Enhancing Hybrid Battery-Solar Return on Investment by Dynamic Battery Pack Usage and Charge Management

The convenience and decreased environmental impact of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have made them more appealing to former consumers, encouraging the growth of prosumers, who produce and consume electricity. Many such prosumers are interested in increasing revenue, which can be accomplished using a hybrid battery-solar system since more energy is available to export during peak demand hours. This paper aims to maximize revenue considering charging time and coulombic efficiency. A two-stage approach is proposed: the first stage optimizes battery charging power for the state of charge per cell, utilizing a Taylor Series approximation for steady-state efficiency; the second stage optimizes battery sizing. When tested for different solar profiles using field solar and battery data and time-of-use rates, the proposed technique generates more revenue than non-optimized strategies, improves battery pack life, and uses a simple Taylor Series based algorithm.