Cooperatively-owned batteries as a concept to prevent local grid congestion

There is a growing interest in community-owned large-scale solar projects. However, if large amounts of electricity generated by these PV installations are not directly consumed by the local loads, grid congestion can arise, due to constrains in the local electricity network. This paper explores when grid congestion starts to occur and whether battery storage systems can be an economically feasible solution to mitigate this problem, as an alternative to grid reinforcement measures. In addition, a proper sizing of the battery storage with respect to solar park nominal capacities is assessed, based on simulations and benchmark study of current practices.