The survey showed that most households with a 30kWh residential energy storage system were able to maintain power demand during 70% of outage events.
Single-family homes equipped with residential solar systems and energy storage systems can handle multi-day power outages without shutting down critical loads like lighting, heating and cooling, according to a study conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). impact, but this largely depends on the configuration level of the solar energy storage system.
The study is the first in a series of reviews of solar-plus-storage systems conducted by LBNL in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The report examines 10 outage events of more than 24 hours to provide a set of benchmarks for performance evaluation.
LBNL researchers concluded in a report published in September that "in seven of the 10 events, most households were able to maintain electricity usage with a 30kWh residential energy storage system. "This is generally the upper limit for the size of residential energy storage systems currently on the market.
The report also pointed out that there may be significant differences between different households, especially households with electric heating, which have a much lower maintenance time of electricity demand.
The researchers point out that its performance largely depends on the size of the energy storage system and the electrical load. However, if heating and cooling equipment are not considered, a small energy storage system with an energy storage capacity of only 10kWh can almost meet the power demand for three days.
LBNL said the study was limited because it used a variety of simplifying assumptions and did not take into account factors such as snow cover that may occur during winter events.
The report explains that snow cover is a very complex factor for residential solar installations because it depends not only on climate and physical characteristics, but also on behavioral factors. For example, whether and how often building occupants clear snow, which itself may depend on power outages.
Future research by LBNL and NREL may model energy efficiency and electrification measures in a wider region, including the use of heat pumps in cold climates, and the impact of battery usage beyond backup power on the state of charge of solar-plus-storage systems.
