From back-up power to core infrastructure: how battery storage has grown up
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are now mainstream. They’re helping renewables perform better and businesses of all kinds manage both costs and carbon.
Two things have changed: just like solar, the cost of storage has fallen dramatically, and the capabilities – especially the digital layer of software applications that operates it – have improved just as fast. This post looks at how things have evolved, what’s coming next, and how Univers EnOS™ Storage helps organisations turn those advances into real business value.
Battery storage is now for everyone
Many businesses are using more electricity now than ever before, as fossil fuels are replaced by electrical alternatives. This brings the opportunity for those with any real estate to generate their own electricity from renewable sources. Storing and managing that energy is critical to realising the value of investment in solar and wind generation.
Examples from our own customer base now include port owners, retailers, real estate and logistics companies, alongside the energy companies already invested in storage.
The option is especially attractive where electricity costs are variable, with peak periods charged at a premium. If stored reserves can cover the few hours a day when costs are highest, then the savings become very attractive.
How all kinds of business use BESS
Modern BESS have become multi-purpose assets that can support several different uses over the course of a single day, for example:
- Energy cost optimisation – charging when prices are low and discharging when they spike.
- Peak shaving and demand-charge reduction – flattening site loads to reduce grid fees.
- Renewables integration – smoothing on-site solar or wind output and increasing self-reliance.
- Resilience – supporting critical loads during grid disturbances.
This “revenue stacking” is what turns cheaper batteries into compelling business cases. A single system can reduce energy bills, increase resilience, generate revenue from grid services and support decarbonisation targets all at the same time.
Why software now matters as much as hardware
As markets become more volatile and portfolios more complex, the real differentiation is increasingly in the software layer rather than in the battery modules themselves.
Owners now need to forecast prices, renewable output and site loads; decide when to charge or discharge and which market or service to prioritise; co-ordinate storage with solar, EV charging and flexible loads; and monitor state of health to extend battery life.
Without intelligent control, even a high-quality storage asset can underperform. With the right platform, the same hardware becomes a flexible, data-driven asset that responds dynamically to both market signals and operational needs.
This is where Univers focuses with EnOS™ – its AI- and IoT platform with the ready-to-use application, EnOS™ Storage.
EnOS™ Storage: turning batteries into business value
Univers’ EnOS™ Storage is designed to help organisations move from “we have a battery” to “we have a portfolio of high-performing, revenue-generating storage assets”.
Built on the EnOS™ energy operating system, it provides a unified platform for monitoring, control and trading support across storage systems and renewables, including both utility-scale BESS and microgrids.
- See and manage every asset in one place – from charge states and alarms to performance KPIs across sites and vendors.
- Optimise dispatch automatically – co-ordinating charge and discharge against price signals, grid constraints and site priorities such as self-consumption or demand-charge reduction.
- Integrate storage with wider decarbonisation plans – orchestrating batteries alongside solar, wind, building loads and EV charging infrastructure.
Because it is hardware-agnostic and vendor-neutral, EnOS™ Storage can sit across a mixed estate of technologies and suppliers. That’s increasingly important as organisations roll out more projects over time and adopt new storage solutions without wanting to rebuild their core systems.
Case Study: Harmony Energy
The UK-headquartered developer and operator of grid-scale energy solutions partnered with Univers to deploy EnOS™ Storage, to unify operations and maximize the performance of its grid-scale batteries.
EnOS™ Storage supports real-time monitoring of state of charge, state of health and critical alarms, helping operators keep systems within safe operating limits. Portfolio-level analytics highlight underperforming sites, flag emerging issues and provide a clear line of sight from operational data to business outcomes. That level of transparency matters not just for operations teams, but also for investors, regulators and insurers who increasingly expect robust governance around storage assets.
What this all means for decision-makers
For energy, sustainability and operations leaders, the picture is clear:
- Storage is no longer experimental. There have been steep, sustained cost declines and rapidly rising deployment across all kinds of business.
- The economics have shifted. The ability to stack multiple value streams, make BESS competitive in many markets and sectors.
- The digital layer is critical. The difference between an average asset and a high-performing portfolio increasingly comes down to how intelligently storage is controlled, dispatched and integrated with other systems.
Against the backdrop of climate change, ambitious net-zero targets and more volatile energy markets, battery storage has moved from “nice to have” to core infrastructure.
The key questions are no longer just “Can we add storage?” but:
- How do we design a portfolio that scales?
- How do we integrate storage with our wider energy and sustainability strategy?
- Which digital platform will help us capture the full value of our assets over the next decade?
That’s where Univers’ EnOS™ Storage is focused: turning a decade of falling costs and rising technical capabilities into a day-to-day, measurable business advantage.
image credit: Roberto Sorin on Unsplash
