Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production. A device that stores energy is generally called an accumulator or battery.
By enabling businesses to store energy whenever they want to and providing them with a supply of energy that’s separate to the grid, batteries can empower organisations to truly take control of how and when they use energy. This means that more businesses can find flexibility in their energy usage and access the many benefits flexible energy use can bring.
Benefits:
With battery storage on-site, you can store energy in your battery during periods of low demand on the grid, when energy prices are lower. Your business can then use the energy you have stored in the battery during peak demand periods, enabling you to avoid the higher energy prices associated with these periods.
Having a battery on-site can help you to access new revenue streams through demand response services. National Grid runs a number of demand-side response schemes that incentivise businesses to turn their consumption up or down in order to help them to balance supply and demand on the grid. You could even employ ‘energy arbitrage’ by buying energy from the grid during low demand periods, storing it in the battery, then discharging it back to the grid during peak periods. As energy costs are lower during off-peak periods, you should receive a higher price per kilowatt hour than you originally paid for the energy when you sell it back to the grid, which enables you to make money simply by storing energy.
By installing a battery within your organisation, you should be able to be more flexible in your energy usage. You may choose to shift your demand to times when the carbon intensity of the grid is lower, or simply shift your consumption away from peak periods in order to reduce the amount of stress on the networks. In doing so, you can help to support the transition to a cleaner energy system.
A battery is a device which stores electricity as chemical energy and then converts it into electrical energy.
Battery energy storage systems are rechargeable battery systems that store energy from solar arrays or the electric grid and provide that energy to a home or business.
Here is an example of how this works:
Charge – During daylight, the battery storage system is charged by clean electricity generated by solar.
Optimise – Intelligent battery software uses algorithms to coordinate solar production, usage history, utility rate structures, and weather patterns to optimise when the stored energy is used.
Discharge – Energy is discharged from the battery storage system during times of high usage, reducing or eliminating costly demand charges.
Battery energy storage systems have a wide range of benefits.
Business benefits include peak shaving, load shifting, emergency backup, and various grid services.
For our homes the benefits include self-consumption, off-grid homes, and emergency backup.