How to Spot a Class B Battery Project

This guide is for reps who sell solar to Ontario Class B accounts, commercial sites drawing 50 kW to 999 kW, and want to start quoting batteries. Each signal below takes one question or one file on the first call. Battery Proposal Studio does the analysis.

Solar cuts energy charges ($/kWh). Demand charges ($/kW) follow the site's highest peak in the billing period, which solar does little to move. A battery discharges into that peak. The larger the demand share of the bill, the stronger the battery case. Ontario demand charges have risen every year for five years, which our demand charge rate review covers in detail.

1.1Request Green Button data from every prospect

Ask for it on every call, solar or battery. It costs the client a download from their utility portal. Our smart-meter data guide has the steps for each utility and an email template you can send.

1.2Read the ratio in Battery Proposal Studio

Upload the file to Studio and set the LDC and rate class. Studio plots the interval load and prices it on the site's rate class, then splits the annual cost into demand, energy, Global Adjustment, delivery and fixed charges. The demand share is your ratio. No spreadsheet.

1.3Screen the site

Above 35%, pair a battery with the solar quote. The site above sits at 59.9%, in the range where battery payback often beats solar alone.

The ideal solar plus battery project claims the load displacement capital incentive on a solar array that would curtail without a battery. The battery stores the midday surplus the site can't use, so the full array earns.

1. 01Start at the net-meter size. Size the array the way you would for a net-metering quote.
2. 02Convert to load displacement. Keep the array. Production above site load now curtails instead of crediting.
3. 03Add the battery's value. Assess every value stream the battery brings on top of the incentive.

Without a battery you shrink the array to avoid curtailment, or you keep it and waste the surplus. Either way the client loses incentive value. With a battery, the full array qualifies and the surplus displaces evening load.

Model it before you quote it. Upload the Green Button data to Battery Proposal Studio and compare solar alone against solar plus battery.

Solar buyers seldom raise outages on their own. Ask. The answers set the hours of protection, and Battery Proposal Studio sizes the battery to deliver them against the site's real load.

3.1Size it in Battery Proposal Studio

Upload the load and pick a battery size. Studio simulates outages across the year on the facility's interval data and plots how long the battery carries the site.

• ▸Read the 5th percentile as the floor. Compare it to the hours of protection the client asked for.
• ▸Short of the target? Change the battery size and rerun while the client is on the call.

3.2Rough math before the Studio

12 kW of critical load held for 4 hours needs about 48 kWh. Use it to sanity-check the Studio result.

3.3Where the backup case lands

One signal opens the conversation. Each added signal adds a value stream to the same battery and shortens payback. On every first call, request Green Button data, note the array size you would quote for net metering, and ask about outages and the assets that cannot go down.