Battery storage scenarios: what decides the result
These are illustrations of how a battery is sized and what decides whether it pays, not results. They are not installations or client sites, and they show no savings or paybacks, because those depend on a site's own half-hourly data, tariff and connection.
500 kWh peak-shaving battery at a plastics manufacturer
A plastics manufacturer with a spiky daytime load on a 500 kVA connection and a high annual electricity bill wants to add a production line but has no spare agreed capacity.
- 500 kWh
- energy
- 250 kW
- power
- 2 hours
- duration (energy ÷ power)
What decides the result: Whether the battery can hold the site's half-hourly peak below its agreed capacity on the days that matter. That depends on how high and how long the peaks are, which only a year of half-hourly data shows. If a battery lets the site add the line without a network reinforcement, the avoided connection cost can outweigh the energy saving, so the network operator's quote for that reinforcement is the number to ask for.
250 kWh solar-plus-storage at a refrigerated warehouse
A refrigerated warehouse with a 180 kW rooftop solar array exports part of its generation at a low export rate. Round-the-clock refrigeration leaves an overnight and evening load that the solar cannot cover.
- 250 kWh
- energy
- 125 kW
- power
- 2 hours
- duration (energy ÷ power)
What decides the result: How much of the midday surplus the site exports today and at what price, and whether the evening load is large enough to use what the battery stores. The export rate the site is paid, its import tariff and its half-hourly generation and load show the difference.
860 kWh battery at a distribution depot that also wants grid revenue
A distribution depot with a large, flat load and an existing relationship with an aggregator wants both a bill reduction and a grid-services revenue line.
- 860 kWh
- energy
- 430 kW
- power
- 2 hours
- duration (energy ÷ power)
What decides the result: A flat load leaves little to shave, so most of the value has to come from tariff timing and from flexibility payments. Those depend on delivery, are never guaranteed and change from year to year, so a case that needs them to be high is fragile. Build the case on bill savings first and treat revenue as the upside.
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Published by SEO Dons, a specialist commercial energy information network. We are independent: we are not an energy supplier and not a battery manufacturer.