The study, which covered over 10,000 utility rate plans, reveals the magnitude of the demand charges for commercial customers across the United States and is a key indicator of the financial performance of behind-the-meter battery storage systems today.
The one thing that stands out in the report is that fully one-quarter of American businesses, over five million of the 18 million commercial customers in the U.S., could reduce their power bills if they installed storage batteries to reduce peak energy demand, says Bloomberg.
This is particularly true of customers with demand charges of at least $15 per kilowatt, an industry benchmark for identifying economic opportunities. The bottom line to this is the substantial market opportunity for behind-the-meter battery storage. And with falling storage battery prices and rising utility charges, this makes for big savings in “high-cost” states like California and New York.
The study points out that at least one million commercial customers in Georgia, Colorado, Michigan, Texas, Florida and New England can also realize power cost savings by investing in storage batteries. They just need to think of them as another tool they can use to reduce costs, besides investing in solar panels and fuel cells.
“Declining costs for energy storage products have created opportunities for commercial customers to lower their electricity bills,” said Joyce McLaren, an NREL analyst and lead author of the study.
