Fears raised over rogue battery sellers

Storage sector in danger of “shooting itself in the foot” says boss of Powerflow Energy

The misselling of battery storage to households with solar panels risks inflicting long-term damage on the reputation of the technology, battery manufacturer Powerflow Energy has warned.

The company says consumers need to be better informed to prevent them from being duped by rogue sellers using inflated predictions of potential savings on energy bills.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of untruths being told about domestic battery storage systems, such as exaggerated claims about the economics of buying one, payback times and the impact of them on electricity bills,” said Powerflow Energy managing director Ian Murray.

“The average person simply doesn’t know enough about the technology to ask the right questions.”

Murray told Utility Week his company has been contacted by multiple customers who had bought their battery systems through a third party and had failed to realise the savings they’d been promised.

In one instance, a customer was told he could save a thousand pounds each year by installing a 2kWh battery system, even though his solar panels only generated £600 of energy annually, half of which he already used himself. The battery system was also installed in his loft – a practice which Powerflow forbids to prevent damage from high summer temperatures.

“We work very hard to create efficient, cutting edge technology only for it to be muddied by the greedy pop-up company that wants to make a few quid,” he added. “Without more honesty and education, the industry is in danger of shooting itself in the foot before it’s taken off.”

Murray said Powerflow has received roughly one such complaint for every hundred battery systems they have sold, although his “gut feeling” is that a much higher proportion of customers have been affected by the issue.

The Energy Storage Network (ESN) said it had not yet received any complaints relating to the misselling of batteries but could easily see how it could be a problem.

“Our concerns are that, whilst the industry has for a long time suffered from a lack of understanding about what the technology can do, now it is the reverse – there is an abundance of information out there on the benefits that storage, and particularly batteries, can give,” said an ESN spokeswoman.

“What is lacking is education for customers on how to select an appropriate technology and regulation to ensure that operators in the industry are transparent with customers and competent at specifying and installing an appropriate system.

“We must make sure we get the right technology, in the right place, installed by competent and reputable engineers.”

North Star Solar chief executive Paul Massara likewise said he had not come across the problem so far: “The number of people who are actually selling batteries is pretty limited and at the moment I haven’t heard about it being a massive issue… If you think about the major players out there, most of them are selling and installing their own solar and batteries.”

He nevertheless agreed that the misselling of batteries will almost certainly become a bigger concern in future as the market for domestic storage grows.

However, Massara said the storage sector is also unlikely to become the “wild west” which the solar sector once was due to the “mad rush” to sell and install solar panels before cuts to feed-in tariff rates. “You don’t have that with batteries,” he added. “There isn’t the same massive incentive to do that so hopefully it will be a more gradual market.”

Massarra said the best way to tackle the issue would be establish some kind of code of conduct for sellers. The Institution of Engineering and Technology has today (21 August) published a new set of guidelines for the installation of energy storage systems but it does not cover sales.