Benefitting from Battery storage

There can be no better way of communicating the benefit of having battery storage than publishing the graph below.

It records the energy my house has taken from the grid each month, starting at January 2023 and ending January 2024*; the battery storage was commissioned on 1st November 2023.

The step-down in grid consumption from November is quite remarkable, - more than I ever expected.

The data for the graph is reliable; the figures come from the meter readings sent to OVO, the electricity utility who sell grid energy to me.

I look forward now to seeing how this graph pans out over a full year; the three months in which battery storage has been contributing, have been months when the Powerspout has generated at its maximum and there has been little input from solar; later in the year, the mix will change, - and therein lies my interest.

* I will update the graph each month after January 2024 to give the latest information.

Addendum added 15 April 2024

How the above graph 'pans out over a full year' will depend on the pattern of energy generation for a full year.

The pattern is seen in the graph below.

It is a graph showing the total kWh generated each day from hydro and solar, between October of one year and September of the next.

The blue spiky line is the kWh generated each day, averaged over the past 8 years.

The red polynomial line is the 'best fit line' for the blue line.

It will be seen that maximum generation is from mid February to June, and in this period the graph above can be expected to show the least energy taken from the grid.

Conversely, least generation happens in September / October, and in those months grid supplied energy is likely to be needed.