Behind-the-Meter and Front-of-the-Meter Applications in the Multi-Use of Residential Battery Storage Systems Considering the Legal Framework in Germany

Inhalt:
The application-based multi-use of residential battery storage systems (BSS) provides an opportunity to increase the utilization of the BSS’s technical potential and, thus, the prosumers’ profit. The European legal framework generally promotes the (multi-)use of BSS. However, specific stipulations in Germany’s legal framework may result in grid charges, electricity taxes, and other state-induced electricity price components arising both for energy (temporarily) stored in the BSS and for this energy’s final consumption elsewhere after being fed back into the grid. The resulting increased financial burden limits the potential for multi-use of the residential BSS. This research analyzes the current German legal frame-work regarding these charges for merely temporarily stored energy in the BSS. As a future metering concept, virtual partitions for stacking behind-the-meter (BTM) and front-of-the-meter (FTM) applications on a BSS are introduced. Within a techno-economic analysis, the effects of exemptions from the mentioned charges, enabled by the BTM/FTM partitions, and their potential impact on the residential prosumers’ key figures and revenue streams of the multi-use operation, are analyzed. The wide interpretation of the current German legal framework leads to significantly increased techno-economic potential for the residential BSS, resulting in a symbiosis between increased prosumer profit and the serving of FTM applications, i.e., spot market trading and frequency containment reserve.