A battery lets a business use energy at a different time from when it arrives. It does not reduce consumption, it moves it, and whether that is worth paying for depends entirely on the shape of your tariff and your load.
Verification
- Verified as at:
- Source:
- Omnium method; economics are site-specific and modelled from half-hourly data
- Last reviewed by:
- Omnium
Figures in this sheet were current at the verification date above. Regulated charges reset each April. If you are relying on a figure, check the source or ask us.
Designed A4 fact sheet, ready to print or circulate.
What a battery actually does
- Solar self-consumption. Stores surplus generated in the day for use later, instead of exporting it at a much lower rate. Usually the strongest single reason to add one.
- Load shifting. Charges when power is cheaper and discharges when it is more expensive, which matters more as time-of-use pricing spreads.
- Peak demand management. Discharging across a demand peak can reduce the capacity a site needs to reserve, and capacity is charged every day.
What it does not do
A battery does not reduce the energy a site uses. Round-trip losses mean it uses slightly more. The value is entirely in when the energy is used and what that timing is worth.
Anyone presenting storage as an energy reduction is describing it wrongly.
What decides the case
The shape of your tariff, the shape of your load, whether you are also generating, and the installed cost. Change any one of those and the answer changes.
It is the technology where the commercial model matters most and where we most often advise against proceeding. We would rather tell you that than sell you a battery that never earns its cost.
Before a battery, look at capacity
If the objective is managing a demand peak, check the agreed capacity position first. Reducing capacity that is never used costs nothing and recurs annually. A battery bought to solve a capacity problem that a form would have solved is an expensive answer to a cheap question.
Related sheets
- Solar PV
Why self-consumption decides solar economics, the three funding routes, and the sites where it does not stack up.
- Network charges and agreed capacity
Why regulated network charges rose sharply in April 2026, and why the capacity you reserve is a lever most businesses have never pulled.
- The net zero roadmap
The order to decarbonise a building or portfolio in, and why measuring and reducing before generating and offsetting costs less.
Take this sheet into a meeting
Battery storage is available as a designed A4 fact sheet, dated and set for printing or circulation.
If this sheet raises a question about your own sites, speak to us.