Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage: Economic Assessment and System Impacts in Georgia

This paper presents an optimization approach to maximize the value of behind-the-meter energy storage that is owned and operated by customers. The objective of the optimization problem is to minimize the customer's electricity bill under various utility tariff rates. Each rate structure results in different options for the formulation of the optimization problem. Publicly available utility tariff rates from Georgia Power are used. The investment cost assumptions are derived from the latest market reports and from available vendor data. The impact of utility tariffs on the energy storage economics and system impacts are quantified. The simulation results show that different categories of behind-the-meter customers can obtain benefits from the installation of energy storage in this region. Moreover, tariffs with demand charges are usually more profitable for customers with energy storage and more desirable for the system operators to achieve a smoother net load curve.