About the Stacked Revenue
Stacked Revenue analysis aggregates all value streams a BESS can generate — peak demand shaving, energy arbitrage, backup power value, ancillary services (frequency regulation, reactive power), and capacity payments — to build a comprehensive business case. Most Indian C&I BESS projects need 2–3 stacked revenue streams to achieve viability.
How to calculate it
- 1Identify available revenue streams for your use case and market: (1) demand-charge reduction, (2) energy arbitrage (ToU tariff spread), (3) backup/resilience value, (4) ancillary services (where market access exists), (5) solar clipping recovery.
- 2Quantify each stream: demand charge savings (kVA reduced × monthly demand charge × 12), arbitrage (kWh shifted × ToU spread), backup value (outage hours × critical load value).
- 3Check physical constraints: the same battery cannot simultaneously do arbitrage AND backup reserve — allocate kWh between streams.
- 4Sum annual revenue across all streams; compare to LCOS to confirm viability.
- 5Model degradation: revenue from most streams falls as capacity fades — account for this over the project life.
Worked example
A 500 kWh C&I BESS in Mumbai: (1) Peak shaving saves ₹80 L/year (100 kVA × ₹667/kVA × 12 months). (2) Energy arbitrage: 400 kWh/day × ₹4 spread × 300 days = ₹48 L/year. (3) Backup reserve allocation consumes 100 kWh, monetised at ₹15 L/year avoided DG cost. Total stacked revenue = ₹1.43 Cr/year on a ₹2 Cr BESS → payback under 2 years.
What you can calculate
- Multi-stream ₹
- Revenue stack
- Annual total
- Use-case split
Frequently asked questions
What revenue streams are available for BESS in India?
Currently viable in India: (1) peak demand shaving — the largest and most reliable stream for C&I consumers with high demand charges; (2) energy arbitrage under ToU tariffs (available in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana, and others); (3) avoided diesel generator cost for backup; (4) solar clipping recovery. Ancillary services markets (frequency regulation, RRAS) exist at utility scale under CERC regulations but are not yet widely accessible to C&I BESS owners.
Why does BESS need multiple revenue streams to be viable?
A single revenue stream rarely justifies the LCOS of current BESS at ₹8–14/kWh. Peak shaving alone is sufficient in high-demand-charge tariffs (Metro states) but marginal elsewhere. Stacking 2–3 streams — typically peak shaving + arbitrage + backup — covers the LCOS gap and makes projects viable in most Indian commercial tariff structures.
Can the same battery do peak shaving and backup simultaneously?
Not fully simultaneously — the kWh used for arbitrage or peak shaving is temporarily unavailable for backup. The BMS manages this by reserving a minimum SoC for backup (e.g. always keep 20% SoC = 100 kWh as backup floor on a 500 kWh bank). The remaining 400 kWh is dispatched for peak shaving and arbitrage. This allocation trade-off is the core of BESS dispatch optimisation.
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