Power Bill Optimization for Grid-tie Solar PV-Battery House

Abstract

This study focuses on the optimization of power bills for a house equipped with a grid-tie solar PV-battery system. Rather than adhering to conventional load scheduling practices or minimizing grid power usage at each time interval, a novel approach is adopted wherein the optimization is performed for the entire 24-hour period simultaneously. By directly incorporating time-of-use rates into the cost function, an absolute optimal solution is attained. The findings indicate that compared to single time step optimization, the proposed method results in a reduction of the power bill ranging from 6% to 10%, depending on load-generation variations. Furthermore, if the utility or government enforces the summer tariff consistently throughout the year, the savings escalate to a range of 15% to 22%. Introducing a more intelligent tariff structure can thus serve as an effective means to expedite the transition towards renewable energy by incentivizing individual investments in solar PV, battery systems, and smart home energy management.