Denver Blemings

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are growing in importance, supporting renewable integration, help balance the grid and unlock new revenue streams through market participation. But despite their growing role, many batteries are not performing anywhere near their true potential. But the reasons why are more subtle than most operators realise.

Battery energy storage systems have matured rapidly, but as the technology has scaled, so too has the complexity of managing it. Many asset owners have responded by assembling multi-vendor stacks, stitching together hardware providers, energy management systems, trading platforms and operational service providers. In practice, this often erodes performance and revenue over time.

There is a lot of talk in the industry right now about the gap between technical performance and commercial outcomes. What does that actually mean in practice? Here we spoke to GridBeyond CEO and Co-founder Michael Phelan to find out why BESS analytics must start with commercial outcomes.

In this white paper we explore three critical limitations observed in current battery operations: reliance on warranty limits instead of marginal cost, inaccurate state of charge estimation, and hidden capacity losses due to system imbalance.

This white paper examines why that fragmentation imposes measurable costs on asset performance and revenue, and why a single-platform architecture represents not just a convenience but a structural advantage.