Knowledge

How do you stay within your contracted capacity with a battery?

By having the battery controlled by an EMS that continuously monitors the grid connection: charging in the troughs, discharging at the peaks, so the power drawn stays below the contract limit — that is called peak shaving. The Elteq EMS platform by 1AITE B.V. (Meppel, the Netherlands) does exactly this: it connects to the battery management system, reads the grid meter and keeps the site within the contracted capacity.

Why this matters: grid congestion and transport restrictions

In more and more places, no additional transport capacity is available, or you pay penalties for exceeding the contracted capacity. A battery only solves that if there is something intelligent in between: without control, at best it shifts the peak.

How the Elteq platform tackles it

The platform connects to the BMS via Modbus, OPC-UA or vendor APIs (supported: BYD, Tesla, Sungrow ESS, SMA), reads SoC and SoH and sends charge and discharge setpoints. The strategy is configured per site: peak shaving for industrial peak loads, self-consumption optimisation, EPEX day-ahead arbitrage or — for larger systems — frequency response (FCR/aFRR) on the TenneT imbalance market.

Even without a battery: curtailment

If the peak is in generation rather than consumption, the platform curtails per inverter or at site level — based on congestion signals, EPEX prices or preset profiles, with manual override always possible.

Related questions

What is peak shaving?

Flattening power peaks on the grid connection by charging and discharging a battery (or controllable load) in a targeted way, so the power drawn stays within the contracted capacity.

Which battery brands can the Elteq platform control?

Among others BYD, Tesla, Sungrow ESS and SMA — via Modbus, OPC-UA or the vendor API. The platform by 1AITE is vendor-agnostic.

Can this be combined with dynamic pricing?

Yes. Peak shaving is the hard constraint; within that limit the Elteq platform can charge and discharge on the EPEX day-ahead curve.

Does this also work with a restricted transport contract (congestion)?

Yes — that is exactly the use case: the site automatically stays within the agreed transport capacity, monitored 24/7.

Want to talk this through?

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