Most battery conversations start with how big a system you need. Your bill is the better starting point. Here is which lines of a commercial electricity bill a battery actually moves, and the one it leaves alone.
Most conversations about solar and batteries start with "How big a system do I need?"
We think that's the wrong place to start.
Your electricity bill tells us far more.
A battery doesn't make your business use less electricity. What it does is help you use electricity at the right time, and avoid buying expensive power when you don't need to.
Send us your latest electricity bill and we'll analyse it for you. It's free, there's no obligation, and we'll tell you if solar or batteries aren't the right fit.
Send us your bill →Your electricity bill is made up of a few different costs.
This is where a battery can make a real difference.
When your electricity demand starts to spike, the battery can step in and supply some of the power your business needs. This can help reduce the peak that your electricity company charges you for.
If you have solar, the battery can also store excess solar during the day and use it later when the sun isn't shining.
Think about what sets your peak demand. Not your average day. Not your total for the month. One stretch of about half an hour when the most was happening at once. Everything restarting after a shutdown. A hot afternoon with every unit of cooling running while the kitchen is mid service. A compressor cutting in at the exact moment the car park lights come on.
That half hour sets a charge you then pay against for the whole billing period. Every other half hour in the month could be quiet and it would not matter.
Which means the demand charge is not really a measure of how much power you use. It is a measure of how unevenly you use it.
A battery is one of the few things on a site that can directly reduce it. It sits charged, watches the building's draw, and when the site starts climbing towards a new peak it discharges into the building to cover the difference. The building gets everything it asked for. The meter simply never sees the spike, because the battery served it instead of the grid.
Turning equipment off does it too, but that is your operation, and most sites have already squeezed what they can there. Solar does it only if your busiest half hour happens to land in daylight, and on plenty of sites it does not. Our commercial battery storage page covers how a system is sized once you know where that half hour sits.
The second job is the one most people picture: buy power when it is cheap, use it when it is expensive.
If your site has solar, the battery stores what the roof makes and the building did not need at the time, instead of sending it back to the grid for a lot less than you pay to buy it. Later, when the sun is off and the rate is up, the building runs on it. Storing your own power and using it yourself beats exporting it, on almost every commercial tariff written today.
If your site does not have solar, a battery can still charge overnight at the low rate and carry the building through the expensive part of the day. Smaller effect, and it depends entirely on how wide the gap between your rates is, but the mechanism is the same one. You are moving when you buy, not how much you need.
The industry word for both of these is load shifting. It is a fancy name for something a household already understands: run the dishwasher when power is cheap.
The fixed daily charge for being connected is the one to be realistic about. Solar and batteries generally don't remove it. It's set by the network you're connected to, it's the same regardless of which retailer bills you, and it's worth setting aside before you compare quotes.
One more thing a battery doesn't change: who you buy your power from, or what the network charges. Switching retailer and installing storage are two separate levers. A battery changes your pattern of buying. It doesn't change the price list.
The answer is different for every business.
It depends on when you use electricity, how much you use and what your electricity bill looks like.
If you want to get most of the way yourself, your bill will tell you:
Notice what is not on that list. The size of your building is not on it. Your industry is not on it. Two near-identical buildings on the same street can have completely different answers here, because the answer comes from the shape of your day rather than from your address.
That's why we don't start by selling you a battery. We start with your bill.
We'll show you:
It's free, there's no obligation, and we'll tell you if solar or batteries aren't the right fit.
Send us your bill →Your bill already has most of the answers. Let's take a look.
What is a demand charge?
It is a charge based on the single busiest stretch of your billing period, usually measured over half an hour, rather than on how much power you used in total. One high half hour can set it for the whole month. It appears on commercial bills as demand, capacity or network demand, and is often priced in kVA.
Will a battery reduce the supply charge?
Generally, no. The fixed daily amount you pay for being connected is set by your network and is the same whichever retailer bills you. Solar doesn't change it either. Savings from a battery come from the usage and demand parts of the bill.
Do we need solar before we can have a battery?
No, though the two work better together. With solar, the battery stores what the roof makes and the building did not use at the time, instead of exporting it at a low rate. Without solar, a battery can charge when power is cheap and run the building when it is expensive. How much that is worth depends on the gap between your rates.
Will a battery keep our site running in a blackout?
Only if it is designed to. Backup during an outage depends on how the system is configured and which circuits it is set up to support, so it is a design decision made at the start rather than something every battery does by default. Tell us early if it matters, because it changes the design.
Why can't you quote a battery over the phone?
Because the number depends on the shape of your day, and that lives on your bill. Two similar buildings can need very different systems. We would rather work it out from your actual usage than guess at it.
Is a battery worth it for a small site?
It depends on whether your bill has a demand charge on it and how uneven your usage is, not on the size of the building. Send the bill and we will tell you either way, including if the answer is no.
Charge names, tariff structures and demand measurement intervals vary between networks and retailers, so this describes how commercial bills generally work rather than what applies at your site. Figures in an assessment are estimates based on your bill and stated assumptions, and actual savings vary.
Discover how easy it is to transform your business with energy-efficient solutions. Whether you're ready to start or just exploring your options, we'll guide you every step of the way.