Can outdoor energy storage batteries make money

A battery energy storage project is a system that serves a variety of purposes for utilities and other consumers of electricity, including backup power, frequency regulation, and balancing electricity supply with demand.

Another key component of a battery's revenue comes from the Capacity Market (CM). The CM ensures security of electricity supply by providing a payment for reliable sources of capacity. Each technology is assigned a de-rating factor which is calculated based on the technology's contribution to system security.

Under many of these contracts, the project owner retains operational control of the storage facility and the right to collect and retain revenue from sales of electricity discharged from the battery. The project may be able to sell electricity to the same buyer of the resource adequacy attributes or to another buyer in the market.

Cannibalisation of price spreads from other battery storage assets presents a significant risk, particularly in the BM which has smaller overall volumes. In addition, the entry of competing sources of flexibility, such as interconnection and Demand Side Response (DSR), will also dampen spreads and reduce the opportunities for batteries.

Currently, the DC market is an overwhelmingly attractive proposition for battery assets, and a large contribution to the current appetite for storage deployment. However, these outsized returns should be taken with a pinch of salt.

The greater the diference between high and low power prices across the day, the larger the profit for a battery asset. Batteries can charge and discharge multiple times a day, but high levels of cycling have an impact on the lifetime of the battery asset itself, with most battery cells needing to be replaced after 6,000 - 10,000 full cycles.