteorology, the average daily solar
coupled system). The overall configuration of the system is exposure of the site is 4.7 kWh/m2/day [19]. The hourly solar
shown in Fig. 1. data including PV output power of the site in 2014 is obtained
from renewables.ninja [20]. Fig. 3 shows the variation of output
power per kWp size of the PV system.
 ( )=
0.9 ∆ .
0, ( − 1) + <
0.8 ∆ .
∆ −( − ( − 1)). .η , ( − 1) + ≥
0.7

0.6
(4)
Power, kW

0.5
Case 2: PV generation is less than demand
0.4
When the PV generated power PG(t) is less than the demand
0.3
PD(t), there is a shortage or lack of energy ΔL(t) which can be
0.2 expressed as:
0.1
∆ ( ) = ( )− ( ) .∆ (5)
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Time, hours The shortage of energy can be supplied by the battery (if its
SOC is greater than SOCmin); otherwise, it should be supplied
Figure 3. Hourly power generation of a 1 kWp size PV system. by the grid. Thus, the SOC of the battery at the end of period
‘t’ can be written as:
∆ ∆
C. Battery State of Charge ( − 1) −
.
, ( − 1) −
.
>
( )= (6)
The state-of-charge (SOC) of a battery is a measure of the , ( − 1) −
∆
≤
.
remaining capacity of the battery. It is the ratio of current
remaining capacity to the total capacity of the battery. The life Here ηdc is the discharging efficiency of the converter. The
cycle of a battery is number of charge-discharge cycles it can energy supplied by the grid ESG(t) can be written as:
execute in its lifetime and its value is accompanied with the
depth of discharge (DOD) of the battery. The DOD value is
usually supplied by the manufacturer in the datasheet. The ∆
0, ( − 1) − ≥
minimum value of SOC and the DOD are related through: ( )=
.
( ( ) ). ∆
∆ − , ( − 1) − <
.
SOCmin= (1-DOD) (1) (7)
The actual value of SOC changes while the battery is
charging/discharging. The charging/discharging strategy of the III. COST ANALYSIS
battery is briefly described in the following. The life cycle cost (LCC) is used in cost analysis of the
system and it involves finding the net present worth of all
expenses over the life span of the system. Mathematically,
Case 1: PV generation is greater than demand LCC can be expressed as:
When the PV generated power PG(t) is greater than the LCC = C + OMnpw+ Rnpw - Snpw (8)
demand PD(t), there exists an excess energy ΔE(t) which can
be define as Here C is the capital cost, OM is the operation and maintenance
cost, R is the replacement cost, and S is the salvage value.
∆ ( )= ( )− ( ) .∆ (2) Subscript ‘npw’ represent the net present worth.

Here ΔT is the time interval (1 hour for an hourly data). The
excess energy ΔE(t) is stored in the battery (if it is not fully
charged) otherwise, fed into the grid. Thus, the battery SOC at
the end of period ‘t’ can be written as:
∆ .
( − 1) + , ( − 1) +
( )=
, ( − 1) +
Here ηbc is the converter charging efficiency and Cb is the
battery capacity in kWh. It is assumed that the battery voltage
remains more or less constant during normal operating region
(in between SOCmin and SOCmax). When the value of SOC(t)
reaches SOCmax, the battery cannot be further charged and for
such a case, the extra energy is fed into the grid. The energy
fed into the grid EFG at time ‘t’ can be expressed as:
A. LCC of PV
The capital cost of the PV panels can be written as
Cspv = αspv.cspv (9)
∆ .
≤ Here αspv is the initial PV cost in $/Watt, and cspv is size of the
∆ . (3) PV system in Watts. With annual operational and maintenance
> (OM) cost of βspv in $/Watt/year, the present worth of total OM
cost over the project lifetime of N years can be written as
, = β .c ∑ (10)
Here i is the interest rate. Assuming that the lifetime of the
project is the same as the lifetime of the PV system and thus,
the replacement cost Rspv of PV system is zero. The salvage
value of the PV panel is also considered as zero. Therefore, the The variation of optimal battery size against the retail price
life cycle cost for the Solar PV system is for different sizes of PV systems is shown in Fig. 4 and it
indicates that the optimal battery size increases with the
LCCspv= Cspv + OMnpw,spv (11) increase in RP as at higher RP, it is more economical to store
the excess energy in the battery instead of exporting to the grid
B. LCC of batteries with very little FIT. It can also be observed in Fig. 4 that, for a
The capital cost Cbat of the battery storage system is given value of RP, the optimal battery size increases with the
increase in PV size as a larger PV system produces more energy
Cbat =αbat.Cb (12) and thus require higher battery size to store the excess energy.

Here αbat is the cost of battery per kWh and Cb is capacity of The total LCC of the system with the optimal battery size
the battery in kWh. The lifetime of the battery is not the same is shown in Fig. 5 and it indicates that the system has the
as that of the PV system, and thus additional investments are highest LCC with 2 kW size of PV system as it produces less
needed over the time horizon of the project. If the lifetime of energy. The total LCC decreases with the increase in PV size.
battery is Lb, the number of replacements require is (N/Lb)-1. The change of LCC is more prominent at lower PV sizes (2
The net present value of battery replacement is kW and 3 kW) than at higher PV sizes (5 kW and 6 kW). This
is because the PV is generating more energy with higher size
and that increases the feeding energy into the grid. As the FIT
R , = α . C . ∑ , ,.. (13) is very low, so it does not make much difference in the total
LCC for higher PV sizes.
Here µbat is the escalation rate of the battery. For the battery
storage system, the OM cost and salvage value are considered TABLE I. Parameters of PV and Battery [21, 22]
as negligible. Thus, the LCC of the battery is [12] PARAMETERS USED
LCCbat= Cbat + Rnpw,bat (14) SOCmin 10%
SOCmax 90%
With the proposed PV-Battery system, the total cost paying to DOD (Depth of Discharge) 90%
the grid (TCPG) or service provider can be written as
Interest rate i 0.1
=( . − . ) (15) Escalation rate of battery (assumed) μbat -2%
PV inverter efficiency ηinv 0.97
Here, RP is the retail price of electricity in $/ kWh, and FIT is Battery charging efficiency ηbc 0.962
feed-in-tariff in $/ kWh.
Battery discharge efficiency ηdc 0.962
C. Objective Function Battery lifetime (years) Lb 10
The objective of this investigation is to determine the PV initial cost ($/ Watt) [23] αspv $1.57
optimal size of battery storage for a given size of PV system
OM cost of PV ($/Watt/year) βspv 0.01 × αspv
while minimizing the total life cycle cost of the project. Thus,
the objective function can be defined as PV lifetime (years) N 25
Cost of Battery($/kWh) αbat $1000
Min TLCC( ) = LCCspv + LCCbat + TCPG (16) Feed in Tariff [24] FIT $0.05/kWh

The above optimization problem is to be solved in conjunction

with eqns. (1)-(7), load profile of Fig. 2 and PV output profile 18

of Fig. 3. 16
6 kW 5 kW
14
Optimal battery Size, kWh

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 12 4 kW

3 kW

The proposed technique of determining the optimal battery 10

size to minimize the total LCC is applied to a residential house PV = 2 kW
8
in SA having an average energy consumption of 17 kWh/day
with various sizes (2-6 kW) of rooftop solar photovoltaic 6
systems. Different retail prices of electricity ($0.30-$1.0/kWh)
4
are considered in the optimization process. The hourly load and
PV generation patterns are shown in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively. 2
Various parameters/data used in the optimization process are
0
given in Table-I. The cost and technical data of the battery are 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
obtained from [21]. The cost and technical data of the PV Retail Price, $/kWh

systems, including the inverter, are provided by QPRO and Figure 4. Variation of optimal battery size against RP for different PV
Fronius Inverter [22] and that includes the current SA sizes.
government subsidies on installing solar PV systems.
 The total LCC of the system is also evaluated without using 10
4
12
battery storage and its variation is shown in Fig. 6. In this case,
the excess energy is fed into the grid (with little FIT) because 11
of lack of storage. It is found that the total LCC without battery 10 PV = 2 kW
is higher than that with the battery for higher retail prices.
9
However, at lower retail prices, the scenario is completely
opposite indicating that use of expensive battery storage is not 8

Total LCC, $
economical for lower retail prices. 7
PV = 6 kW

Fig. 7 shows a comparison of total LCC of the system (with 6

a 5 kW size PV) with and without battery storage for various 5
retail prices. It can be noticed in the figure that, for a retail price
of $0.30/kWh, the total LCC of the system with and without 4

battery storage is $29,750 and $30,400, respectively. That is, 3

the benefit of using the battery storage is $650 over the 25-year 2
life span of the project. The benefit increases as the retail price 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Retail Price, $/kWh
of electricity is increased (see Fig. 7). For retail prices of
$0.40/kWh and $0.50/kWh, the benefit is increased to $6,526 Figure 6. Total LCC of the grid connected PV system without battery.
and $12,942, respectively, over the life span of the project.
Similar results are also observed for other sizes of the PV 10
4
11
system. However, for the 2 and 3 kW PV systems, use of battery
storage become economically attractive for a retail price of 10 Without battery
With battery
$0.40/kWh instead of $0.30/kWh. In other words, the 9
penetration level of PV at which the battery energy storage 8
system becomes economically viable depends on the retail price 7
of electricity.
Total LCC, $

6
The battery SOC for the 5 kW PV system with RP of 5
$0.40/kWh is shown in Fig. 8 and it can be observed in the
4
figure that the SOC always lies in between SOCmin = 0.1 and
SOCmax = 0.9. During mid-year (June-July), most of the time 3

the battery SOC is in the lower region because of insufficient 2

PV generation during winter period. 1

0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1
4 Retail Price, $/kWh
10
10
Figure 7. Comparison of total LCC of a 5 kW PV system with and without
9
battery.

8 PV = 2 kW

1
7 3 kW
Total LCC, $

0.9
6
0.8
4 kW 5 kW
5 0.7

0.6
Battery SOC

4 6 kW
0.5
3
0.4

2 0.3
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Retail Price, $/kWh 0.2

Figure 5. Total LCC of the grid connected PV system with battery. 0.1

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Time, hours

Figure 8. Battery SOC of the 5 kW PV system.

 V. CONCLUSIONS
An optimization problem has been formulated to minimize
the total life cycle cost of a grid connected rooftop solar
photovoltaic (PV) system of a typical residential home in
South Australia with local battery energy storage. The
objective of using the battery is to store the excess solar energy
during the day instead of feeding into the grid at a very nominal
feed-in-tariff rate. The stored energy is then released when the
solar system cannot meet the local demand and thus reduce the
energy import from the grid, which is relatively expensive,
especially in South Australia. In minimizing the total life cycle
cost, the proposed algorithm determines the optimal battery
size using hourly load data and hourly solar power generation
data. The benefits of using the battery storage for various sizes
of PV system and retail prices are also investigated.
Simulation results indicate that, for a given load pattern,
the optimal size of the battery increases with the increase in
size of the solar PV system as well as with the retail price of
grid electricity. For a given retail price, the total life cycle cost
of the system decreases with the increase in size of the solar
PV system, which in turns require a larger size of battery
storage. Using up-to-date cost and technical specifications of
solar PV and battery storage (obtained through extensive
market survey), it has been found that, for a 5 kW PV system,
use of battery energy storage reduced the total life cycle cost
of the system by $6,525 with current retail price grid electricity
of $0.40/kWh in South Australia. With increasing trend in
retail price and decreasing trend in battery cost, use of battery
storage with grid connected rooftop solar PV system would be
more attractive in future.
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