Privately Owned Battery Storage: Reshaping the Utility Business Case

Homeowners investing in private energy storage not only save money but also change the dynamic between utility and consumer as households can achieve high degrees of electrical self-sufficiency and can strategically choose what to do with excess solar generation.

Yet, optimizing storage capacity is a notoriously difficult research problem (Kaps et al., 2021) in itself, even without the complications of net-metering policies, fluctuating household demands, and ever-evolving electricity prices. Hence, this paper explores these investment decisions and builds a framework that allows private consumers to gauge whether to buy private electricity storage and in which situations this makes the most sense.

Christian Kaps

Doctoral Candidate

Christian Kaps is a Ph.D. candidate in the Operations, Information and Decisions Department of the Wharton School.

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