Battery Arbitrage Revenue Calculator: BESS Energy Trading Income
Arbitrage is the most straightforward way a battery earns money: charge cheaply during off-peak hours, discharge at a premium during on-peak hours, and pocket the spread. But round-trip losses eat into every cycle, and how often you can actually run that cycle in a year depends on the local wholesale market and equipment constraints. This calculator estimates gross and net annual revenue from battery arbitrage, accounting for efficiency losses, operating costs, and your actual cycle count.
discharge revenue − charge cost
$4,920/cycle × 300 cycles
$5,000/MWh × 100 MWh
gross − O&M
net ÷ capacity
Results update live as you type. For planning and field-check estimates — always verify against applicable standards and equipment ratings.
How we calculate this →But what does the storage itself cost? See LCOS →How battery arbitrage revenue is calculated
Arbitrage math starts with a single cycle. You purchase your full usable capacity at the off-peak charge price — that is your cost. Round-trip efficiency (typically 85–92% for lithium-ion) determines how much energy you recover and can sell: a 100 MWh battery at 88% RTE delivers 88 MWh to the grid each discharge cycle. Revenue per cycle is (88 MWh × discharge price) minus (100 MWh × charge price). Multiply by annual cycle count for gross revenue, then subtract O&M to arrive at net.
The critical levers are the price spread and cycle frequency. A $60/MWh spread ($90 discharge minus $30 charge) at 88% RTE yields roughly $52.80 of net energy margin per MWh dispatched — but you need deep, consistent spreads and enough cycles to cover O&M. Wholesale markets with abundant midday solar generation are increasingly producing large price swings, creating better arbitrage opportunities, but the same forces that create those spreads can erode them as more storage participates.
Real arbitrage projects also carry market risk: forward price curves, curtailment, dispatch constraints, and capacity degradation all affect realized revenue. Battery developers typically stress-test spreads at 50–70% of historical averages and model cycle degradation effects on usable capacity over the project's 10–20 year life. This calculator gives the annual snapshot; a full project model layers in degradation, financing, and tax treatment.