Economic Benefits of Direct Current Technology for Private Households and Peer-to-Peer Trading in Germany

With the increased adoption of solar photovoltaics (PV) and batteries, and the use of electronicsand appliances powered by direct current (DC), e.g. heat pumps, and electric vehicles (EVs), DCtechnologies offer higher energy efficiency compared to the entrenched alternating current (AC)technologies. However, the adoption of DC infrastructure is limited due to path dependency andlock-in effects of the currently dominant electric infrastructure based on AC technology. Efficiencygains in energy communities and for households may facilitate the wider-scale adoption of DCtechnologies. In this study, we simulate 600 household load profiles based on twelve differentrepresentative household types and estimate the possible energy cost savings of a DC architecturecompared to an AC architecture under various electricity prices and feed-in-tariff levels. This isdone for different combinations of battery and PV sizes, and for the case of a peer-to-peer (P2P)trading community. The results show that the DC home yields cost savings of around €90 p.a. forthe median household when compared to an AC home. Moreover, we find that neither the shareof DC load nor household characteristics impacts cost savings significantly, while the total loadremains the most important factor influencing the cost-saving potential. In addition, while costsavings do not necessarily increase with larger PV and battery sizes, they do increase with thepossibility of households to engage in P2P trading. The results yield an improved understandingregarding the cost-saving potentials of DC homes and their expected diffusion in Germany. Thisis especially relevant for future large-scale adoption of solar PV, batteries, and EVs in the future,thus helping both policy-makers and companies alike to better assess the market potential of DChomes