Evaluating the reliability of distributed photovoltaic energy system and storage against household blackout

Abstract Distributed energy resources have been proven to be an effective and promising solution to enhance power system resilience and improve household-level reliability. In this paper, we propose a method to evaluate the reliability value of a photovoltaic (PV) energy system with a battery storage system (BSS) by considering the probability of grid outages causing household blackouts. Considering this reliability value, which is the economic profit and capital cost of PV+BSS, a simple formula is derived to calculate the optimal planning strategy. This strategy can provide household-level customers with a simple and straightforward expression for invested PV+BSS capacity. Case studies on 600 households located in eight zones of the US for the period of 2006 to 2015 demonstrate that adding the reliability value to economic profit allows households to invest in a larger PV+BSS and avoid loss of load caused by blackouts. Owing to the differences in blackout hours, households from the 8 zones express distinct willingness to install PV+BSS. The greater the probability of blackout, the greater revenue that household can get from the PV+BSS. The simulation example shows that the planning strategy obtained by proposed model has good economy in the actual operation and able to reduce the economic risk of power failure of the household users. This model can provide household with an easy and straightforward investment strategy of PV+BSS capacity.