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This paper aims to evaluate the role of residential battery storage in addressing network barriers to the further adoption of household photovoltaics, by presenting a unique perspective combining a housing and network techno-economic evaluation. Stochasticity in demand and weather inputs are modelled using Monte Carlo and a power flow model is constructed of a test area of the low-voltage (LV) network. Findings include: that batteries address voltage drop issues on LV networks at photovoltaic penetration rates of 50% and over and can mitigate voltage rise issues at PV penetration rates up to 75%. Economically, under Queensland conditions, household gains are marginal with optimal results provided by charging batteries from photovoltaic generation only and a minimum array size of 5 kW.

The influx of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on distribution networks worldwide has presented many challenges for distribution network service providers (DNSPs) including voltage regulation and voltage imbalance in low voltage networks. In Australia, low voltage networks are typically not well monitored and accurate and reliable software models do not exist. As such, the impact of emerging technologies on low voltage networks are not well understood. This paper implements a distribution system load flow method in Matlab to model a section of Queensland DNSP Energex's low voltage network. The model is validated by comparing load flow results to recorded meter data and its use is then demonstrated by performing a scenario simulation whereby the radial network is meshed. It is observed that meshing of radial branches in the modelled network significantly improves voltage regulation and voltage imbalance.