Battery storage that pays for itself out of the demand charge.
Offices, distribution and cold storage, manufacturing, retail and recreation facilities on any US utility's demand-based commercial rate. KEEL sizes the battery to your monthly peak, arranges a 10-year lease at a fixed monthly payment, and handles the demand-response enrollment that pays you for the same capacity.
Your bill has two meters. Storage attacks the expensive one.
A commercial electric bill in most US utility territories has an energy charge, billed per kilowatt-hour, and a demand charge, billed per kilowatt on the single highest 15-minute draw in the billing period. The demand charge does not care how much electricity you used. It cares about the one moment everything ran at once.
A battery sized to that moment discharges when the building approaches its peak, so the meter never sees it. The energy still gets used; the spike does not get billed. On the account below, a New York example, demand was more than half the bill; the same shape appears on Georgia Power, ComEd, PG&E, Eversource and most other demand-rate tariffs.
Con Edison SC-9 account, New Rochelle, June 2026 (reviewed by KEEL, figures from the bill)
44,770 kWh · 181.2 kW billed demand · $16,258 total · demand charge $50.99 per kW · demand = 57% of the bill · load factor 32%.
A low load factor like that one, with a sharp peak and a modest baseline, is the profile storage was built for. KEEL screens every account on this shape before anyone prices equipment.
What a project looks like
| Item | Typical range, KEEL commercial pipeline |
|---|---|
| System size | 100 to 500 kWh, 2 to 4 hour duration |
| Installed cost before incentives | $90,000 to $400,000 |
| Federal credit | 30%+: a 30% base plus 10 points with domestic-content equipment; conditions in the federal guide |
| State or utility incentive | Where one exists (for example New York, California, Massachusetts); verified against the program documents at pricing |
| Demand-response revenue | Utility and ISO programs where available, modeled conservatively |
| Term and rate | 10 years, fixed monthly, no escalator |
| Time from bill to quote | 2 business days |
| Time from site survey to switch-on | 6 to 9 months, most of it interconnection |
Ranges are drawn from projects KEEL has priced in 2026 and are not a quote. Your figures come from your bills.
Who owns it
Most commercial owners take a capital lease: the building owns the system from signing, claims the 30%+ federal credit and depreciation, and pays a fixed monthly payment. Owners without the tax capacity take an operating lease and the funding partner takes the credit. KEEL prices both and shows you the difference in the rate. Worked comparison here.
Common questions
How much of my bill is demand charges?
On large commercial rates it is commonly 30 to 60% of the bill, highest in the Northeast and California. One New York account KEEL reviewed in June 2026 paid about $51 per kW of billed demand, which was 57% of a $16,000 monthly bill. Your bill shows it as a separate "demand" line in kW.
How big a battery do I need?
Sizing comes from your 15-minute interval data, which KEEL pulls with your permission from the utility. Most commercial projects in KEEL's pipeline land between 100 and 500 kWh with a 2- to 4-hour duration. Many utility demand-response programs require 4-hour dispatch, so that is usually the floor.
Does the battery also earn demand-response payments?
Often. Most large utilities and grid operators pay for committed load reduction during summer peaks, from Con Edison and NYISO in New York to ISO New England, PJM and California programs. KEEL models these conservatively as a second revenue line and handles enrollment.
Will it keep the building running in an outage?
If you want it to. Backup requires an islanding-capable inverter and a critical-loads panel, which changes the equipment and adds cost. Tell KEEL which loads matter and the contractor sizes for both savings and resilience.
One bill tells us whether this pencils.
Send a recent commercial electric bill from any US utility. KEEL reads the demand line and replies within two business days.