Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration project
The economic incentive to install a solar photovoltaics (‘PV’) system depends increasingly on using PV generation on-site (‘self-consumption’) rather than receiving payments from generating solar energy and exporting it to the grid. There is, however, remarkably little empirical evidence on self-con...
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Format: | Journal article |
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Elsevier
2018
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_version_ | 1797070816541671424 |
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author | McKenna, E Pless, J darby, S |
author_facet | McKenna, E Pless, J darby, S |
author_sort | McKenna, E |
collection | OXFORD |
description | The economic incentive to install a solar photovoltaics (‘PV’) system depends increasingly on using PV generation on-site (‘self-consumption’) rather than receiving payments from generating solar energy and exporting it to the grid. There is, however, remarkably little empirical evidence on self-consumption. This paper begins to address this gap by analysing one-minute electricity monitoring data for 302 households that participated in a UK smart grid demonstration project. We calculate annual self-consumption levels and find that they are 855 kWh/year per household on average, or 45% of PV generation. We conduct a simple regression analysis to estimate self-consumption and use the results to show that self-consumption for an average UK household with electricity demand of 4000 kWh/year and 2.9 kWp PV system would be 966 ± 38 kWh/year, equivalent to a 24% reduction in average annual electricity demand from the grid. Our methodology can be readily applied to measure and predict self-consumption in other solar markets as well, which has increasingly important implications for valuing solar investments, setting feed-in tariffs, and examining the impacts of PV on networks and retail sales. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:44:24Z |
format | Journal article |
id | oxford-uuid:5caa035a-ff99-4d62-8dd1-d6780510c1be |
institution | University of Oxford |
last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:44:24Z |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:5caa035a-ff99-4d62-8dd1-d6780510c1be2022-03-26T17:29:33ZSolar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration projectJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:5caa035a-ff99-4d62-8dd1-d6780510c1beSymplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2018McKenna, EPless, Jdarby, SThe economic incentive to install a solar photovoltaics (‘PV’) system depends increasingly on using PV generation on-site (‘self-consumption’) rather than receiving payments from generating solar energy and exporting it to the grid. There is, however, remarkably little empirical evidence on self-consumption. This paper begins to address this gap by analysing one-minute electricity monitoring data for 302 households that participated in a UK smart grid demonstration project. We calculate annual self-consumption levels and find that they are 855 kWh/year per household on average, or 45% of PV generation. We conduct a simple regression analysis to estimate self-consumption and use the results to show that self-consumption for an average UK household with electricity demand of 4000 kWh/year and 2.9 kWp PV system would be 966 ± 38 kWh/year, equivalent to a 24% reduction in average annual electricity demand from the grid. Our methodology can be readily applied to measure and predict self-consumption in other solar markets as well, which has increasingly important implications for valuing solar investments, setting feed-in tariffs, and examining the impacts of PV on networks and retail sales. |
spellingShingle | McKenna, E Pless, J darby, S Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration project |
title | Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration project |
title_full | Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration project |
title_fullStr | Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration project |
title_full_unstemmed | Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration project |
title_short | Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: New estimates from a smart grid demonstration project |
title_sort | solar photovoltaic self consumption in the uk residential sector new estimates from a smart grid demonstration project |
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