On the development of dimensioning charts for small size PV-battery system

Several initiatives have started to move the building stock towards a more self-sustained and self-reliant one, with respect to energy use. In most countries, photovoltaic installations have great potential to make a dwelling energy-autonomous. To do so, the PV installation has to be coupled with a battery bank that will be capable of storing enough energy in the periods with large solar resource so it can be delivered to the periods with little or no resource. Several tools are available to investigate what capacity is needed in terms of storage to optimise the PV+batteries installation and to minimise the time that the user may suffer a black-out, without unnecessarily increasing the battery size and therefore its price. These tools are rather accurate, however, their use tends to be limited to technical professionals such as engineering firms or academia. A tool that is simple enough to be used by anybody involved and that is accurate enough to give similar answers to those obtained with complex dynamic simulators, would be of great value, and will promote the deployment of such solutions. This paper shows a methodology that uses modelling and simulation for the creation of dimensioning charts, that could be use with this purpose. The method has been tested in two locations and it seems to be robust despite the demand profiles; and also, it seems to give accurate answers for dimensioning battery systems.