Flow Battery Control Strategy Implementation and Cost Benefit Analysis for Microgrid under Updated Time-of-Use Periods

This work demonstrates the control strategy for a precommercial flow battery in a microgrid system located at the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, in Havasu Lake CA. The control strategy aims at implementing demand reduction while handling the flow battery operational constraints under an updated time-of-use periods. Electric bill savings are analyzed under two different use cases for the microgrid system: 1) demand response savings supported by the flow battery energy storage, and 2) net metering aggregation savings from the over-produced solar generation. A cost-benefit comparison between the battery operation under the legacy and updated time-of-use periods reveals that energy storage contributes to higher benefit under the updated time-of-use rate periods.