{ "id": 90027, "date": "2026-06-28T00:00:00", "date_gmt": "2026-06-28T00:00:00", "guid": { "rendered": "https:\/\/genixenergy.com.ua\/?p=90027" }, "modified": "2026-07-05T22:06:59", "modified_gmt": "2026-07-05T14:06:59", "slug": "time-of-use", "status": "publish", "type": "glossary", "link": "https:\/\/genixenergy.com.ua\/en\/glossary\/time-of-use\/", "title": { "rendered": "Time-of-Use" }, "content": { "rendered": "

Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing is an electricity tariff structure that charges different rates per unit of energy depending on the time of day, with higher rates during peak-demand periods and lower rates at off-peak hours.<\/p>\n\n

Why it matters for energy costs<\/h2>\n\n

TOU is the tariff structure that makes battery time-shifting economically meaningful. Under a flat-rate tariff, every kWh drawn from the grid costs the same regardless of when you draw it; there is no financial benefit to deciding when to charge or discharge a battery. Under TOU, a gap opens between peak and off-peak rates. That gap is the arbitrage window a battery exploits: charge when rates are low, discharge when rates are high. The wider the gap in your local schedule, the stronger the economic case for adding storage. (Source: IEA Demand Response<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n

For commercial sites, TOU combines naturally with demand-charge billing, so the same battery controller addresses two cost levers at once: capping the demand spike (peak shaving<\/a>) and moving energy from expensive to cheap hours (load shifting<\/a>). Consult your own tariff schedule to confirm the peak windows and rate differentials that apply to your site.<\/p>\n\n

Time-of-Use in practice<\/h2>\n\n

Key numbers<\/h3>\n\n

A battery cycling once per day for TOU time-shifting uses roughly 365 cycles per year. Genixgreen LiFePO4 systems are rated for 6000+ cycles to the 80 percent capacity end-of-life point, giving well over a decade of daily TOU use. Systems run at a nominal 51.2 V, scale from about 5 kWh to 16 kWh for homes and into the MWh range for commercial sites, and deliver usable energy of about 85 percent of nameplate capacity. System round-trip efficiency for a full charge-and-discharge cycle is about 90 percent: that loss is the inherent cost of the time-shifting transaction, so the tariff gap must exceed it for storage to make economic sense.<\/p>\n\n

TOU vs flat-rate billing<\/h3>\n\n

On a flat-rate tariff, every kWh is priced identically and storage adds no time-based arbitrage value. TOU introduces a time dimension that changes the calculus entirely. As utilities introduce time-varying pricing, battery storage gains an economic layer on top of backup and self-consumption<\/a> value. Markets with regulated flat rates, common in some regions during periods of energy-price control, limit residential TOU time-shifting; commercial demand-charge structures may still apply. In Ukraine, verify the current tariff schedule with your local distribution network operator before sizing a system for time-shifting rather than pure backup.<\/p>\n\n

How Genixgreen uses Time-of-Use<\/h2>\n\n

Genixgreen has built LiFePO4 storage in its own factory since 2011 and ships to 100+ countries, with local stock in Odesa for delivery across Ukraine. Genixgreen LiFePO4 systems are designed to pair with compatible hybrid inverters whose controllers schedule charging during low-rate windows and discharging during peak-rate windows, automating the TOU arbitrage cycle with no manual intervention.<\/p>\n\n

Related terms<\/h2>\n\n