Your business does not have to buy all of its electricity from the grid. Solar panels can generate electricity at your sites which batteries store for later use. Specialist control software can decide when to charge up your batteries and whether it should power your site, keep power in reserve, or send electricity to the grid.
Used well, this behind-the-meter equipment can reduce how much electricity your business buys from the grid and help lower your energy bills.
In this article, find out what behind the meter means and how to make sure the system you choose delivers the savings you expect.
What does behind the meter mean?
Your electricity meter is the point at which your site connects to the wider electricity network. Anything on your side of the meter is behind the meter (BTM). Anything on the other side is part of the grid.
Electricity coming into your site from the grid is an import. Electricity sent from your site back to the grid is an export.
Not all the electricity your business uses has to come through the meter. You can also generate electricity on site, for example with solar panels, and use it directly instead of buying it from the grid. Any electricity you do not use straight away can be stored in a battery or exported.
Front of meter vs behind the meter: what is the difference?
Behind-the-meter equipment is there to serve one business, home, or site. Front-of-meter equipment is what connects to the wider electricity network, and this is what energy companies use to supply power to different sites.
| Behind the meter | Front of the meter | |
|---|---|---|
| Where is it? | On the customer’s side of the meter | On the grid side of the meter |
| Who does it serve? | One building, business, or site | The wider electricity network |
| Common examples | Rooftop solar panels, batteries, and EV chargers | Solar farms, wind farms, and large grid batteries |
| Main purpose | Supply the site and help cut its electricity costs | Supply electricity to the wider grid or store it until it is needed |
| Typical owner | The site owner or a service company | An energy company or network operator |
For example, a battery behind the meter may help one warehouse use more of its own solar power and buy less electricity from the grid.
A battery in front of the meter does a different job. It stores or supplies electricity for the wider network, not just one site. You’re more likely to find front-of-the-meter batteries next to substations, solar farms, or wind farms, where they connect directly to the electricity network.
What equipment is connected behind the meter?
Most of the electrical equipment your business uses is behind the meter. This includes your lights, electric heating, air conditioning, refrigeration, machinery, EV chargers and so on.
You can also connect other behind-the-meter systems that help manage your site’s electricity, such as:
- Solar panels which generate electricity on-site
- A battery which stores electricity for later
- An inverter which changes electricity from the solar panels or battery into the type the site can use
- Energy management software which checks the site’s readings and sends instructions to the battery and other equipment
All of this equipment is there for the use of your site, rather than the wider electricity network.
How can a behind-the-meter system cut costs?
A behind-the-meter system can lower a business’s electricity costs in four main ways.
1. Use more of your own solar power
The amount of electricity a business uses is variable, changing throughout the day. For instance, a hotel may use more electricity at breakfast time and in the evening than it does in the middle of the day.
Solar panel electricity production is also variable, with panels generating more electricity at some times than others and output changing from season to season. This means your solar panels may produce the most electricity when your site does not need all of it.
A battery helps you deal with this mismatch. Your business can use solar electricity as the panels produce it. If the panels generate more than your site needs at that time, the battery can store some of the spare electricity and supply it later when solar production falls or your site needs more power.
For example, imagine the solar panels generate 100 kWh during a sunny period:
- The site uses 70 kWh straight away.
- The battery stores 20 kWh for later.
- If the site can export electricity, the remaining 10 kWh goes to the grid.
Later, when the solar panels are producing less, the site needs 50 kWh:
- The battery supplies 20 kWh.
- The site imports the remaining 30 kWh from the grid.
Every unit of solar electricity you use is one less unit you have to buy from the grid, bringing down your electricity bill.
You may also be paid for sending spare electricity to the grid. However, if you receive less for it than you would pay to buy the same amount later, storing it for your own use can save you more.
2. Buy electricity when it is cheaper
On many business tariffs, you pay more for electricity at some times of day than others.
Your battery can charge up when it’s cheaper to buy and use that stored electricity to power your site later, when it costs more. This is called energy arbitrage.
3. Cut short bursts of high grid use
You might draw a lot of power down from the grid when lots of your equipment is running at the same time, like CNC machines, large fridges, and EV chargers.
Your battery can meet some or all of those energy needs, so you take less from the grid at that moment. This is called peak shaving.
4. Add new equipment without taking too much power from the grid
As businesses grow, they often need to add more electrical equipment. For example, a factory may install a new industrial air compressor.
This can cause problems because every site has a limit on how much power it can take from the grid at any one time. In Great Britain and Ireland, this is usually called its Maximum Import Capacity, or MIC.
Solar panels and batteries can supply part of the power the new equipment needs meaning that, at the very busiest times, you draw less electricity from the grid.
This may help you avoid excess capacity charges and delay or reduce the need to pay for a larger grid connection. Businesses in both markets can face extra charges when they use more power than their agreed capacity.
Can a behind-the-meter battery earn extra money?
A business can earn money by sending its spare electricity to the grid. For example, if your solar panels generate more electricity than you can use on-site, you can send the extra electricity to the grid and get paid for it.
That’s not the only way to earn money from a commercial battery setup. The other way is flexibility trading.
This is when, for example, you agree to use less electricity from the grid at busy times or send stored electricity back when more power is needed. You get paid because you’re helping the companies that run the grid keep the amount of electricity available in line with the amount people and businesses need at any given time.
Not every system can take part in these schemes. Ask your installer for more information.
How do you get the most from a behind-the-meter system?
Behind-the-meter systems can deliver good savings, but they can underperform if the wrong equipment is chosen or the battery is controlled badly. First, the installer chooses the wrong equipment for your site. Second, the control software they select, which decides when to charge and discharge your battery, keeps making the wrong decisions.
Whether you are buying a new battery setup or looking for ways to get more from one you already have, here’s how to approach both.
1. Make sure the installer chooses the right equipment for your site
Before recommending any equipment, your installer needs to understand when your site uses electricity, how much solar power it can generate, and what you need the battery to do. That could be storing spare solar electricity, cutting expensive grid use, managing short bursts of high demand, or powering new equipment
They must also check that your site can take the power the system needs from the grid, send spare electricity back if allowed, and make sure the battery, inverter, meter, and control software can all work together.
When your business uses electricity
A good installer should base their advice on how your business really uses electricity, not on a rough guess.
They should ask you for 12 months of bills as well as detailed meter readings. These show them rises and falls in your electricity use, helping them to work out when a battery could save you the most money.
How much solar power the site may produce
If you also have solar panels, the installer should estimate how much electricity they may produce through the year. What they produce on a bright summer afternoon will be much less on a dark winter morning, for example.
This helps the installer work out how much spare solar power the battery may need to store and when your site is likely to use it.
What size battery does the site need?
Batteries have two main limits. One is how much electricity they can hold. The other is how much power they can supply at one time.
A battery may hold enough electricity to last for several hours but still not supply enough power when several machines start together. Another may supply a lot of power at once but run out before the expensive part of the day ends.
Your installer needs to get both parts right. A battery that is too large may cost you more than the extra savings it can deliver, making it take longer to pay for itself. A battery that is too small may not hold enough electricity for your needs or may not be able to supply it quickly enough when your site needs a lot of power at once.
Can your grid connection support the system?
Your installer should check how much power your site is allowed to take from the grid and send back to it. These limits affect how large a battery system your site can make full use of.
Can your equipment work together?
Your installer should also check that the battery, inverter, meter, and control software are compatible. They need to share information and follow instructions properly so the battery charges and discharges at the right times.
What the installer should explain before you buy
It’s important that the installer tells you exactly:
- What information they used to make their recommendation
- Which costs the battery should cut, like expensive grid use or short bursts of high demand
- Why they chose that battery and the other equipment over others
- When the battery should charge from spare solar power or cheaper grid electricity, and when it should supply your site instead of the grid
- How they worked out the expected savings
Expect them to explain all of this in plain English. Only trust a quote if it is based on detailed information about your specific site, not just one recent bill or your total yearly electricity use.
2. Make sure the control software does not leave money on the table
As important as the hardware setup is the software setup. If your battery is saving less than expected, the control software is one thing worth checking.
The problem could also be the battery size, your tariff, changes in how your site uses electricity, or limits on when the battery can charge and discharge.
Don’t choose fixed software, choose flexible
Fixed control software follows a daily set timetable, charging the battery at the same time every night and using the stored electricity during the same hours each evening.
If you’ve got solar, that’s a major disadvantage. The weather in Great Britain and Ireland changes frequently and it’s not uncommon to have the four seasons all in one day.
Fixed software struggles with solar because it cannot change its plan when the weather changes. It cannot change its plan when the weather changes.
On the other hand, flexible software factors in inputs like:
- How much electricity your site has been using
- How much solar power the panels are likely to produce
- What electricity will cost at different times
- How full the battery is
- How much power your site is likely to need
It then decides on the course of action that gives you the greatest financial benefit while protecting supply to your site.
Not getting the savings you were promised on your existing setup?
If your battery is saving less money than your installer promised, it is almost certainly the fault of the control software.
It may be that you have fixed software. Or an older, less sophisticated version of flexible software that is limited in what it monitors. Many of the systems don’t use the latest AI technology to predict what will happen next and change the battery’s plan.
Ask your installer or software provider to send you a chart showing, over the course of a month, when the battery charged and powered your site, how full it was, what electricity cost, and how much electricity your site used and generated.
Then send it off to an energy consultant, an independent battery expert or another control software provider so they can run independent tests on the figures.
If what you suspect is true and your software is leaving money on the table, start looking for more advanced flexible control software.
Want to be sure you’re selecting the right controlling software for your new system?
Before you go ahead with any project, ask the provider to show you results from businesses like yours, especially in the same sector.
Ask how their control software keeps up with the latest pricing, tracks on-site usage, and reacts to changes in the weather if you have solar panels. Request a clear report every month so you can see what decisions the software made and how much money each one saved or earned.
Be wary of quotes, especially ones using blended rates. A blended rate is one average price for all your electricity, even though you may pay different prices at different times. Your provider should let you change the prices and other figures used in its forecast, so you can see how the savings change for yourself.
Get the answers in writing before you sign. This makes it much easier to compare providers and hold the winning provider to its promises later.
Get more from your behind-the-meter system with GridVolt
GridVolt’s Energy Manager controls your battery and other equipment behind the meter. Every 15 minutes, it checks your electricity use, expected solar power, energy prices, and how full the battery is.
It then decides whether the battery should:
- Power your site
- Store spare solar electricity
- Charge from the grid
- Keep electricity for later
- Take part in an energy trading opportunity
Energy Manager works with many compatible batteries, solar PV systems, EV chargers, heat pumps, building management systems, and other site equipment.
Pair it with GridTrade to give your battery access to Great Britain’s energy markets and the chance to earn trading income.
In one live GridVolt site, better battery control increased the savings from the battery by 41% in the first 70 days. This does not mean the site's whole electricity bill fell by 41%, and another site may get a different result.
Fill in the form on the right or visit our contact page to speak to GridVolt.
Behind the meter: frequently asked questions
Does behind the meter mean off-grid, and will a battery work during a power cut?
No. Most behind-the-meter systems are grid-connected systems. This means your business still uses the public grid when its solar panels or battery cannot provide enough electricity.
Solar panels and batteries also normally switch off during a power cut. This stops them sending electricity into the grid while engineers may be repairing it.
A battery can provide backup power, but only if it has the right backup setup. This may include island mode, which safely separates your site from the grid. Ask your installer which essential equipment the battery could keep running and how long it would last.
What does BESS mean?
BESS means battery energy storage system. It is the full system that stores electricity for your business to use later.
The battery is only one part of a BESS. It also needs an inverter, safety equipment, and control software to work properly. A site meter tells the system how much electricity your business is using and sending to the grid.
What is the difference between battery kW and kWh?
Kilowatt-hours (kWh) tell you how much electricity a battery can hold. This is its battery capacity.
Kilowatts (kW) tell you how quickly the battery can charge or supply electricity. This is its battery power.
Think of the battery as a water tank. kWh tells you how much the tank can hold. kW tells you how quickly the water can flow in or out. A battery needs enough of both to do the job your business needs.
What is half-hourly electricity data?
Half-hourly electricity data shows how much electricity your business used every 30 minutes.
A yearly bill shows how much electricity you used altogether. These meter readings show when you used more and when you used less. This pattern is called your load profile.
The information may come from a smart meter. It helps your installer work out the best times for solar panels or a battery to cut your costs.
Can a business use battery storage without solar panels?
Yes. A business can use a grid-charged battery even if it does not have solar panels.
The battery can charge when electricity is cheaper on a time-of-use tariff. It can then supply the site later when electricity costs more. This is called energy arbitrage.
It can also help when the site suddenly needs a lot of power. This is called peak shaving. Whether it saves money depends on how the business uses electricity and what it pays for it.
Can every site send electricity to the grid and get paid?
No. Being allowed to send electricity out does not always mean you will be paid for it.
Your local electricity network operator may place an export limit in your connection agreement. This is the most power your site can send to the public grid.
You also need metering that records how much electricity you export and an export tariff that pays you for it. Eligible sites may use the Smart Export Guarantee in Great Britain or the Clean Export Guarantee in Ireland. Larger business systems may need another type of deal.