vizmaya desk · energy · 7 October 2026

Grid batteries: too many and the owner pays, too few and you pay

Same technology. Two countries. Opposite problems. Here is who ends up paying in each, explained from scratch.

Byline: vizmaya desk · 7 October 2026

Four numbers

In Australia, battery owners lost money. On America's biggest power grid, there still isn't enough power.

85%

Drop in the gap between cheap and pricey power in Australia. Batteries earn money from that gap.

Apr-Jun 2026 vs 2025 · AEMO
AU$73M

Less money earned by Australia's big batteries in three months

Apr-Jun 2026 vs 2025 · AEMO
$16.4B

Total of the latest US power auction at its price limit. It would be $29.7B with no limit.

Auction held 14 Jul 2026 · PJM
6,831 MW

How far the grid fell short of its own safety target for 2028/29

Auction held 14 Jul 2026 · PJM

MW means megawatt, a unit of power. AEMO runs Australia's power grid. PJM runs America's biggest one.

What changed this week

Three things happened this week. Each one is about who carries the cost.

6 Oct

New earnings figures for Australia's batteries (July to September) appeared. We are not using them yet because only one source has them. We will wait for the official report.

1 Oct

Germany's grid regulator approved new rules, called MiSpeL, with a transition period. Batteries that send power back to the grid now pay fewer fees and charges.

1 Oct

Finnish firm Wärtsilä and Germany's RCT Solutions launched Valo, a new company that builds battery systems. Valo expects to lose money in 2026.

Sources: Energy-Storage.News (6 Oct); Bundesnetzagentur (1 Oct); Wärtsilä (1 Oct).

Fact

The price of keeping power ready went from $29 to $325 in four auctions

PJM runs a yearly auction that pays power suppliers to be ready when needed. The price is per MW-day: the cost of keeping one megawatt ready for a day. It jumped from $28.92 to $269.92 in one auction. The last three hit the price limit.

Source: PJM 2024 annual report; APPA on PJM 2028/29 results. Dollars per MW-day, whole PJM region.

Fact

A price limit holds the total to $16.4B. Without it, PJM says $29.7B.

These are totals from the auction, not exactly what customers pay, because some buyers have locked in their prices another way. Still, the gap shows how much the limit is holding back.

Source: Utility Dive on PJM results, 14 Jul 2026. Billions of US dollars.

Contested

Nobody agrees on who pays for the emergency fix

Because the auction fell short, PJM plans to buy extra power as a backup. People call this the backstop.

PJM's board letter

The cost will fall on data center companies, as news reports describe the letter.

Maryland's consumer advocate

The cost will be spread across whole regions, so homes pay too. If the data centers people expect never get built, households could be left with the bill.

On 29 Sep, the US energy regulator (FERC) approved the plan but delayed it until 28 Feb 2027. Payments may have to be refunded.

Sources: Bisnow; WYPR; PJM.

Fact

In Australia, more batteries meant owners earned less than half as much in a quarter

Batteries earn money by charging when power is cheap and selling when it is pricey. As more arrived, that gap shrank 85%, to AU$51 per megawatt-hour. In a year, 4,640 MW of new batteries started coming online.

Source: AEMO quarterly report for Apr-Jun 2026, via Energy-Storage.News. AU$ million, net battery revenue.

Interpretation

So who pays?

Where batteries are plentiful, the owner pays. In Australia the gap between cheap and pricey power shrank 85%, and battery owners earned AU$73M less in one quarter. People who buy power gain from this. Taxpayers also back some projects: a federal scheme guarantees them a minimum income for up to 15 years.

Where power is scarce, the household pays. PJM's high price reaches customers through their utility bills, and who pays for the backup plan is disputed. Germany cut some fees for batteries. What batteries no longer pay has to come from other users of the grid.

Fact

Germany cut some fees first. A bigger fee decision is still to come.

1 Oct 2026

New rules (MiSpeL) approved, with a transition period. Batteries that send power back to the grid pay fewer fees and charges on it, even if they are not linked to solar panels.

Aug 2026

A draft plan for grid fees (called AgNes) keeps a 20-year fee exemption for battery projects that get their final go-ahead to build before the final rule is set.

End 2026

The regulator plans to finish the AgNes rules by the end of 2026. They replace today's rules only from 2029.

Sources: Bundesnetzagentur; electrive; TaiyangNews.

Fact

The batteries themselves are cheap everywhere

$70/kWh

That is the 2025 average price of a battery pack for grid storage, says research firm BloombergNEF. It fell 45% in a year. China made about 557 GWh of grid-storage battery cells that year, more than double what the world installed.

InterpretationSo the rules, not the hardware, decide who carries the cost. Even Valo expects to lose money in 2026 and to turn a profit only toward the end of 2027.

Sources: BloombergNEF, 9 Dec 2025; ESS News on Valo.

Risks and counter-case

Three reasons this story may be too neat

One quarter

Australia's batteries earned AU$96.9M in Jan-Mar 2026, more than double a year earlier. The Apr-Jun drop may not last.

PJM's gap

Expected peak demand rose by about 2,000 MW since the last auction. Building batteries alone would not close a 6,831 MW gap.

Germany

The final grid-fee rule is not out yet, so we cannot say how much cost shifts to other users.

Sources: AEMO Q1 2026 via Energy-Storage.News; APPA on PJM.

What to watch next

Three dates and one missing report

Not yet

AEMO's report for July to September. It will show whether Australian battery earnings are recovering.

Dec 2026

PJM's next power auction, for 2029/30.

End 2026

Germany plans to finish its grid-fee rules (AgNes).

28 Feb 2027

PJM's emergency power purchase is due to start. Payments may be refunded.

Sources and how we checked

We checked 27 claims. 17 held up, 3 are disputed, 6 could not be confirmed.

  • 17confirmed: the only claims used in this story
  • 3disputed: who pays for the backup, China's install totals, the size of Japan's waiting list
  • 6could not be confirmed, so left out, including Australia's July to September earnings
  • 1half and half: Germany's fee amount left out, the go-ahead deadline kept

What we could not find: AEMO's July to September report, battery cell supply country by country, power-auction prices outside PJM, and who pays for Australia's income guarantees.

vizmaya desk · 7 October 2026