Usage based market method to support socio-economic equity among distributed energy resource owners

Over the past few decades, interest in Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) has increased due to their various environmental and economic benefits. Recent interest in energy justice and equity has paved the way for DERs to positively impact society, particularly with respect to socio-economic factors such as race and income. However, as the number of retail-scale DERs in the distribution grid increases, current DER policies, such as net metering, do not account for socio-economic factors. This dissertation investigates the effects of socio-economic factors on different Distributed Photovoltaics (DPV) owners. Since traditional methods for assessing the impact of socio-economic factors do not account for the time value of money and energy, this work introduces the concept of Levelized Net Present Value and Levelized Return on Investment to address this. The goal of this work is to propose a technique for analyzing how different fee structures or grid management schemes can impact various market participants. Due to differences in socio-economic status, it would be unfair to treat all DER owners the same; the curtailment should account for the different financing options used for the investment. This issue can be mitigated by using the relative curtailment method introduced in this work. Utility infrastructure fee schemes are introduced in this dissertation to enable utilities to recover the costs of maintaining and operating their systems. This work focuses on three factors that affect equity among different DPV owners: expenditures, income, and infrastructure fees. Different financing options, rooftop orientations, and real power curtailment are considered to analyze the equity among different solar owners. The impact on different DER owners is evaluated for different infrastructure fee schemes. By considering different socio-economic factors, this work analyzes the impact on utility in pursuit of social equity

Grantor dc:publisher

Wichita State University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Nandasiri, Nimanthi Upeka

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Aravinthan, Visvakumar

Statement dc:rights

• © Copyright 2026 by Nimanthi Upeka Nandasiri All Rights Reserved

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

d26014

OAI record oai:identifier

https://soar.wichita.edu/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Anull%3A10057%2F56117