Battery Storage
Supercharge Your Energy Supply
Our advanced battery storage solutions give your business full control over its energy use. By capturing excess solar power during the day—or sourcing electricity from the grid when rates are lowest—you can store affordable energy and use it whenever you need it. This ensures maximum return on your solar investment and delivers meaningful reductions in your operational energy costs.
Battery storage is a powerful asset for any organisation looking to manage energy more efficiently. It smooths out fluctuations between generation and demand, protects your site from rising electricity prices, and shields your operations from unexpected blackouts. Instead of wasting surplus solar energy, you can store it for later use or export it back to the grid, turning unused power into additional revenue.
When your solar system produces more energy than your property requires, a storage solution allows you to monetise that surplus while keeping your business running on clean, low-cost power. This not only strengthens your financial savings but also enhances your sustainability credentials—an increasingly valuable advantage in a competitive market.
With reliable battery storage in place, your business remains operational even during grid failures. Your property continues to receive a steady energy supply, and your solar panels keep working around the clock. The result is greater resilience, reduced downtime, and enhanced energy independence—giving your organisation a clear commercial edge.
Tesla Powerwall
The Powerwall’s lithium-ion battery inherits Tesla’s proven automotive battery technology to power your home or small business safely and economically. An integrated inverter reduces external components, simplifying and lowering installation costs. Powerwall is a completely automated system that requires no maintenance.
Battery Storage FAQs
What are the advantages of Solar Battery Storage Installation for an Occupier?
There are many benefits of installing a solar battery for an occupier. The economic benefits include:
Load shifting, where an organisation can draw battery power during times of high Triad (TNUOS) charges between 4 pm and 7 pm during winter rather than drawing expensive grid energy.
A company can also reduce the peak load it may draw to stay below a physical or financial threshold that its supplier may impose. Large pieces of industrial machinery may have this effect. A pre-charged battery can provide this energy to smooth out the spikes without drawing high peaks from the local network.
The third benefit is to store renewable energy generated on-site, as the battery could be charged with free solar electricity. This energy could be sold back to the grid for a nominal sum or retained to replace future demand.
How do you connect Solar Battery storage to an organisation’s Infrastructure?
A large solar PV array connects a battery to an organisation’s electrical infrastructure. We generally connect the battery to the primary distribution network and ensure that the organisation’s protection systems are up to date and will behave in a known way in the event of a problem. The batteries deliver a direct current (DC), passing through an inverter to create an alternating current (AC) suitable for general use. In addition to the battery and inverters, we will install a G59 relay and cut-out to protect the site in the event of an electrical failure and a series of metres to ensure that the billing and flow of energy are understood. This generally requires significant design, and customers can ask Igen to investigate old infrastructure thoroughly to understand the risks within their systems better.
What is the capacity of a solar battery?
Capacity is the total amount of energy in kWh (units) that a battery can store. Batteries should never be drained completely; however, some are misleadingly sold, quoting ‘total’ capacity. It is important to check what’s being stated. ‘Useable capacity’ is the key figure you need to know. For example, although a Tesla Powerwall 2 is 14kWh, it’s sold as 13.5kWh. It is a usable capacity. It will not fully discharge to prevent damage to the battery cells.
What constitutes a solar battery cycle?
A cycle is one complete discharge and one complete charge. However, in reality, it doesn’t happen like that. A battery may only discharge 25% and then recharge 25%, which would be a quarter of a cycle. So, you need to know how many cycles a battery is warranted for. Only then can you determine how many kWh (units of electric power) your battery will deliver over its entire warranty lifetime.
What are the different types of solar batteries?
There are two main types available:
- Lead Acid
- Lithium
Lead Acid is very cheap to install but inefficient and won’t last long. For this reason, Lead Acid has all but disappeared from the Solar Storage market. Though lithium (ion or iron phosphate) is slightly higher, it’s much better for the money. It will last far longer and deliver more kWhs (units) during its lifetime.
What is charge/discharge power?
Some battery storage systems only deliver 800w (watts) of power, which is not good if you want a cup of tea (your kettle needs 2000 watts). Likewise, if you’re generating 4kW but the battery can only take on 3kW, then 1kW will be heading to the grid, wasting your precious free energy.
So you must check the power output before you buy. Otherwise, you may find yourself drawing a lot of energy from the grid even though you have energy in your battery.
What are Grid Services, and how can they fund a Solar Battery Storage Installation?
Grid services are the portion of services that are devoted to supporting the National Grid. They change occasionally as the National Grid seeks to manage its network more effectively. They appear as short term markets with bidding opportunities, barriers to entry and licences. These services can be accessed inside an occupier’s property and connected directly to the grid. The services are typically designed to provide additional grid stability at short notice should an unexpected event occur on the network outside its regular operation. Additional revenues will be earned by allowing your battery to be entered into these network-managed markets – making your asset available to the network operator.
What is the difference between a grid connected battery and a behind-the-meter (BTM) battery?
A grid-connected battery is connected straight to the electricity grid and derives its income solely from providing grid services to the National Grid. A “behind-the-meter” battery is connected to a private electrical infrastructure, often within a factory or warehouse. In this scenario, a battery can provide grid services as a grid-connected battery and support the occupier with load shifting, electrical storage, and peak shaving services.