PV + BESS Economics

Market concepts

Base Price is the broad market price reference. PV Capture Rate expresses PV's relative market value, and PV Capture Price equals Base Price × PV Capture Rate. Power-Shifting Value is the historically modelled incremental value per discharged MWh from shifting power from lower- to higher-priced Day-Ahead periods under a defined battery configuration and operating logic. It is not simply an observed high-low market-price spread.

BESS reference method

Battery duration affects both physical utilisation and modeled market value. Changing duration changes modeled discharge energy and equivalent full cycles and also selects the corresponding Reference Power-Shifting Value. That value varies with operating mode, battery duration and BESS/PV AC ratio because those configurations change the modeled flexibility opportunity.

Reference Power-Shifting Value assumptions come from Steerpoint Energy's simplified historical optimisation model. The calculator itself does not perform full hourly dispatch optimisation.

Reference, scenario and custom cases

Historical Reference uses the canonical assumptions for the selected configuration. Scenario presets adjust the Reference Power-Shifting Value using the existing predefined factor and represent selected market conditions, not forecasts. In a custom case, manual market-driver inputs are authoritative; a manual Power-Shifting Value override remains until another Reference or Scenario is explicitly selected.

Additional BESS revenues

These manually entered revenues represent value outside the modeled Power-Shifting Value, such as ancillary services or additional intraday opportunities. They are not operationally simulated, may not be accessible in every project or market, and should not duplicate value already captured in Power-Shifting Value.

Break-even measures

BESS break-even — remaining revenue is the annual revenue still required after modeled energy-shifting uplift and entered Additional BESS revenues, expressed in EUR/MW BESS/a; it is not a Power-Shifting Value metric. Project break-even is the remaining additional annual revenue required for the combined PV+BESS project after all revenues already included in the selected case.

Model boundaries

The calculator does not model full hourly dispatch optimisation, future market forecasts or probabilities, detailed degradation dispatch, operational ancillary-service optimisation, project-specific grid constraints, or commercial and contractual revenue-sharing structures.