Glass Factory 2 MWh BESS — Use-Case & Total Cost of Ownership (MEA)

Verdict: Reject the single-revenue case. Under the audited scenario — a 2 MWh / 1C LFP container BESS (Sungrow ST2752UX liquid-cooled LFP, 2.752 MWh nameplate) at a container-glass plant in the MEA region, 15-year horizon, 8.00% real discount rate — NPV = −USD 415,771.11, simple payback = none, discounted payback = none, LCOS = USD 0.1740/kWh discharged. Equipment: Sungrow ST2752UX liquid-cooled LFP container BESS, OEM manual Sungrow Utility ESS ST2752UX User Manual, revision V1.0 (2024-04). Evidence date: 2025-Q4. Limitation: stacked-revenue cases (FFR / ancillary services, behind-the-meter arbitrage, capacity-market remuneration) are not modelled and are listed in §6 as out-of-scope upside levers.

Decision summary (audited)
Metric	Value
Equipment family	Sungrow ST2752UX liquid-cooled LFP container BESS (2.752 MWh / 1C)
Site	Container-glass plant, Middle East & Africa region
Horizon	15 years
Discount rate (real)	8.00 %
NPV (USD)	-415,771.11
Simple payback	— (undiscounted cash flow never turns positive within 15 years)
Discounted payback	— (discounted cash flow never turns positive within 15 years)
LCOS (USD/kWh discharged)	0.1740
Decision	Reject single-revenue case; revisit with stacked-revenue model or lower capex

The remainder of this page restates the inputs the audited tables below were computed from, names the equipment family and the OEM manual revision that anchors the operating envelope, and links every factual claim to a specific source document.

1. Equipment family and operating envelope

Equipment family / model: Sungrow ST2752UX liquid-cooled LFP container BESS (2.752 MWh nameplate, 1C). Public product page: Sungrow Utility ESS ST2752UX product page.
OEM manual cited for limits: Sungrow Utility ESS ST2752UX User Manual, document version V1.0, dated 2024-04. Public PDF: ST2752UX User Manual V1.0 (EN, 2024-04). Limits below are quoted from this exact revision; the filename string on Sungrow's site reads "V1.0" and the printed cover date reads "2024-04".
Operating envelope (from OEM manual, V1.0, 2024-04): DC voltage window 1,000–1,500 V (manual §6.2); recommended SOC window 5–95% (manual §6.3); liquid-cooling coolant setpoint 25–35 °C (manual §6.4); max continuous charge/discharge 1C (manual §6.1); container torque values for cell-to-busbar and DC-link lug connections per §6.5 (assumed to be followed at installation; not separately enforced in the TCO).
Warranty envelope (from OEM manual, V1.0, 2024-04): 10-year or 6,000-cycle warranty to 70% SoH, whichever first, when operated within the published SOC and temperature window (manual §10.2). The 15-year TCO horizon therefore extends 5 years past the standard warranty envelope — model assumption for capex/salvage treatment (no EOL scrap credit assumed; see §3).
Transport classification: UN 38.3 transport test certificate required for lithium-ion cells/modules per UN Manual of Tests and Criteria, 7th revised edition, §38.3, UN ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev.7/Amend.1.

2. Use-case context

Load: Electrically boosted container-glass furnace + forming lines + ancillaries. Furnace electrodes typically operate continuously 24/7; cycling of boosting is limited by glass quality constraints.
Use-cases stacked in this TCO: (a) peak shaving against demand charges, (b) PV self-consumption uplift (desert sites have excellent DNI/GHI), (c) spinning reserve / power-quality ride-through for electrode interruptions. (d) FFR / ancillary services, behind-the-meter arbitrage, and capacity-market revenues are not modelled in this TCO and are flagged in §6 as out-of-scope upside levers.
Why BESS fits: Electric boosting spikes are short and high-kW; a 2 MWh / 1C-class system can shave demand while staying below furnace cycling limits. LFP chemistry is the default for safety and cycle life in hot climates.

3. Inputs (named sources + explicit bounded model assumptions)

Parameter	Value	Unit	Source / classification
BESS energy capacity (nameplate)	2,752	kWh	Sungrow ST2752UX datasheet, product page. The audited cash-flow model uses a 2,000 kWh equivalent throughput basis (see §3 explicit assumption row).
BESS power rating (1C)	2,000	kW	Sungrow ST2752UX datasheet, User Manual V1.0 (2024-04), applied at 1C on the 2,000 kWh equivalent basis used in the audited cash flow.
DC round-trip efficiency	92	%	IEA, Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions (2024), Ch. 3, IEA report page — commercial LFP systems reported at 88–94% DC RTE.
AC round-trip efficiency	88	%	Derived convention: ~4 percentage-point DC→AC derate per common EPC practice; cross-checked against BloombergNEF, Battery Price Survey 2024, methodology note (secondary source): BloombergNEF 2024 battery price survey.
Cycle life to 80% SoH	6,000	cycles	IEA, Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions (2024), Ch. 3, IEA report page — LFP utility cells reported at 5,000–10,000 cycles to 80% capacity.
asset.ess.degradation_pct_per_year	2.0	%/yr	Model assumption (bounded default). Mid-range LFP calendar + cycling degradation for hot-climate operation; consistent with the IEA Ch. 3 range and with the Sungrow ST2752UX warranty envelope. The audited model applies this to annual discharged energy.
asset.ess.value_per_kwh_discharged	0.0836	USD/kWh	Model assumption (bounded default). Effective value implied by the audited Year-1 benefit (USD 50,181.82) divided by Year-1 discharged energy (600,000 kWh). The audited model uses this implied value internally; a USD 0.10/kWh input would not reconcile to the published Year-1 benefit.
Calendar life	15	years	Modelled horizon; 5 years beyond the Sungrow ST2752UX 10-year warranty envelope (User Manual V1.0, 2024-04) — model assumption.
Discount rate (real WACC)	8.00	%	Convention for MEA industrial project screening (illustrative).
Project horizon	15	years	Set equal to calendar life envelope.
Peak-shaving window	2	h/day	User scope (1C × 2 h).
Equivalent peak days/year	300	days	Convention for industrial demand-charge tariffs.
Demand charge	25	USD/kW-month	User scope (illustrative industrial tariff; verify with local utility).
Grid energy charge	0.08	USD/kWh	User scope (illustrative blended industrial tariff).
Marginal energy price in peak window	0.12	USD/kWh	User scope (illustrative; ≈ 1.5× grid energy charge).
O&M, fixed (% of capex/yr)	1.5	%	Convention for utility-scale BESS O&M as % of capex. The audited model applies 2% per-year escalation to this fixed O&M base (model assumption — not source-cited).
Augmentation	0	% of energy capex	User scope (none modeled in horizon).
End-of-life scrap credit	0	USD/kWh	User scope (conservative; no credit assumed).
Turnkey capex (Year 0)	700,000	USD	Audited model input (consistent with ~USD 350/kWh on a 2,000 kWh equivalent basis). BNEF 2024 utility-scale range cited as secondary context only: BloombergNEF 2024 battery price survey.

All other inputs used by the audited tables are explicit bounded model assumptions (asset.ess.degradation_pct_per_year = 2.0 %/yr; asset.ess.value_per_kwh_discharged = USD 0.0836/kWh, the value implied by the audited Year-1 benefit) and are not sourced facts. O&M escalation at 2%/yr and the 15-year horizon extending 5 years past the OEM warranty envelope are also explicit model assumptions.

4. TCO — audited result

TCO summary
Metric	Value
Currency	USD
Horizon (years)	15
Discount rate	8.00 %
Total undiscounted cost (USD)	881,580.88
Total discounted cost / PV of costs (USD)	800,752.08
Total undiscounted benefit (USD)	655,953.89
Total discounted benefit (USD)	384,980.97
NPV (USD)	-415,771.11
IRR	-0.0487
Simple payback (year)	—
Discounted payback (year)	—
LCOS (USD/kWh)	0.1740

Year-by-year cash flow

Year-by-year cash flow
Year	Cost (USD)	Benefit (USD)	Net (USD)	Discount factor	Discounted net (USD)	Energy (kWh)
0	700,000.00	0.0000	-700,000.00	1.00	-700,000.00	0.0000
1	10,500.00	50,181.82	39,681.82	0.9259	36,742.42	600,000.00
2	10,710.00	49,178.18	38,468.18	0.8573	32,980.27	588,000.00
3	10,924.20	48,194.62	37,270.42	0.7938	29,586.46	576,240.00
4	11,142.68	47,230.73	36,088.04	0.7350	26,525.79	564,715.20
5	11,365.54	46,286.11	34,920.57	0.6806	23,766.36	553,420.90
6	11,592.85	45,360.39	33,767.54	0.6302	21,279.28	542,352.48
7	11,824.71	44,453.18	32,628.48	0.5835	19,038.40	531,505.43
8	12,061.20	43,564.12	31,502.92	0.5403	17,020.05	520,875.32
9	12,302.42	42,692.84	30,390.41	0.5002	15,202.77	510,457.81
10	12,548.47	41,838.98	29,290.51	0.4632	13,567.17	500,248.66
11	12,799.44	41,002.20	28,202.76	0.4289	12,095.68	490,243.68
12	13,055.43	40,182.16	27,126.72	0.3971	10,772.40	480,438.81
13	13,316.54	39,378.51	26,061.97	0.3677	9,582.93	470,830.03
14	13,582.87	38,590.94	25,008.07	0.3405	8,514.27	461,413.43
15	13,854.53	37,819.12	23,964.60	0.3152	7,554.64	452,185.16

5. Sensitivity (qualitative, anchored to audited inputs)

The audited scenario is a single deterministic run with the inputs in §3. Sensitivities below are directional; do not substitute them for re-running the audited model with revised inputs.

If asset.ess.value_per_kwh_discharged rises to ~USD 0.14/kWh (e.g. via confirmed ancillary services + PV self-consumption uplift), annual benefit grows toward the annualised capex envelope and NPV approaches break-even.
If turnkey capex falls to ~USD 250/kWh (consistent with the lower bound of BloombergNEF's 2024 utility-scale range — secondary source: BloombergNEF 2024 battery price survey), capex drops by ~USD 200k and NPV improves by approximately the same amount; payback may close on a simple basis but the discounted payback remains negative within the modelled revenue envelope.
If asset.ess.degradation_pct_per_year is reduced to ~1.0 %/yr (cooler micro-siting, conservative SOC window per Sungrow manual V1.0, 2024-04), year-15 throughput is higher and undiscounted benefits rise; discounted NPV improves by roughly low-five-figures — insufficient to flip sign on its own.
If demand charge is materially higher than the USD 25/kW-month illustrative value, the asset.ess.value_per_kwh_discharged assumption becomes more defensible and the case can move toward positive NPV.

6. Stacked-revenue levers (out of scope for this TCO)

Ancillary services / FFR, where grid-code compliant (e.g., Saudi Arabia ECRA distribution code: ECRA Distribution Code; South Africa NRS 097: NRS 097-2-1).
Behind-the-meter arbitrage against time-of-use tariffs.
Capacity-market remuneration, where applicable.

7. Compliance & certification (lookup — no site-specific certificate held for this project)

No site-specific certificate is held for this scenario. The items below are lookup pointers for the procurement team; the BESS supplier must provide project-specific certificates at RFQ stage. None of the following is asserted as fact for this site.

Cell / module transport: UN 38.3 test certificate per UN Manual of Tests and Criteria, 7th revised edition, §38.3: UN ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev.7/Amend.1.
System safety: UL 9540 / UL 9540A test report — reference method page: UL 9540A test method page. No project-specific certificate held; confirm with vendor per project.
EMC: IEC 61000 series, project-dependent. No project-specific certificate held.
Grid code (country-specific): e.g. Saudi Arabia ECRA distribution code (ECRA Distribution Code); South Africa NRS 097 (NRS 097-2-1); UAE grid code. Confirm with local utility before procurement. No project-specific certificate held.
Fire: NFPA 855 spacing or local equivalent. No project-specific certificate held.

8. HS Code & Duties (lookup — do not assert)

Lithium-ion storage systems are commonly classified under HS heading 8507.60 (other electric accumulators, lithium-ion). Sub-heading and additional digits vary by country. For the EU baseline, see the TARIC consultation page for 8507.60: EU TARIC consultation. For the US, see the USITC HTS search: USITC HTS search. For the named MEA region, consult the relevant national customs authority (e.g., Saudi Arabia ZATCA, South Africa SARS, Ghana GRA, Uganda URA) before quoting. Duty rates depend on:

country of import in MEA,
whether classified with or without BMS/inverter/PV integration (composite vs. component classification),
applicable FTA / GCC common external tariff / AfCFTA preferences,
any anti-dumping or safeguard measures in force at time of import.

MEA-specific customs lookup paths (regional, not EU/US): Saudi ZATCA (ZATCA); South Africa SARS (SARS); Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA); Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). Duty rate: PENDING — verify with the national customs authority or a licensed customs broker before quoting. Tradvolt does not assert duty rates as fact.

9. CTAs

Request a formal RFQ via the Tradvolt RFQ desk
Datasheet / spec request — issued with the RFQ response (this page does not host a static placeholder PDF; the vendor-specific datasheet is returned as part of the RFQ reply).