01. Beyond the Battery: How AlphaESS and Capture Energy Are Making Commercial Storage Smarter
Battery storage is already helping businesses reduce energy costs and make better use of renewable generation. A new partnership between AlphaESS UK and Capture Energy is now focused on helping those systems deliver even more value.
The collaboration combines AlphaESS commercial battery technology with Capture Energy’s AI-driven optimisation platform, allowing batteries to respond automatically to changing electricity prices, site demand and renewable generation.
Instead of following a fixed charging and discharging schedule, the system can continually assess when energy is most valuable and adjust accordingly.
Smarter Control, Greater Value
Its platform forecasts site consumption, renewable generation and electricity prices before deciding when the battery should charge or discharge.
Forecast
Site consumption, renewable generation and electricity prices are forecast in advance.
Optimise
The platform decides when the battery should charge or discharge, so energy is used when it is most valuable.
Participate
For eligible sites, it can also create opportunities to participate in flexibility and energy markets.
Connected Through the Cloud
The integration is cloud-based and has been developed using API access to AlphaESS commercial systems, including the Storion TB125 and TB250. This means compatible existing systems can potentially be connected without additional control hardware being installed on site.
Sutton, Greater London
Precision manufacturing
AlphaESS TB125
The technology is already being used at a precision manufacturing site in Sutton, Greater London. The site operates an AlphaESS TB125 battery and has high electricity demand throughout the working day, with limited ability to shift production into cheaper periods.
Instead, the battery does the shifting. It can charge when electricity prices are lower and discharge when prices rise, reducing reliance on expensive grid electricity. The system can also participate in flexibility and wholesale electricity markets.
Capture Energy reports that the project is already delivering annual savings and additional revenue without requiring the customer to change its day-to-day operations. It is a good example of how the role of commercial battery storage is changing.
A battery is no longer simply a way to store excess solar generation.
With the right software and market access, it can become an actively managed energy asset that responds to what is happening both on site and across the wider electricity system.
The Next Step for Commercial Storage
The partnership also gives AlphaESS installers another way to demonstrate the long-term value of battery storage.
As electricity pricing becomes more dynamic, the performance of a commercial battery will increasingly depend not only on how much energy it can store, but on how intelligently that energy is managed.
The AlphaESS and Capture Energy partnership is a clear example of that shift, from battery storage as a passive asset to something more responsive, connected and commercially active.
