Battery storage on a commercial site

A battery charges when electricity is cheap or when your own generation exceeds what the building is using, and discharges when it is expensive or when demand peaks.

On a commercial site the three usual jobs are storing solar that would otherwise export, avoiding expensive periods on a time of use contract, and trimming peaks that drive capacity charges.

It suits sites with a sharp daily peak, a time of use tariff, or an existing array exporting a meaningful share of what it makes.

It suits you less if your load is flat, your tariff is flat, and you have no generation. A battery with nothing to arbitrage earns nothing.

• -The shape of your load through the day, which needs half hourly data rather than an annual total.
• -Your tariff structure, and whether the difference between periods is large enough to be worth storing.
• -Export headroom, if the battery is paired with solar.
• -Space, weight and fire separation for the enclosure, which is easier outdoors than in.

The figures Meridians models with. Your building replaces them with its own data as soon as we have it.

Installed cost

from 400 to 600 per usable kWh

UK commercial market, 2026.

Typical duration

one to four hours at peak output

UK commercial battery systems are specified at one to four hours of storage at peak output.

Grid electricity is taken at 20 to 27 pence per kWh, from 2026 UK commercial rates.

Cost leads with the low end. Payback leads with the longer one.

The card a client sees, rendered by the application itself.

• -The battery is sized on annual consumption rather than on the load shape, so it is either too big to fill or too small to matter.
• -It is bought as an add on to solar without checking whether much is being exported at all.
• -Degradation and warranted cycles are left out of the payback.

• Solar panels
• Capacity and network charges