A newly announced proposal to offer households free electricity during periods when the UK’s wind and solar generation is highest has added another compelling argument for residential battery storage systems – even for homes without solar panels.
As the UK continues to expand wind and solar generation, there are increasing periods where clean electricity supply exceeds demand.
Under new proposals recently announced by The National Energy System Operator (NESO), households could benefit from this by running appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers or EV chargers during these free-energy periods.
But homes with battery storage may be able to benefit even more, by automatically charging from the grid during these periods to store additional low-cost – or even free – electricity for use later in the day, when tariffs are higher and demand increases.
For homeowners already considering solar PV, battery storage has long offered benefits including improved self-consumption of home generated solar energy, reduced resilience against grid instability, and protection against rising energy costs.
However, developments like this increasingly position batteries as a standalone smart energy technology in their own right.
Read more about the NESO announcement and implications at Renewal Energy Installer
And read more about residential battery solutions from Stratford Energy Solutions – Tesla Powerwall 3 and Sigenergy Sigenstor