Storage by property type
Every building type produces a different load shape — and therefore a different storage value.
Canadian BESS Snapshot
- Multi-family residential
- 22% typical peak reduction, 2 h duration
- Cold storage
- 35% typical peak reduction, 3 h duration
- Warehouse & distribution
- 28% typical peak reduction, 2.5 h duration
- Commercial EV charging
- 45% typical peak reduction, 2 h duration
- Industrial & manufacturing
- 30% typical peak reduction, 3 h duration
- Retail & grocery
- 24% typical peak reduction, 2 h duration
- Office & institutional
- 20% typical peak reduction, 2 h duration
Multi-family residential
Multi-residential buildings carry evening peaks driven by elevators, HVAC, common-area load and increasingly resident EV charging. Storage flattens the evening ramp and defers costly service upgrades.
Cold storage
Refrigeration compressors create sharp, repeatable demand peaks with significant thermal inertia. Cold-storage sites regularly show the strongest BESS payback in Canada.
Warehouse & distribution
Distribution centres combine material-handling loads, battery-charging bays and fleet electrification, producing steep short-duration peaks well suited to 2-hour storage.
Commercial EV charging
DC fast-charging sites are demand-charge dominated: a handful of simultaneous sessions can set the monthly peak. Buffered storage lets a site serve high-power charging on a smaller service.
Industrial & manufacturing
Process loads, welders, motors and batch operations create high coincident peaks. In Ontario, Class A Global Adjustment avoidance can exceed demand-charge savings.
Retail & grocery
Grocery and big-box retail combine refrigeration, HVAC and lighting into predictable midday summer peaks — a good fit for a compact 100–500 kW system.
Office & institutional
Office towers, schools and healthcare properties value predictable demand reduction plus resilience for critical circuits during outages.