Natgrp: India needs to promote storage at the rooftop levels to grow at a consistent rate and reduce losses / overheads of infrastructure

The European PV Industry Association (EPIA) has endorsed the recent European Commission (EC) working paper on PV storage and says more must be done to encourage storage systems at a consumer, as well as distribution level.

Enabling self-consumption is the key to kick-starting PV storage at a household level, says the EPIA.

EPIA wants the Commission to do more to enable self-consumption across EU member states. It says self-consumption makes investing in household storage solutions more attractive, kick-starting mass deployment which would remove or delay the need for costly grid reinforcements and extensions.

In its response to the EC working paper, EPIA points out that household PV storage can raise the maximum amount of self-consumption available from the current 30% to around 70%. With the LCOE of PV electricity continuing to fall, the savings available to homeowners who consume their own power – thus reducing the need to buy more costly retail electricity and lessening the amount of increasingly smaller rewards from selling PV power back to the grid at wholesale prices – make investing in storage solutions an attractive option.

EPIA has calculated investing in storage will, by 2020, bring rewards of between €0.05/kWh (US$0.07/kWh) and €0.19/kWh.

The association is calling on the EU to do more to encourage self consumption across all its 27 member states, and cited the example of the recent storage incentives program announced in Germany.

The trade body points out that using electric vehicles as storage units for distributed power will require innovative regulatory support from member governments on issues such as battery warranties and ownership.

It says the EU must support projects to determine how storage can best be applied to grids at a distributed level and says efforts must be made to reach the 150 GW mark it says offers the best chance to optimally shave peaks by 2030.

Furthermore, the association says around 80 GW in daily storage is available today, including by the indirect method of reducing electricity demand.

Finally, EPIA is calling on the European bloc to introduce ‘cost-optimal’ incentives for storage in its forthcoming guidelines on capacity remuneration mechanisms.

Source: PV Magazine

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