Peak Shaving: How a Battery Can Cut Your Business’s Demand Charges
Many business electricity bills include a demand charge – a fee based on the highest amount of power your site pulls from the grid in a short window, not just the total energy you use. One half-hour of everything running at once can set that charge for the whole billing period.
What peak shaving is
Peak shaving uses a battery (usually charged from solar) to supply power during those spikes, so the grid only ever sees a lower, flatter load. Lower peak = lower demand charge.
Who it suits
- Workshops and factories with big motors, compressors or welders.
- Cold rooms and refrigeration.
- Clubs and kitchens with evening peaks.
- Schools and facilities with large air conditioning loads.
How we size it
- Get your interval data – 12 months of 30-minute readings from your retailer.
- Find the peaks – when they happen, how long they last and what causes them.
- Size the battery to shave the peaks that matter, not the whole load.
- Check your tariff – sometimes a tariff change or load management is part of the answer.
Stack the incentives
From 1 October 2026 commercial solar up to 1MW is eligible for STCs (more here), and since September 2026 NSW business batteries can attract PDRS incentives (more here). Together they change the payback maths for a lot of Mid North Coast businesses.
