Use Case & TCO — Freight Depot ESS 2 MWh (AU)
Verdict — NOT viable on energy-only basis. Equipment: containerised LFP BESS, family reference Sungrow ST2752UX (liquid-cooled, 2,752 kWh per 20-ft unit, 1500 V DC) sub-scaled to a 2 MWh / 1 MW depot envelope. Location: Australian freight depot on the NEM (NSW/VIC/QLD). Horizon: 15 years. Evidence date: 2025-01-15 (Sungrow datasheet revision, AEMO aggregated-price reference, RBA FX). Limitation: single revenue stream (ToU energy spread); demand-charge, FCAS and network-support stacking are NOT modelled and would need to be quantified per site. Headline outputs from the scenario model: NPV = −508,480 AUD; simple payback = None; discounted payback = None; LCOS = 0.2295 AUD/kWh over a 15-year horizon at an 8.00% discount rate.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| NPV @ 8.00% discount, 15 yr | -508,480.28 AUD |
| Simple payback | None |
| Discounted payback | None |
| LCOS | 0.2295 AUD/kWh |
| IRR | -0.0296 |
| Capex (AUD) | 975,000.00 |
| Verdict | NOT viable — energy-only revenue insufficient to amortise Capex inside 15 yr horizon |
Use case. A 2 MWh / 1 MW containerised LFP BESS co-located at a freight depot in Australia. Primary value driver: energy time-shift using on-site solar plus off-peak grid charging, with depot load (forklift chargers, reefer plugs, lighting, office HVAC) providing a daytime sink. Secondary driver: demand-charge management on the depot's HV connection where a ToU tariff applies.
Scope. Indicative TCO only. All financial figures below are outputs of the scenario model from the inputs in §2. Nothing on this page is an offer, quote or financial advice. Final pricing requires a site-specific RFQ via tradvolt.com.
1. Equipment model & basis
- Equipment family: Sungrow ST2752UX liquid-cooled containerised LFP BESS (2,752 kWh per 20-ft unit, 1500 V DC), used here as the proxy for a 2 MWh / 1 MW depot envelope. Sungrow product page confirms 2752 kWh stored energy and 1500 V DC; PCS pairing (SG3150/4400UD-MV) datasheet confirmed at RFQ — Sungrow ST2752UX — product page.
- Cells: LFP prismatic cells per IEC 62619:2022 (industrial LFP) — IEC 62619:2022 ed2 — IEC Webstore publication page.
- 6,000-cycle warranty basis (LFP, 80% retained capacity): Sungrow PowerTitan / ST-series warranty document — exact OEM document ID and revision NOT publicly listed on Sungrow's product page; treat as OEM manual reference pending RFQ. Sungrow landing page for confirmation — Sungrow PowerTitan2.0 — product page. The "warranty SoC window 5%–95%" cited in the draft is unverified; no source row is available on the public Sungrow page, so the SoC window is dropped here and treated as model default, bounded in §2.
- Transport testing basis: UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods — Manual of Tests and Criteria, 7th revised edition (ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev.7), §38.3 — UN Manual of Tests and Criteria — UNECE canonical page.
- Safety / fire test method basis: UL 9540A, Standard for Test Method for Evaluating Thermal Runaway Fire Propagation in Battery Energy Storage Systems. Exact report ID / revision is not on the public UL landing; cite the standard and treat report ID as OEM manual reference pending RFQ — UL 9540A test method — UL services page.
2. Inputs (cited)
Each row is either a named external source or a clearly-labelled model assumption. Items the draft did not state and which have been resolved as bounded model defaults are flagged (model default, bounded).
| # | Input | Symbol | Value | Unit | Source / basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | System size (nameplate) | E_nom | 2,000 | kWh | Model assumption matching use case slug; consistent with Sungrow ST2752UX sub-scaling — Sungrow ST2752UX product page |
| 2 | Power rating | P | 1,000 | kW (1C) | Sungrow ST2752UX 1C continuous PCS envelope; PCS datasheet confirmed at RFQ — Sungrow string-inverter range landing |
| 3 | Turnkey Capex (ex-works + freight + install) | Capex_USD | 650,000 | USD | IRENA Electricity Storage and Renewables: Costs and Markets to 2030 — primary IEA/IRENA storage-cost data replaces the draft BloombergNEF citation; specific IRENA chart number pending RFQ — IEA — landing. Treat the 650,000 USD figure as illustrative until confirmed at RFQ. |
| 4 | FX rate (USD → AUD) | FX | 1.50 | AUD per USD | RBA indicative daily reference — RBA — Exchange Rates historical table F11 (XLSX) |
| 5 | Round-trip efficiency (BESS + PCS + AUX) | RTE | 0.88 | dimensionless | Sungrow ST2752UX datasheet — AC-AC RTE ≥ 88% at 0.5C/1C envelope (figure confirmed on datasheet, not on public product page) |
| 6 | Average realised energy spread | Spread | 120 | AUD/MWh per round-trip cycle | AEMO NEM aggregated price data — AEMO Data NEM — Aggregated Data; illustrative depot ToU spread |
| 7 | Cycles per day | c | 1.0 | cycles/day | Model assumption (one full ToU charge/discharge per day) |
| 8 | Operating days/year | d | 330 | days | Model assumption (depot operates ~11 months) |
| 9 | Annual fixed OPEX | OPEX_pct | 2.0% | of Turnkey Capex/yr | IRENA — Utility-scale batteries: Innovation Landscape. Borderline as a hard-data source per R2; treated as illustrative OPEX range benchmark — confirm with OEM service contract at RFQ. |
| 10 | Project horizon | n | 15 | years | IRENA reference horizon for utility-scale storage (same source as #9; same illustrative caveat) |
| 11 | Discount rate | r | 8.00% | per year | WACC-style assumption for AU commercial storage project; model default, bounded |
| 12 | Residual value | residual_value.amount | 0 | AUD | Model default, bounded: conservative zero residual at end of horizon |
| 13 | Residual value timing | residual_value.year | 15 | year | Model default, bounded: end of horizon |
| 14 | Usable energy share | asset.ess.usable_pct | 100% | % | Model default, bounded: full nameplate usable on the revenue model. NOTE: the draft cited a "warranty SoC window 5%–95%" backed only by Sungrow warranty terms (no public source row); dropped here — confirm at RFQ. |
| 15 | Annual capacity degradation | asset.ess.degradation_pct_per_year | 2.0% | %/yr | Model default, bounded: consistent with 6,000-cycle / 80% retained capacity over 15 yr at ≈1 c/day; treated as an illustrative assumption because exact warranty SoC-window and capacity-fade row are not public. |
| 16 | Charge cost per kWh | asset.ess.charge_cost_per_kwh | ZERO-AS-MISSING (0.00) | AUD/kWh | Model default, bounded: ZERO-AS-MISSING — the scenario model treats charge cost as zero because the spread input (#6) is set as the net realised capture. Flagged so a per-site OPEX layer can be added at RFQ. |
| 17 | Discharged-energy value | asset.ess.value_per_kwh_discharged | 120 / 1,000 = 0.120 AUD/kWh | AUD/kWh | Derived from input #6 (AUD/MWh spread) ÷ 1,000 per §3; reconciled against the §4 cashflow Benefit column. |
3. Formulas
Formulas are stated in plain text only. The only computed arithmetic on this page is the two COMPUTED TABLES in §4 — they are reproduced verbatim below. No worked derivation here is to be treated as financial output.
- Capex_AUD = Capex_USD × FX — input to §4 row 0 Cost.
- Year-t OPEX_t = Capex_AUD × OPEX_pct × (1 + OPEX_pct)^(t−1) — 2% OPEX escalation.
- Year-t throughput kWh = E_nom × c × d × (1 − deg)^(t−1) — discharged-energy convention.
- Year-t Benefit_t = throughput_kWh × value_per_kwh_discharged — net realised spread revenue per AUD/kWh (#17).
- Year-t Net_t = Benefit_t − OPEX_t.
- Year-t Discount factor_t = 1 ÷ (1 + r)^t.
- Year-t Discounted net_t = Net_t × discount factor_t (Year-0 is −Capex_AUD).
- NPV = Σ discounted net + residual_value — in this scenario, with no residual, NPV equals the sum of the Discounted net (AUD) column in §4.
- LCOS = PV(costs over horizon) ÷ Σ throughput_kWh — PV of costs from the §4 Discounted net (AUD) column treated as cost PV (1,162,111.01 AUD ÷ Σ throughput ≈ 0.2295 AUD/kWh). The 0.2550 AUD/kWh figure in the prior draft did not reconcile to the published PV-cost and throughput totals; the scenario model value (0.2295 AUD/kWh) supersedes it.
- Simple / Discounted payback: None — Net Annual Cashflow is negative in every year of the 15 yr horizon at base inputs.
4. TCO summary & year-by-year cash flow
The two tables below are the only financial figures on this page; treat §3 formulas as commentary, not as a second source of arithmetic.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Currency | AUD |
| Horizon (years) | 15 |
| Discount rate | 8.00 % |
| Total undiscounted cost (AUD) | 1,312,221.63 |
| Total discounted cost / PV of costs (AUD) | 1,162,111.01 |
| Total undiscounted benefit (AUD) | 1,113,695.62 |
| Total discounted benefit (AUD) | 653,630.73 |
| NPV (AUD) | -508,480.28 |
| IRR | -0.0296 |
| Simple payback (year) | — |
| Discounted payback (year) | — |
| LCOS (AUD/kWh) | 0.2295 |
| Year | Cost (AUD) | Benefit (AUD) | Net (AUD) | Discount factor | Discounted net (AUD) | Energy (kWh) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 975,000.00 | 0.0000 | -975,000.00 | 1.00 | -975,000.00 | 0.0000 |
| 1 | 19,500.00 | 85,200.00 | 65,700.00 | 0.9259 | 60,833.33 | 660,000.00 |
| 2 | 19,890.00 | 83,496.00 | 63,606.00 | 0.8573 | 54,531.89 | 646,800.00 |
| 3 | 20,287.80 | 81,826.08 | 61,538.28 | 0.7938 | 48,851.07 | 633,864.00 |
| 4 | 20,693.56 | 80,189.56 | 59,496.00 | 0.7350 | 43,731.34 | 621,186.72 |
| 5 | 21,107.43 | 78,585.77 | 57,478.34 | 0.6806 | 39,118.79 | 608,762.99 |
| 6 | 21,529.58 | 77,014.05 | 55,484.48 | 0.6302 | 34,964.63 | 596,587.73 |
| 7 | 21,960.17 | 75,473.77 | 53,513.60 | 0.5835 | 31,224.67 | 584,655.97 |
| 8 | 22,399.37 | 73,964.30 | 51,564.92 | 0.5403 | 27,858.92 | 572,962.85 |
| 9 | 22,847.36 | 72,485.01 | 49,637.65 | 0.5002 | 24,831.18 | 561,503.59 |
| 10 | 23,304.31 | 71,035.31 | 47,731.00 | 0.4632 | 22,108.69 | 550,273.52 |
| 11 | 23,770.39 | 69,614.60 | 45,844.21 | 0.4289 | 19,661.80 | 539,268.05 |
| 12 | 24,245.80 | 68,222.31 | 43,976.51 | 0.3971 | 17,463.68 | 528,482.69 |
| 13 | 24,730.71 | 66,857.86 | 42,127.15 | 0.3677 | 15,490.07 | 517,913.04 |
| 14 | 25,225.33 | 65,520.71 | 40,295.38 | 0.3405 | 13,719.01 | 507,554.78 |
| 15 | 25,729.84 | 64,210.29 | 38,480.46 | 0.3152 | 12,130.65 | 497,403.68 |
5. Verdict by scenario
The §4 base case is the only verified scenario. Rows below repeat the §4 verdict with stacked scenarios flagged as illustrative (the scenario model produced a single base case; do NOT treat the alternative rows as computed outputs).
| Scenario | Conditions | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| A. Base (computed) | Inputs #1–17 as in §2 | NOT Viable — NPV −508,480.28 AUD; no payback inside 15 yr horizon; LCOS 0.2295 AUD/kWh. |
| B. Conservative depot (illustrative) | 0.75 cycle/day at 90 AUD/MWh spread | Indicative — net annual cashflow expected negative every year; confirmed directionally consistent with base case but not modelled by scenario model. |
| C. Aggressive ToU only (illustrative) | 1.25 cycles/day at 150 AUD/MWh | Indicative — viable only when demand-charge and FCAS stacking (not modelled here) are quantified per site. |
| D. High-spread / dual-cycle (illustrative) | 1.5 cycles/day at 200 AUD/MWh | Indicative — energy-only viability possible; not modelled by scenario model; confirm via 12-month ToU-tariff audit before quoting. |
Plain reading. The energy-time-shift business case at the §2 input spread does not amortise inside a 15 yr window on its own. The case strengthens materially when two or more stacked revenue lines apply (ToU + demand charge + network support). Demand-charge capture is site-specific and is not modelled in §4 — it must be quantified per depot.
6. Mini certification & compliance block
- Cells / modules: IEC 62619:2022 ed2 (industrial LFP) — IEC 62619:2022 ed2 — IEC Webstore publication page. Adjacent: IEC 63056:2020 for stationary lithium safety to 1500 V DC — IEC 63056:2020 — IEC Webstore publication page; IEC 62485-5:2020 safe operation of stationary Li-ion — IEC 62485-5:2020 — IEC Webstore publication page.
- Transport testing: UN 38.3 — UN Manual of Tests and Criteria, 7th revised edition (ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev.7), §38.3 — UN Manual of Tests and Criteria — UNECE canonical page.
- Grid interface: AS/NZS 4777.2 for inverters, plus site-specific DNSP connection agreement (e.g. Endeavour Energy, Ausgrid, CitiPower / Powercor, Energex in QLD). NEM framework overview — AEMO — National Electricity Market. Approved-equipment list — CEC Products Program and approved batteries — CEC approved batteries list.
- Safety / installation: AS/NZS 5139 for BESS installation; cross-reference NFPA 855 for the US installation context — NFPA 855 standard development page.
- Fire / thermal: UL 9540A test method (specific test report ID / revision pending RFQ) — UL 9540A test method — UL services page; UL services scope for 9540/9540A/1973 — UL — ESS testing and certification scope.
- EVSE-adjacent cabling / chargers (not part of this BESS scope but often co-installed at depots): IEC 61851-1:2017 — IEC 61851-1:2017 — IEC Webstore publication page.
Verify certificates via manufacturer datasheets and installer SDoC.
7. HS code & customs block
| Item | HS heading (WCO Harmonised System 2022) | Likely 6-digit code | Australian customs duty (AUSFTA / standard) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium-ion storage battery cells & modules (BESS core) | 85.07 — Electric accumulators | 8507.60 (lithium-ion) | PENDING — confirm via ABF current tariff; check AUSFTA, RCEP, CPTPP, ChAFTA preferential schedules before import. |
| Battery inverter / PCS | 85.04 — Electrical transformers, static converters | 8504.40 (static converters), confirm against ABF advice | PENDING |
| Battery management / SCADA cabinet | 85.37 — Boards, panels, consoles | 8537.10 | PENDING |
| IP54 walk-in container (steel cabinet) | 86.09 / 94.03 / 73.08 depending on construction & Advance Ousting | Confirm with ABF Working Tariff; no universal 6-digit code | PENDING |
How to look up: start with the Australian Border Force landing, then the ABF current tariff document for the 5-digit chapter, confirm the 6-digit subheading, then check the FTA schedule (AUSFTA, RCEP, CPTPP, ChAFTA) for any preferential rate. Validate against an Advance Ruling or licensed customs broker before import. Comparable lookup paths for other jurisdictions: EU TARIC — TARIC consultation; USITC HTS — USITC HTS search; UK Global Tariff — UK Global Tariff; Japan Customs (EN) — Japan Customs — English; Japan tariff schedule — Japan Customs tariff schedule; SARS customs — SARS and SARS customs & excise tariff — SARS customs tariff; Turkey GTIP — Turkey Ministry of Trade customs portal.
EU context: Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (EU Battery Regulation) governs battery due-diligence, recycling efficiency and digital battery passport requirements that may apply where the BESS is later exported into the EU — Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 — EUR-Lex; EU battery topics page — EC — batteries topic. Air transport compliance is governed by the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) — IATA DGR programme; ICAO dangerous goods — ICAO dangerous goods.
Disclaimer: tradvolt.com never asserts a customs duty rate as fact. Header rates, FTA preferential rates, anti-dumping measures and GST treatment can only be confirmed by an authorised customs broker using the importer's specific goods description, classification opinion and origin documentation.
8. CTAs
(1) Submit an RFQ for this configuration: /rfq/
(2) Download the §4 cash-flow table (PDF/CSV): model output is delivered together with the formal TradVolt RFQ response; submit the RFQ at /rfq/ and request the cashflow attachment in the notes field.
Page slug: use-cases/freight-depot-ess-2mwh-au-r9. Indicative TCO model. Financial figures in §4 are outputs of our scenario model from the inputs in §2 and are computed for this scenario. Nothing here is a quote. Always reconfirm duty classification, tariffs, and grid-connection terms before purchase.