Two paths. One campus. Real numbers.
The board's primary decision: generate clean energy, or generate, store, and shift to also beat the demand charge.
Approved battery budget is ~4× too small for the recommended system
A $35K battery is too small to meaningfully shift solar into the 4–9pm SCE peak window. The full 87.3 kWh / 9-module grid-tied system is what generates the demand-charge avoidance and peak-shaving savings shown above.
How a grid-tied battery + load management beat the demand charge
Demand charges are billed on the single highest 15-minute pull from the grid each month — typically a hot summer evening between 4pm and 9pm, after the sun has dropped. The battery discharges directly into that window and the Load Management System throttles non-critical loads. The pink playhead shows exactly when this matters.
Why batteries (grid-tied, not backup)
Storage exists to shift solar energy into the evening peak. That single shift cuts ~70% of the demand charges that solar alone cannot touch. This is a grid-tied system — it does not provide backup power during a grid outage.