Solar-plus-storage with smart controls could cut 97% of evening peak, UK study finds

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
Image: The Solar Trade Association.

A combination of residential solar, storage and smart controls could “dramatically reduce” evening peak grid usage at homes in Britain.

This is according to a new report produced by the UK’s national Solar Trade Association (STA), academic institution Loughborough University and analytics and research consultancy Advanced Further Energy.

The report looks into the grid and consumer benefits of four generations of smart home, scaled up across a 4.4 million home portfolio, a number the report said was consistent with the level of deployment that could be needed by 2035 to achieve net zero.

In particular, the report looked at peak shaving and how this could be of benefit to the grid. It found that the number of homes modelled could provide enough rapid flexible power to flatten spikes in demand, with homes also able to more than halve carbon emissions and energy bills.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

he majority of its key findings centered around ‘Generation 3’ homes, which it defined as those with solar PV, battery storage and intelligent controls. Conversely, ‘Generation 1’ are those with solar only, ‘Generation 2’ solar and storage and ‘Generation 4’ those with energy efficiency measures, electrified heating and electric vehicles (EVs) installed alongside the previously mentioned technologies.

It found that ‘Generation 3’ homes could reduce their peak time consumption by 97% annually, with 4.4 million of these homes able to completely “eliminate” the evening peak on a typical winter’s day regardless of whether a 6kWh, 10kWh or 20kWh battery is used by the household. This consistently enables around 3GW of peak shaving at the times of highest grid stress, the report said.

To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.

Image: STA.

Read Next

Premium
August 6, 2025
Energy-Storage.news Premium speaks with microgrid solutions provider BoxPower’s Director of Business Development, Fallon Vaughan and Sales and Marketing Coordinator Noa Schachtel, about the company’s microgrid offerings.
Premium
August 6, 2025
The UK had its busiest month of the year so far in July for large-scale BESS project planning consents, with over 5GW/10GWh approved.
July 31, 2025
We look at which BESS suppliers have supplied which UK project owner-operators, with data from our Market Research colleagues.
July 28, 2025
Lithium-ion battery storage system integrator Fluence and independent power producer (IPP) Invenergy will be partnering on the 475MW solar and 1,900MWh energy storage Hashknife Solar Energy Centre in Navajo County, Arizona, US.
Premium
July 24, 2025
Steady price falls the past few years have made lithium-ion BESS a real contender for long-duration energy storage (LDES), and that is now reflected in global project pipelines.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter