One hundred years. One direction.
In a century of UK electricity price data there has been only one sustained period in which the real cost of power fell, the brief deflation of the early 1920s. Every other decade has ended higher than it began: through nationalisation, privatisation, oil crises and the 2022 energy crisis, from roughly 0.6p per unit in 1920 to around 26p today.
That is not bad luck, it is structure. Ageing networks need constant reinvestment, the generation mix is being rebuilt, and policy adds levies faster than it removes them. Betting your overheads on that trend reversing is not a strategy.
Wholesale prices are falling. Your bill still won't.
The least understood fact in the UK energy market: the electricity itself is now only part of what you pay for. Network and policy charges make up roughly 40% to 60% of a typical commercial bill, covering transmission, distribution, grid balancing, capacity payments and levies, and those charges are rising sharply as the grid is rebuilt, with major transmission charge increases already scheduled.
This is why organisations waiting for cheaper wholesale power will be disappointed: the delivered price is increasingly driven by infrastructure costs, not generation costs. And it is why on-site generation is structurally advantaged, because power made and used behind your own meter avoids most of those charges entirely.
Volatility is the grid's problem. A battery makes it your income.
As more renewable generation joins the grid, prices swing harder within each day: cheap or even negative overnight and in sunny, windy spells, expensive in the evening peak. A battery turns that swing into revenue by charging when power is cheap and discharging when it is valuable, either supplying your own site at peak times or trading back to the grid.
On top of trading, batteries earn from the formal balancing markets: frequency response services that stabilise the grid second by second, reserve services, capacity payments for guaranteed availability, and regional flexibility contracts with network operators. These are established, regulated markets, and revenues from several of them can be stacked on the same battery.
Six ways a battery earns.
Energy Trading
Buying cheap and selling dear across the daily price curve, in the day-ahead and within-day markets. The core arbitrage income.
Frequency Response
Payments for standing ready to inject or absorb power within seconds to keep the grid stable. Availability is paid whether or not the battery is called.
Reserve Services
Contracts to turn demand down or supply up at short notice, paid for availability with utilisation payments on top.
Capacity Market
Annual payments for guaranteeing availability at times of system stress. A low-risk, steady income line for registered assets.
Local Network Flexibility
Regional contracts with distribution network operators to ease local constraints. Values vary by area and can be significant in constrained regions.
Peak Avoidance On Site
Discharging into your own evening demand avoids the most expensive imported units and the peak charges attached to them.
What this produces in practice.
Two thresholds matter. First, meaningful access to grid trading and the balancing markets generally starts at battery capacity of around 200kW and above. Below that, a battery still earns through self-consumption and peak avoidance, but the market revenues above are largely out of reach.
Second, the strongest returns come from batteries operating alongside rooftop solar, because the battery then trades the grid and captures your own surplus generation.
Commercial systems combining rooftop solar with storage are currently generating additional revenues of £45,000 to £69,000 per year, under current market conditions, from trading, frequency, reserve and capacity income, on top of the energy cost savings. At the top end, larger combined solar and battery configurations are producing income in the region of £90,000 to £110,000 per year after capital and financing costs are met, subject to site suitability, system size, grid connection capacity, funding terms and prevailing market conditions. These reflect the performance of comparable operational UK systems, not theoretical models, though every site is different and market conditions move, so we model each project individually on current figures.
No capital? No problem.
For organisations that prefer not to deploy capital, the whole platform can be delivered through a funded solar power purchase agreement: a third-party investor funds, owns and maintains a solar system on your building, and you simply buy the electricity it generates at a fixed rate below what you pay your supplier today, typically for up to 25 years.
There is no capital outlay, no balance sheet liability and no maintenance responsibility. The saving starts the day the system is commissioned, your overhead line falls, and because the rate is fixed with modest indexation, a century of rising prices starts working for you instead of against you. Battery storage and the revenue streams above can be incorporated into the funded package from the outset.
PPA rates are individually priced on three things: your organisation's financial standing, your site's solar yield, and system size. We prepare that assessment for you, without charge, and present the rate before you commit to anything.
Beau Energy manages feasibility, design, approvals and delivery, and arranges the funding and agreements with specialist funding partners. You get one accountable team across the whole arrangement.
Start with your bill and your roof.
Send us 12 months of electricity bills and your site details. We will model the realistic combination of solar, storage and market revenues for your site, and show you the funded and self-funded routes side by side. No cost, no commitment.
Prefer email? Write to [email protected] and attach your bills.