On-Demand Batteries as a Peer-to-Peer Service

Currently, battery energy storage and peer-to-peer concepts have a number of barriers to their wide-spread adoption, regardless of their potential benefits for the grid and individuals. This paper models a financial use case of an innovative and speculative on-demand peer-to-peer (P2P) distributed Energy resource (DER) concept, Battman, that could overcome a number of these barriers. We explore the possibility for a novel way to trade excess solar energy through mobile batteries on the low voltage network. The concept and work presented is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration of designers, network engineers and economists. Using the Ausgrid Solar home electricity dataset, optimisation based energy scheduling, and tariffs from a large Australian energy retailer, a trading scenario has been modelled between a prosumer (with PV and batteries) and consumer. The model has then been analysed to discover where profit and financial feasibility might be found in Battman to illustrate one of the many ways customers could benefit from this concept. For the prosumer, the findings show that in Australia it is not currently profitable to charge a second battery for use by another consumer using representative present-day batteries and tariffs. This concept and the results highlight areas that have potential for more innovative interactions with the grid and market, but where current technology and market structures hinder adoption of similar systems due to energy's lack of financial value.