Learn how to add and optimise battery storage for your hybrid wind or solar park.
A Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) enables:
Revenue optimisation through spot market arbitrage
Curtailment reduction by storing excess energy when grid limits apply
Financial analysis with NPV and IRR calculations for different battery sizes
Granular cost modelling for battery CAPEX and OPEX
Before you begin
Make sure:
Your park has a Financial configuration selected with BESS cost settings
You have at least one Battery component created in Project settings
💡 No battery components yet? Go to Project settings → Components → Battery and create a battery module with capacity (MW), duration (hours), and efficiency parameters.
Step 1: Open the Battery menu
Click the Battery icon in the left sidebar while viewing your park. A dropdown appears with two options:
Optimise – Automatically find the best battery size for your project
Manual – Set a specific battery configuration
Step 2: Configure parameters
Before running an optimisation, review your grid configuration:
Grid limit (MW) – The maximum power you can export to the grid. Add this via the Curtailments menu if not already set.
Tariffs – Grid cost rules that affect battery economics. Configure these in your Financial configuration.
Configure your financial numbers:
CAPEX – per MW and per MWh
OPEX – Yearly occurrences
💡 Ensure BESS CAPEX and OPEX settings are accurate for realistic NPV and IRR calculations.
Step 3a: Run automatic optimisation
Select Optimise from the Battery menu:
Select a battery module – Choose from your configured battery components
Set max total size (MWh) – The maximum energy capacity to consider. This is auto-calculated based on your grid limit or park size, but you can adjust it.
Click "Run optimisation" – The system will analyse multiple battery sizes
The optimiser runs scenarios to find configurations that maximise value. Results appear in the right panel.
Step 3b: Use manual configuration
Select Manual from the Battery menu if you want to specify an exact battery size:
Select a battery module
Enter number of modules
Click "Apply" – The configuration is saved to your park
Step 4: Add the best result to your park
Click the "Add" button on your preferred result. The battery configuration is now applied to your park and will be included in your Financial analysis. Once added, the battery will appear in the Park's panel.
💡 Tip: Compare multiple scenarios – run optimisations with different battery modules and max sizes to explore trade-offs.
What's next?
Once BESS is configured:
View the BESS dashboard for detailed analysis
Include battery costs in your LCOE analysis
Export results for reporting
Use Compare to explore different scenarios
✅ You've now set up and optimised a battery system for your hybrid park!