Economic viability of smart grid technologies in households

In the context of increasing renewable electricity sources and decentralized electricity generation, a rising demand for flexibility can be observed in the energy system. Demand Side Management (DSM) has been proposed to shift electricity load to points in time with higher generation. Other options to increase flexibility are electric energy storages such as stationary or mobile batteries. However, in order to achieve a successful market introduction, technologies have to prove not only their technical feasibility but also their economic viability. So far, research has focused on either economic optimization of PV-battery systems or technical optimization of DSM. This paper addresses the question which technologies provide economic viability for household owners and how this is influenced by framework conditions such as the electricity tariff. Therefore, an optimization model was developed to analyze different technology combinations and their effect on total electricity cost of a single household. Furthermore, the operation of each technology can be investigated as well as the effect of different electricity tariff concepts.