A battery purchase price does not tell you the cost of the energy it delivers. Put capital, operating and charging costs on the same lifetime basis.
Total 0.5211 EUR/kWh · excluding charging energy 0.3545
Each contribution uses the same discounted lifetime AC delivery. This cost comparison does not predict revenue or savings.
Levelised cost of delivered storage energy
0.5211EUR/kWh
15 years at 5% real discount rate, constant 3,000 kWh annual AC delivery.
Check the values to see a result.
All money is in today’s prices. This is a cost comparison, not a bill-savings or investment-return forecast. Enter a sustainable lifetime-average annual throughput.
LCOS = discounted lifetime costs ÷ discounted lifetime AC energy discharged
The discounted cost is 0.5211 EUR per kWh discharged, including charging electricity.
Tip: Annual throughput matters as much as capacity. Enter sustainable average annual AC delivery, not battery kWh multiplied by an assumed cycle count without checking operation.
LCOS expresses the discounted cost of owning, operating and charging a storage system per discounted kWh it delivers. A lightly used battery can have a high cost per delivered kWh even when its purchase price per kWh of capacity looks attractive.
This model keeps storage ownership and charging electricity visible separately. All costs use today’s prices and a real discount rate; energy is measured at a consistent AC discharge boundary.
Annual charging kWh = annual delivered AC kWh ÷ AC round-trip efficiency
Enter sustainable lifetime-average annual delivery, allowing for degradation, downtime and dispatch restrictions. Capacity multiplied by one cycle per day is not evidence that those cycles will occur.
Present value in year y = value ÷ (1 + real discount rate)^y
Initial capital is paid at year zero. Annual operating and charging costs, replacement in its selected year, and annual delivered energy are discounted at each year end. Applying the same factor to energy gives the cost metric its lifetime weighting.
End-of-life present cost = net cost ÷ (1 + rate)^(life + 1)
This follows the stated SAM convention of retirement at the end of the year after operation ends. Enter removal less salvage value; a negative amount is a net salvage receipt.
LCOS = present costs ÷ discounted delivered kWh
The result does not predict bill savings, arbitrage revenue, demand-charge reduction or payback. Those depend on the dispatch schedule and the value of energy or services at the time of delivery.
10,000 kWh is delivered. Capital costs EUR 1,000 and charging electricity costs EUR 1,000, so LCOS is EUR 0.20/kWh: EUR 0.10 storage cost plus EUR 0.10 charging cost.
Levelised cost of delivered storage energy 0.2 EUR/kWh Open in the calculator
1,250 kWh must enter each year to deliver 1,000 kWh. Charging contributes EUR 0.125 per delivered kWh, giving total LCOS of EUR 0.225/kWh under these assumptions.
Levelised cost of delivered storage energy 0.225 EUR/kWh Open in the calculator
It can have an opportunity cost if the same PV energy could be exported or used directly. Enter the value of the alternative use rather than automatically setting charging cost to zero.
This calculation uses delivered annual energy and costs directly. Capacity alone cannot establish utilization, cycle life or annual delivery. Those must be supported by the proposed operating schedule.
No. Replacement is a cost event in this simplified model. Annual delivery is already a constant lifetime-average input, and replacement does not create an automatic performance improvement.
It can inform a comparison, but value depends on when energy is bought and discharged and which charges are avoided. Comparing against the wrong tariff period or ignoring demand charges can be misleading.