A battery cabinet next to a factory, a cold store or a hotel can cut the bill at peak hours, keep solar energy for the evening and keep critical equipment running when the grid fails. Whether it pays off depends on your tariff, your load and the details of the system. Here is how to choose one — with rules and cost benchmarks checked in October 2026.
What storage pays for
A business battery earns its keep in four ways. Peak shaving: it covers the highest demand, which many business tariffs bill separately. Time of use: it charges when energy is cheap and discharges at peak hours. Solar self-consumption: it keeps midday solar energy for the evening instead of exporting it cheaply or curtailing it. Backup: it keeps critical loads running during outages, often together with a diesel generator that then runs less.
Start with your tariff. In Chile business tariffs such as AT4.3 and BT4.3 bill the highest demand measured in peak hours: 18:00 to 22:00 on working days from April to September — in 2026 September was excluded as an exception. In Peru medium-voltage tariffs such as MT3 charge a higher power rate to customers whose demand falls in peak hours, and energy at peak hours costs more. Take 12 months of electricity bills and, if your meter records it, 15-minute load data: they show how high your peaks are and how long they last.
Size it in kW and kWh
Power, in kW, is how much the battery can deliver at once; energy, in kWh, is how long it can keep doing so. A cabinet of 125 kW and 261 kWh covers a 125 kW load for about two hours. For peak shaving, size the power to the part of the peak you want to cut and the energy to how long the peak lasts; for backup, add up the critical loads and the hours they must run.
Usable energy is lower than the nameplate. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries are usually run to 90–95% depth of discharge, and some energy is lost on the way in and out: Chile's National Energy Commission (CNE) reports an average round-trip efficiency of 89% for battery projects. If you need more, several cabinets can run in parallel.
All-in-one cabinet or separate parts
For 100–260 kWh the simplest choice is an all-in-one outdoor cabinet: battery modules, the battery management system, a hybrid inverter, the backup switch, climate control and fire protection in one housing, tested together at the factory. It stands on a concrete pad and needs AC cables, solar strings and a data link — instead of parts from different suppliers that have to be matched on site.
If you already have solar panels with their own inverters, the cabinet connects on the AC side; a hybrid inverter with solar inputs (MPPT) can also take new panels directly. Ask for an energy management system that reads your main meter: it limits the peaks, follows the tariff hours and prevents export where export is not allowed. Ask also for remote monitoring and a Modbus TCP link to your building systems.
Backup: what the switch time means
With a built-in static switch the cabinet moves to island mode in about 10 milliseconds when the grid fails; most lighting, motors and computers ride through that. Servers, network equipment and process controllers should still have their own online UPS: it switches with no break at all and protects them from surges.
Decide which circuits must stay on and move them to a separate backup panel; a whole site rarely needs backup. If you have a diesel generator, the hybrid inverter can work with it and charge the battery from it, so the generator runs less and at a better load. Ask whether the cabinet can start the generator automatically.
Outdoors, by the sea, in the mountains
Check the enclosure against your site: at least IP54 for outdoor use; corrosion class C4 or C5 near the coast and near mines and chemical plants; and an operating range that covers your winter nights and summer afternoons — the cabinets we offer work from −30 to +50 °C.
Altitude matters in the Andes: thin air cools electronics less, so power is reduced above a certain height. Our cabinets are rated up to 3,000 m, with derating above 2,000 m; higher sites need a design agreed with the factory. A cabinet weighs up to 2.7 tonnes, so plan a concrete pad, access for a crane or forklift and service clearances around it.
Safety: what to ask for
Ask for LFP chemistry — it is more stable at high temperature than the nickel-based chemistries used in many electric cars — and check the cabinet's protection: gas detection, an explosion vent, an exhaust fan, light and sound alarms, and a fire-suppression system or a water inlet for the fire brigade.
Documents to request: the IEC 62619 test report for industrial lithium batteries, IEC 63056 for batteries in storage systems, IEC 62477-1 for the power electronics, and the UL 9540A fire-propagation test report, which fire authorities often ask for. Ask for the reports themselves, with the laboratory name and the model tested — not just a list of standards.
Connection rules in Chile and Peru
In Chile an authorised installer declares the installation to the electricity regulator, the SEC, through its online e-Declarador system. If the system also exports solar energy to the grid, the net billing law applies — Law 20.571 as amended by Law 21.118 of 2018, for systems of up to 300 kW — and the connection goes through your distribution company. Since 1 January 2026, any inverter with solar panels connected to it needs arc-fault protection (AFCI) and SEC authorisation — so if the panels connect directly to the storage system's own inverter, that inverter needs both.
In Peru the regulation on distributed generation for electricity users has been a draft since November 2024 (Ministerial Resolution 439-2024-MINEM/DM), and we have not found it adopted as of October 2026. Until it is, plan the system for self-consumption without export, and agree any connection with your installer and the distribution company.
What it costs
An official benchmark comes from Chile's CNE. Its 2026 technology cost report, based on data from project developers, puts the investment in large grid-scale battery projects at 722 US$ per kW for four hours of storage — about 180 US$ per kWh — and 935 US$ per kW for six hours, about 156 US$ per kWh.
A 100–260 kWh cabinet for one business costs more per kWh: the inverter, housing, transport, installation and connection are spread over a much smaller system. Budget also for the concrete pad, cables and protection, a larger grid connection if yours is too small, engineering and permits, shipping as dangerous goods, import duties and VAT, insurance and monitoring. We quote a price for your configuration delivered to your port.
Shipping and import
Lithium batteries travel as dangerous goods, class 9. They must have passed the UN 38.3 tests, and we get the test summary from the factory; shipping lines usually also ask for a safety data sheet, and the line must accept the cargo, so we book it with the forwarder in advance. The cabinet travels in a container, fixed to the floor.
Duties and taxes depend on the country and the tariff code; the details are in our import guides by country — links at the end of this article.
Warranty and service
The cabinets we offer come with five years on the product and ten years on battery performance. Read the conditions: what capacity is guaranteed at the end, for how many cycles or how much energy, and at what temperature. Ask who replaces a failed module in your country and how fast, and whether spare modules can be kept on site.
How we help
We size the system from your bills and load data, confirm the configuration and the documents for your country in writing with the factory, check the cabinet before shipment and ship it as dangerous goods with full export documents. Payment is by bank transfer against an invoice.
Rules and costs were checked in October 2026 against the CNE cost report, tariff sheets from distribution companies, Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines, official sources on Chile's net billing law and the manufacturer's data sheets. They can change — we confirm them in the quote.
What to send us for a quote
Twelve months of electricity bills or 15-minute load data, your tariff, the goal — peak shaving, backup or solar — the size of existing or planned solar panels and their inverters, any diesel generator, the site (outdoors or indoors, altitude, distance to the sea), and the country and city of delivery. We reply within two business days.