From 1 September 2026, the NSW Peak Demand Reduction Scheme creates Peak Reduction Certificates for commercial and industrial battery storage. Enter your system size below to estimate how many certificates a project could create, and what they are worth at today’s certificate price.
Project inputs
For business sites. Not residential buildings and not data centres. Usable capacity must be over 20 kWh and no more than 200 kWh.
Estimate
Certificates are traded, so the value moves
Project inputs
For commercial, industrial and community batteries. Not residential buildings and not data centres. Usable capacity must be over 200 kWh and no more than 30,000 kWh.
Estimate
Certificates are traded, so the value moves
The method below is the scheme’s, not our interpretation of it. The Peak Demand Reduction Scheme sets out how certificates are created, and we have applied it to the figures you entered without adjustment. It is published here in full so you can check the working, or hand it to your own engineer to check.
The scheme does not hand over a fixed amount. It creates Peak Reduction Certificates, which are traded, so what a project is worth depends both on how many certificates it creates and on what they fetch the day they are created.
Certificates (both activities):
Network loss factors used: Ausgrid 1.04, Endeavour Energy 1.05, Essential Energy 1.05.
Demand shifting component, where BC is battery capacity after the caps below:
BC = MIN( usable capacity, 4 × inverter kW )
With new solar:
BC up to 50: DSC = BC × 0.1 × 0.5
50 to 100: DSC = (50 × 0.1 × 0.5) + ((BC − 50) × 0.1 × 0.7)
Over 100: DSC = BC × 0.1
Without new solar: the same bands with 0.067 in place of 0.1.
BC = MIN( usable capacity, 10,000, 4 × inverter kW )
With new solar: DSC = BC × 0.1
Without new solar: DSC = BC × 0.067
Certificates are created on the first 10 MWh of usable capacity.
Minimum new solar for the higher rate = a quarter of usable battery capacity, in kW.
Equipment rule, both activities: usable capacity must not exceed 6 times battery inverter output.
What is deliberately not modelled here:
A separate federal battery program can apply to smaller systems, under 100 kWh of usable capacity, and would sit on top of the NSW certificates. It runs on different rules and a different certificate, so we have left it out rather than blur two schemes into a single number. If your system is in that range, ask us and we will run both.
Treat this as a scale check, not an offer, a quote or a ruling on eligibility. It applies the scheme method to the handful of numbers you typed in and nothing else. It has not seen your site, your load, your switchboard or your product list. Certificates are created by an Accredited Certificate Provider at the time of the project rather than by this page, and because certificates are traded, the value on the day will not be the value shown above. Whether a project qualifies at all depends on the current scheme rule, the equipment used, the installer’s accreditation and a site assessment.
The number above tells you what the scheme is likely to contribute. It does not tell you whether a battery is the right call for your site, and those are different questions.
Three things decide that, and none of them are in the calculator.
The third one is the reason Zool exists in the shape it does. We are an energy partner, not an installer. We design, fund, build and operate the system ourselves, and you pay a fixed cost per kWh under a single agreement for 10 to 25 years. No capital outlay, and fees apply under the agreement.
Either way, the modelling comes first.
Storage earns its keep by moving your own generation into the expensive hours and by holding down the half hour that sets your demand charge. A site with a sharp evening peak has a lot to gain. A site with genuinely flat, low demand has much less. The only way to know which you are is 12 months of interval data, read properly.
The incentive can only be claimed once per site. That makes sizing a one shot decision. A system built to maximise certificates and a system built to match your actual load are not always the same system, and the second one is the one you have to live with for 15 years.
An incentive reduces what the asset costs to buy. It says nothing about who funds the balance, who operates it, who monitors dispatch so it discharges at the right moment, and who is accountable in year seven when performance drifts.
Send us your details and we will come back with a modelled position for your site: the battery size your load actually supports, how much of your evening peak it covers, what it does to your demand charge, and how the September rules apply to that specific configuration.
Your estimate will appear here.
Trouble loading the form? Open it in a new tab. We use your details to respond to this enquiry. Modelling is indicative and based on the information supplied. Any agreement is subject to credit assessment and contract terms.
They are two activities under the NSW Peak Demand Reduction Scheme covering battery energy storage at business scale. BESS4 covers usable capacity over 20 kWh and up to 200 kWh. BESS5 covers usable capacity over 200 kWh and up to 30 MWh, with certificates created on the first 10 MWh.
Installation must occur on or after 1 September 2026.
Not as a cheque. The scheme creates Peak Reduction Certificates with a market value, created by an Accredited Certificate Provider, which reduce the delivered cost of the project. Certificate prices move, so the final value is set at the time of the transaction.
No, but it changes the rate. Projects with new solar of at least a quarter of the usable battery capacity qualify for the higher rate. Projects without new solar are calculated at a lower rate.
Residential buildings and data centres are excluded, as are sites that have already received a BESS4 or BESS5 incentive. Required planning approval must be in place, products must be on the relevant approved lists, and installation must be carried out by an appropriately accredited installer.
No. It is claimable once per site, which is why sizing the system correctly at design stage matters more here than it normally would.
Yes. Under a funded agreement the incentive reduces the delivered cost of the system, which flows into the fixed cost per kWh rate rather than arriving as a rebate your organisation has to claim itself.
No. It applies the published scheme methodology to the inputs you entered. It does not assess your site, your load, your switchboard or your eligibility, and it does not include the cost of the system. Treat it as a scale check, then get the site modelled.