Economic benefits of photovoltaic-based systems for residential customers participating in open electricity markets

Small-scale distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation, in which PV panels are installed on residential customers' rooftops, has been envisaged as an approach to increase renewable energy participation. In this paper, we have presented a method to determine the economic benefits obtained by residential customers who can freely purchase and sell electricity from an open electricity market, when PV panels are installed on their rooftops with and without support from electrical storage. By using our method, the number of PV panels that can be optimally installed on rooftops for maximum economic benefits can be determined. Further, since PV costs are expected to decrease over the next decade, we have extended the methodology to model progressive piecemeal installations of PV panels over many years. We applied our methodology to the case of a Finnish customer participating in the Nordic electricity market. Although installing PV panels is not beneficial for Finnish residential customers today considering the current LCOE prices, customers obtain long-term benefits from using PV panels, and these benefits improve with the inclusion of batteries.