Impact of temporal resolution of supply and demand profiles on the design of photovoltaic battery systems for increased self-consumption

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) offer the opportunity to match the energy supply from photovoltaic (PV) systems with the respective consumer load profile and thus significantly increase the share of self-consumption and the degree of autarky. The cost-optimal system design of PV BESS depends on a variety of parameters and is analyzed via a techno-economic modelling approach. This analysis focuses on the impact of different temporal resolutions of supply and demand profiles on BESS design, modes of operation and related parameters including self-consumption, degree of autarky and battery lifetime. The temporal resolution of the input profiles is varied between 1 and 60 minute. Modelling results show that both the calculation time of a simulation and the accuracy of the simulation results increase with increasing temporal resolution. The relative error of the different temporal resolutions is quantified and peaks at 11.6 % in the simulation with 60 minute resolution for the parameters indirect self-consumption / full cycle equivalents. With decreasing temporal resolution, a smoothing effect can be observed, which leads to profiles with lower maximum and minimum values and fewer peaks. The simultaneity of PV production and electricity consumption increases with decreasing temporal resolution resulting in overrated degrees of self-consumption and autarky.