3 ms·

What's the point of a home battery system that doesn't work when the grid is down? What else would you use the battery for?

ok_dad 4y ago
For homes, you store solar in it and discharge at night to reduce bills. For commercial, you do peak shaving and load shifting to reduce bills. Also, you can sell your battery capacity to some companies and they can aggregate it with other homes in your area to sell the capacity to the grid during peaks, to eek out a bit more value.
Chris_Newton 4y ago
What else would you use the battery for? Efficiency. You can store excess energy from local microgeneration, particularly solar, that can be used later. With our current pricing model in the UK, that is several times cheaper than selling the excess power to the grid for a token return and then paying full price to have the same amount back from your mains supply later. Some systems can even be configured to charge their battery from the mains at quiet times (when, again in a typical UK pricing model, the cost-per-unit can be much lower) if there isn’t enough local generation to fully charge it, for example in the middle of winter.
calsy 4y ago
A home battery system stores the excess solar energy generated during the day so you can use it at night. It's about long term savings on electricity bills.
jandrese 4y ago
It can be useful in cases where you have Time of Use metering. You can charge your battery in the middle of the day when energy is cheap due to solar overproduction and then draw down the battery in the evening when power is expensive. If you have it tied to solar panels you can even charge the battery with solar and then sell it back to the grid in the evening. In a few places you can even do "peak shaving" where the power company will give you a pretty nice bonus for switching your battery into grid-feed mode when the demand is so high that they are considering turning on expensive peaker plants. Most people unfortunately can't take advantage of this, but most battery packs are also suitable for off-grid use.
- AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
  Not even just time-of-use metering. If you lack net metering (e.g. you can't use the grid as a battery) then using a battery when your solar is not producing (enough) reduces your overall consumption.
shagie 4y ago
Arbitrage - especially given that it is a value that is guaranteed to have differences on a day cycle. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/utility-scale-battery-storage-growth-price-arbitrage-maximize-income/628744/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/utility-scale-battery-stora... https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/two-ways-to-use-grid-tied-batteries-energy-arbitrage-and-grid-services https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/two-ways-to-use-grid-tied-... Things like https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/customer-renewable-programs/rooftop-solar/battery-bonus https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/custo... note the https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/customer-renewable-programs/rooftop-solar https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/custo... - the CGS Plus and Smart Export involve use of a battery that isn't necessarily home power sufficient.

ok_dad 4y ago

For homes, you store solar in it and discharge at night to reduce bills. For commercial, you do peak shaving and load shifting to reduce bills. Also, you can sell your battery capacity to some companies and they can aggregate it with other homes in your area to sell the capacity to the grid during peaks, to eek out a bit more value.

Chris_Newton 4y ago

What else would you use the battery for? Efficiency. You can store excess energy from local microgeneration, particularly solar, that can be used later. With our current pricing model in the UK, that is several times cheaper than selling the excess power to the grid for a token return and then paying full price to have the same amount back from your mains supply later. Some systems can even be configured to charge their battery from the mains at quiet times (when, again in a typical UK pricing model, the cost-per-unit can be much lower) if there isn’t enough local generation to fully charge it, for example in the middle of winter.

calsy 4y ago

A home battery system stores the excess solar energy generated during the day so you can use it at night. It's about long term savings on electricity bills.

jandrese 4y ago

It can be useful in cases where you have Time of Use metering. You can charge your battery in the middle of the day when energy is cheap due to solar overproduction and then draw down the battery in the evening when power is expensive. If you have it tied to solar panels you can even charge the battery with solar and then sell it back to the grid in the evening. In a few places you can even do "peak shaving" where the power company will give you a pretty nice bonus for switching your battery into grid-feed mode when the demand is so high that they are considering turning on expensive peaker plants. Most people unfortunately can't take advantage of this, but most battery packs are also suitable for off-grid use.

AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
Not even just time-of-use metering. If you lack net metering (e.g. you can't use the grid as a battery) then using a battery when your solar is not producing (enough) reduces your overall consumption.

shagie 4y ago

Arbitrage - especially given that it is a value that is guaranteed to have differences on a day cycle. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/utility-scale-battery-storage-growth-price-arbitrage-maximize-income/628744/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/utility-scale-battery-stora... https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/two-ways-to-use-grid-tied-batteries-energy-arbitrage-and-grid-services https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/two-ways-to-use-grid-tied-... Things like https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/customer-renewable-programs/rooftop-solar/battery-bonus https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/custo... note the https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/customer-renewable-programs/rooftop-solar https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/products-and-services/custo... - the CGS Plus and Smart Export involve use of a battery that isn't necessarily home power sufficient.