Storage for the Dairy Industry

There are two main economic benefits of using storage in conjunction with renewable energy to reduce electricity bills. Firstly, storage allows a business to purchase more of its electricity from the grid during cheaper offpeak times, or directly from an on-site solar PV system, and store it for later use during peak times – when the electricity tariff is higher. That means avoiding paying some or all of the higher peak charges. Secondly, many large businesses like dairies are charged not only for the energy they consume (in kilowatt hours or kWh), but also for their ‘demand’ on the electricity network (in kilowatts [kW] or megawatts [MW]). The higher the power demand the business places on the network, the higher the demand charge will be. This is something that is typically charged on a monthly basis. In this context, storage can also provide a portion of a dairy’s peak demand – thereby lowering its demand from the electricity network and reducing its demand charge.