  Community electricity storage systems for multiple applications promise
benefits over household electricity storage systems. More economical
flexibility options such as demand response and sector coupling might reduce
the market size for storage facilities. This paper assesses the economic
performance of community electricity storage systems by taking competitive
flexibility options into account. For this purpose, an actor-related,
scenario-based optimization framework is applied. The results are in line with
the literature and show that community storage systems are economically more
efficient than household storage systems. Relative storage capacity reductions
of community storage systems over household storage systems are possible, as
the demand and generation profiles are balanced out among end users. On
average, storage capacity reductions of 9% per household are possible in the
base case, resulting in lower specific investments. The simultaneous
application of demand-side flexibility options such as sector coupling and
demand response enable a further capacity reduction of the community storage
size by up to 23%. At the same time, the competition between flexibility
options leads to smaller benefits regarding the community storage flexibility
potential, which reduces the market viability for these applications. In the
worst case, the cannibalization effects reach up to 38% between the flexibility
measures. The losses of the flexibility benefits outweigh the savings of the
capacity reduction whereby sector coupling constitutes a far greater
influencing factor than demand response. Overall, in consideration of the
stated cost trends, the economies of scale, and the reduction possibilities, a
profitable community storage model might be reached between 2025 and 2035.
Future work should focus on the analysis of policy frameworks.
