How to create a battery only proposal

Summary:

OpenSolar makes it easy to create battery-only proposals, whether you’re working with a new customer or retrofitting a battery into an existing system. This guide walks you through each step, from design to proposal generation.

 If you are adding a battery to an existing PV system, please refer to this article.

Table of Contents:

• Creating the Design

• Adding the Battery Location

• Selecting the Correct Tariff

• Understanding the Proposal Output

Creating the Design:

To begin creating a battery-only design:

• Navigate to the Design tab of your project.

• Select the Battery tab.

• Click the Battery drop-down to choose your battery.

• Use either:

  • The Manual Selection method, or

  • The Battery Design Assistant for guided recommendations.

Once selected, configure the following:

• Connection Type: Choose between AC-connected or DC-connected.

• Battery Control Scheme: This defines how the battery behaves. You can use:

  • Predefined schemes, or

  • Create a custom one via Control > Design & Hardware > Battery Control Scheme.

Key configuration fields:

• Load Offsettable (%): Maximum percentage of load the battery can discharge against at any given time.

• Load Offsettable Cap (kW): The absolute maximum discharge rate of the battery to offset the load.

After setting up the battery behavior, go to the Pricing tab to verify or add component pricing.

Adding the Battery Location:

To visually indicate the battery’s location for your customer:

• Click the Advanced Settings (top-right corner of the design view).

• Choose Annotation.

• Provide a label and place the marker on the home layout.

• Enable “Show to customer” if you want it to appear in the proposal.

This helps your customers visualize the battery placement in their home.

Selecting the Correct Tariff:

Accurate energy savings depend heavily on the correct tariff being selected and matched to your battery’s control scheme.

To review or change the tariff:

• Navigate to the Energy tab within your design.

• Scroll to the Electricity Rate section.

• Click Select Tariff to choose the correct rate from your database.

• To view tariff details, click the tariff name—this opens a pop-up showing peak/off-peak rates and other structure details.

Always verify that the selected tariff reflects the customer's actual billing structure, especially for Time-of-Use (TOU) rates.

Understanding the Proposal Output:

Once the battery setup and tariff are correctly configured:

• The online proposal will automatically calculate the expected savings from battery usage.

• For TOU tariffs, the system models how charging and discharging behavior optimizes energy costs.

• The savings breakdown is visible to your customer, illustrating the value of the battery in their specific billing context.

Example Outcome:
Using the scenario above, the customer would see monthly savings by charging the battery with cheaper daytime electricity and discharging during expensive nighttime hours.