Ageing and Efficiency Aware Battery Dispatch for Arbitrage Markets Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming

To achieve maximum profit by dispatching a battery storage system in an arbitrage operation, multiple factors must be considered. While revenue from the application is determined by the time variability of the electricity cost, the profit will be lowered by costs resulting from energy efficiency losses, as well as by battery degradation. In this paper, an optimal dispatch strategy is proposed for storage systems trading on energy arbitrage markets. The dispatch is based on a computationally-efficient implementation of a mixed-integer linear programming method, with a cost function that includes variable-energy conversion losses and a cycle-induced battery capacity fade. The parametrisation of these non-linear functions is backed by in-house laboratory tests. A detailed analysis of the proposed methods is given through case studies of different cost-inclusion scenarios, as well as battery investment-cost scenarios. An evaluation with a sample intraday market data set, collected throughout 2017 in Germany, offers a potential monthly revenue of up to 8762 EUR/MWh cap installed capacity, without accounting for the costs attributed to energy losses and battery degradation. While this is slightly above the revenue attainable in a reference application—namely, primary frequency regulation for the same sample month (7716 EUR/MWh cap installed capacity)—the situation changes if costs are considered: The optimisation reveals that losses in battery ageing and efficiency reduce the attainable profit by up to 36% for the most profitable arbitrage use case considered herein. The findings underline the significance of considering both ageing and efficiency in battery system dispatch optimisation.