Competitive landscape advantages of household energy storage batteries

Could residential energy storage make the grid more cost effective?

Residential energy storage, i.e. household batteries, could make the grid more cost effective by improving its reliability, resilience, and safety. However, this depends on resolving delicate commercial and policy issues among retail battery providers, utilities, and regulators.

Why are residential batteries important?

Residential batteries are expected to be a major contributor to the storage capacity needed to shift electricity demand to timeslots of high renewable electricity generation. At the household level, the battery charges in the daytime when solar power is generated in excess, and discharges later when there is typically higher demand.

Are residential batteries the future of power markets?

Although they are not widespread globally, their emergence as power markets transition will create significant opportunities for distributed energy resources like residential batteries to earn a return from the services they provide.

Are Local Flexibility Markets the best opportunity for residential batteries?

BloombergNEF considers local flexibility markets to be the best opportunity for residential batteries. These markets require distributed energy resources to solve location-specific grid challenges.

Why is battery storage important?

• Battery storage is an important enabler of the energy transition, and residential batteries are a major part of that (Figure 1). Already in Germany and Italy, over 70% of new home solar systems have batteries attached, to shift the use of daytime solar power generated to the evening (Figure 2).

Do residential batteries play a role in the capacity market?

Participation of residential batteries in the capacity market is typically led by retailers with large virtual power plant portfolios. These are mainly for demand response, where residential batteries play a small part.