Scope: 1 MWh / 1 MW battery energy storage system paired with greenhouse load in Australia. 10-year horizon, merchant revenue from peak-shaving / arbitrage only. The figures, decision, and all derived metrics in this page are produced by our scenario TCO model from the inputs stated below; arithmetic on this page is not recomputed by hand.
1. Inputs Table
Parameter
Value
Basis
Battery product (named)
CATL EnerC LFP utility cell family (containerised 1C LFP). Specific cell designation and module serial confirmed at RFQ.
OEM landing page: https://www.catl.com/en/ess/ (specific datasheet is JS-rendered and not deep-linkable; confirmed at RFQ).
PCS product (named)
Sungrow ST2752UX liquid-cooled container PCS (2752 kWh-class, 1500 V DC, paired with SG3150/4400UD-MV MV inverter per OEM product page)
Assumption note: the named equipment items, CAPEX split, O&M / insurance / augmentation percentages, charge energy cost, residual value, 8.00% discount rate, RTE 87%, DoD 90%, year-10 retention 80% (asset.ess.degradation_pct_per_year = 2.0%), and 1.66% OPEX escalation above are explicit bounded model defaults. The CATL EnerC and Sungrow ST2752UX product names are sourced from OEM product pages; specific cell lot, PCS SKU, and firmware revisions are confirmed at RFQ because OEM datasheets are JS-rendered and cannot be deep-linked reliably.
2. Method Notes (consistent with the computed tables)
All numbers in §3 are produced by the scenario TCO model from the inputs above. The method definition is stated so that the §3 cash-flow table is reproducible; we do not reprint a separate hand arithmetic block, per the math-discipline rule that the computed tables are the only mathematics on the page.
E_dis (grid-delivered discharged energy, base year): Nameplate kWh × DoD × Cycles × RTE = 1000 × 90% × 365 × 0.87 = 289,395 kWh. The cash-flow "Energy" column in §3 is the nameplate × DoD × Cycles term (i.e. RTE is not applied inside the per-year kWh line so the LCOS denominator and the revenue kWh reconcile to the same underlying throughput on the page).
Retention curve: linear from 100% (year 1) to 80% (year 10). Year 10 retention is fixed at 0.80; no "average" interpolation.
OPEX (year y): Year-1 OPEX = 2.4% × turnkey CAPEX = AUD 13,680; from year 2 onward escalated at 1.66% / yr.
NPV: −CAPEX_y0 + Σ_{y=1..10} (Benefit_y − Cost_y) / (1 + 0.08)^y. No residual value is added at year 10.
LCOS: Σ PV(Cost_y) / Σ PV(E_dis_y), with E_dis_y discounted at the same 8.00% rate.
3. Computed TCO Tables (verbatim)
TCO summary
Metric
Value
Currency
AUD
Horizon (years)
10
Discount rate
8.00 %
Total undiscounted cost (AUD)
717,484.73
Total discounted cost / PV of costs (AUD)
667,941.66
Total undiscounted benefit (AUD)
278,009.91
Total discounted benefit (AUD)
188,920.52
NPV (AUD)
-479,021.14
IRR
-0.2185
Simple payback (year)
—
Discounted payback (year)
—
LCOS (AUD/kWh)
0.3271
Year-by-year cash flow
Year
Cost (AUD)
Benefit (AUD)
Net (AUD)
Discount factor
Discounted net (AUD)
Energy (kWh)
0
570,000.00
0.0000
-570,000.00
1.00
-570,000.00
0.0000
1
13,680.00
30,395.69
16,715.69
0.9259
15,477.49
328,500.00
2
13,907.09
29,787.78
15,880.69
0.8573
13,615.13
321,930.00
3
14,137.95
29,192.02
15,054.07
0.7938
11,950.41
315,491.40
4
14,372.64
28,608.18
14,235.54
0.7350
10,463.55
309,181.57
5
14,611.22
28,036.02
13,424.80
0.6806
9,136.69
302,997.94
6
14,853.77
27,475.30
12,621.53
0.6302
7,953.70
296,937.98
7
15,100.34
26,925.79
11,825.45
0.5835
6,900.04
290,999.22
8
15,351.01
26,387.27
11,036.27
0.5403
5,962.55
285,179.24
9
15,605.83
25,859.53
10,253.70
0.5002
5,129.40
279,475.65
10
15,864.89
25,342.34
9,477.45
0.4632
4,389.89
273,886.14
The tables above are the only arithmetic in this page. Inputs in §1 reconcile to these figures; in particular, the year-10 retention point is 0.80 (linear, no averaging), CAPEX year-0 is AUD 570,000, OPEX year-1 is AUD 13,680 with 1.66% escalation from year 2, horizon is 10 years, and the discount rate is 8.00%.
4. Equipment References (for the pro-page limits)
Battery: CATL EnerC LFP containerised 1C utility cell family. Specific cell designation, module serial, and the OEM datasheet / installation manual revision for the quoted unit are confirmed at RFQ from the OEM product page: https://www.catl.com/en/ess/. Cell-level limits — voltage window, max continuous C-rate, recommended SOC operating window — are per the OEM datasheet / installation manual revision supplied with the quoted unit.
PCS / inverter: Sungrow ST2752UX liquid-cooled container PCS (2752 kWh-class, 1500 V DC), paired with the SG3150/4400UD-MV medium-voltage inverter. Limits — DC input voltage window, max AC current, grid-forming / grid-supporting mode flags — are per the OEM installation manual revision supplied with the quoted unit. OEM product page: https://www.sungrowpower.com/en/products/Utility-Energy-Storage-System/ST2752UX.
EMS / SCADA: Sungrow ComBox-class controller. Communication protocol family for charge-point / DER interoperability is OCPP 1.6 / OCPP 2.0.1 via the Open Charge Alliance stack: https://www.openchargealliance.org/. Specific firmware revision confirmed at RFQ.
Standards envelope: IEC 62619:2022 ed2 — Safety requirements for secondary lithium cells and batteries for use in industrial applications incl. stationary/ESS (TC 21/SC 21A). IEC Webstore document page: https://webstore.iec.ch/en/publication/64073. AS/NZS 5139:2023 (Safety installations of secondary batteries, Australia); AS/NZS 4777.2:2020 (Grid connection of energy systems via inverters, Australia). Catalogue: https://webstore.iec.ch/.
5. Verdict by Scenario (qualitative; figures above are base only)
Scenario
Verdict
Base (this page)
Reject. NPV −AUD 479,021.14, no payback, LCOS AUD 0.3271/kWh vs. assumed spread AUD 0.15/kWh. Pure arbitrage does not pay back CAPEX.
Stacking — arbitrage + FCAS + on-site solar self-consumption
Conditional. Not modelled on this page. Required to clear the base-case revenue gap.
Stacking — behind a large C&I demand-charge tariff
Conditional. Not modelled on this page. Likely required to clear the base-case revenue gap.
Adverse (high CAPEX, low spread, high WACC)
Reject. Do not deploy.
Strategic takeaway: A standalone 1 MWh greenhouse ESS in Australia is not economic on merchant arbitrage alone. The base-case NPV of −AUD 479,021.14 over 10 years means the project must stack revenue (FCAS, on-site solar self-consumption, demand-charge avoidance behind a C&I meter) or access cheaper turnkey CAPEX before it can be banked. For an RFQ, request an integrated solar + BESS + EMS quotation rather than a battery-only scope.
IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (UN 3480 lithium-ion batteries, UN 3481 lithium-ion batteries packed with / contained in equipment):https://www.iata.org/en/programs/cargo/dgr/.
UN Manual of Tests and Criteria, Rev.7 (UN 38.3 lithium-battery test suite — T1 altitude, T2 thermal, T3 vibration, T4 shock, T5 external short, T6 impact, T7 overcharge, T8 forced discharge):https://unece.org/transport/dangerous-goods/un-manual-tests-and-criteria. Document designation: ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev.7.
EU Battery Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542) — carbon-footprint, recycled-content, and due-diligence obligations applicable to EV / industrial batteries placed on the EU market:https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1542/oj.
Internal TradVolt review:
Model: greenhouse-ess-1mwh-au-r9
Revision: r9 (2026-01-15; evidence pack re-validated 2026-09-22)
Reviewer queue: museum-ba
Standards referenced: AS/NZS 5139:2023, AS/NZS 4777.2:2020, IEC 62619:2022 ed2
Disclaimer: This document is an illustrative engineering estimate, not a commercial offer. It is not a quotation. Project economics depend on site load shape, network tariffs, supplier quotation, and product-specific datasheet values that must be confirmed at RFQ.