So What Club

Power, utilities and renewables

How a grid battery earns money by shifting energy

The prompt

A 100 MWh battery in Europe charges when power costs USD 20 per MWh and sells in the evening peak at USD 90 per MWh. It loses 15 percent of the energy in the round trip (85 percent efficiency). It completes 300 full cycles a year. What is its gross margin per cycle and per year, in USD?

Before you reveal anything, plan your own structure and first move on paper. Then reveal one part at a time and compare.

Clarifying questions, with the interviewer's answers

Next case

Read the next worked case the same way: plan your own answer first, then reveal one part at a time.

Next case: Unit economics of a copper mineThe lesson: Power economics and operations: levelized cost, the merit order, storage and the grid
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