Battery storage in Wigan usually comes up for one of two reasons. Either a solar design has run into an export limit from SP Electricity North West and a battery is the cheapest way to keep panels you'd otherwise drop, or the site pays heavily for power between 4pm and 7pm on weekdays, the red band in the DNO's charging statement. Sometimes it's both. A distribution shed off J25 can make most of its solar between late morning and mid-afternoon while the building is quiet, then hit its peak as the evening shift loads trailers. A battery moves energy from the first window into the second. We size it from your half-hourly data, decide whether it should charge from the roof alone or from the grid as well, and set the controls so it never takes you past your agreed import or export capacity.
We reply within one working day to book a site visit.
Not every site needs one. These are the situations where the sums tend to come out in favour.
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If the connection offer limits export, a larger array can still make sense when the surplus goes into storage instead of being clipped. The battery turns roof area you'd have left bare into units you use after the sun has dropped behind the sheds.
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SP Electricity North West's 2026/27 statement sets the red band at 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday, all year round. On smaller non-domestic tariffs the red unit charge works out at roughly six to ten times the amber one, so discharging stored power through those three hours does most of the heavy lifting.
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Go over your Maximum Import Capacity once and the excess is charged for the whole billing period. A battery can flatten short peaks, such as dock heaters, chargers and a compressor all starting together, so the site stays under the line without applying for a bigger supply.
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Warehouses with electric forklifts and pallet trucks usually charge them overnight or between shifts, which is exactly when the panels produce nothing. Stored solar can cover part of that charging load and shifts more of the roof's output into use on site.
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With the right inverter and changeover equipment, a battery can hold selected circuits through a brief supply interruption. It isn't a substitute for a generator on a chilled store, and we'll tell you so, but it can protect IT, controls and temperature monitoring.
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Storage used alongside onsite renewables falls within the business rates exemption that runs to 31 March 2035. HMRC's manual doesn't settle which allowance pool batteries and inverters belong in, so we itemise the costs for your accountant to decide.
£0
Site survey and a review of your half-hourly data
kWh
Systems sized from your own meter readings
G99
Grid application drawn up and submitted for you
M17
Based on Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park
The big distribution buildings around Hazlemere, Wheatlea and Westwood Park were built to move goods, not to generate power, and their supplies were sized for lighting, doors and chargers. Put a large array on top and the export side of the connection becomes the constraint. On a busy part of the network the DNO's answer may be a cap, a flexible connection that curtails you at certain times, or a reinforcement bill large enough to end the project.
That's where storage changes the arithmetic. Rather than trimming the array to what the cable will take, the design keeps the panels and adds enough battery to absorb the midday surplus, then feeds it into the building's own evening load. Older units on estates like Stephens Way at Goose Green are a different case: smaller roofs, smaller supplies, and a battery there is more likely to be about the red band than about export.
If you're still deciding how much of the roof to use, start with our page on commercial solar panels in Wigan, which covers array sizing and the planning side.
"Most of the battery enquiries we see from the Wigan side of the M6 begin life as solar projects that hit an export ceiling, rather than as anyone setting out to buy storage."
We take half-hourly import data and, if solar is already fitted, its generation data too. From that we can see the midday surplus, the evening peak and any spikes against your import capacity, which between them decide the battery's power rating and storage size.
The proposal runs the battery across twelve months, not one sunny week. It shows how much surplus it captures in summer, how often it can cover the red band in winter, and what that is worth on your actual tariff.
We agree where the battery goes, a plant room or an outdoor enclosure away from escape routes and racked stock, using the IET Code of Practice for energy storage. Batteries count as generation, so they go on the G99 application to SP Electricity North West.
An outdoor cabinet needs a level base, clearances and protection from yard traffic, which on an HGV site normally means barriers. Cable routes back to the switchboard are planned so the main lorry access is only dug up once, if at all.
Battery modules, the inverter or power conversion system, protective devices and metering are fitted and wired in. Amendment 4 to BS 7671, published in April 2026, added a chapter on stationary secondary batteries, and the design follows it.
We test the protection, prove the import and export limits hold, and set the charge and discharge schedule. The first few weeks of data usually justify adjusting the timings once we see how your shifts actually run.
You get the documentation, fire information for your insurer and site emergency plan, and remote monitoring. If state of health or cycling starts to look wrong, we spot it on the dashboard before it shows up on your bill.
There are two layers of cover on a commercial installation, and it pays to know which is which. The first is the installer's workmanship guarantee. It covers the way the system was put in: the fixings through your roof, the cable runs, the terminations, the protective devices and the commissioning settings. Its length and terms are written into the quotation, so you can read them before you sign rather than discover them afterwards.
The second layer belongs to the manufacturers. Panels normally carry a product warranty and a separate performance warranty, which promises a minimum output after a set number of years. Inverters and batteries have their own terms, often with cycle or throughput limits on storage. These vary by product, so every proposal names the exact models and attaches their warranty documents.
A guarantee is only as good as the install underneath it. That's why the structural check comes before the design is fixed, why every string is tested and recorded to BS 7671, and why the grid connection is commissioned to the settings SP Electricity North West has approved. If something we fitted fails because of how it was fitted, we come back and put it right.
In writing
Workmanship guarantee, set out in your quote
Per model
Manufacturer product and performance warranties
Test results, drawings, warranty certificates and the grid connection agreement are handed over in one pack on the last day.
The table below sets the usual options side by side. On a capped connection off the M6, the real contest is often a battery against paying for network reinforcement, or simply fitting fewer panels.
| Comparison point | Solar only | Solar + battery | Battery on its own (tariff shifting) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar used on site | Only what the load takes at the time | Higher: surplus stored for later | No solar involved |
| Red-band (16:00-19:00) costs | Little effect, almost none in winter | Cut with stored solar or overnight charge | Cut with overnight green-band charge |
| kVA capacity charges | No reliable effect | Peaks can be shaved | Peaks can be shaved |
| DNO export limit | Surplus above the cap is lost | Surplus stored instead of clipped | Cap applies to battery discharge too |
| Backup in a power cut | None as standard | Only if designed for it | Only if designed for it |
| Planning and permissions | G99; roof usually permitted development | G99; roof PD plus a siting and fire review | G99; no PD class, so take planning advice |
We don't publish a per-kWh battery price, because there's no reliable public figure and quotes vary a lot by site. These are the things that move it.
A battery that has to shave a sharp peak needs a high power rating, while one that shifts a long midday surplus into the evening needs more stored energy. The balance between the two, set by your data, is the biggest single influence on cost.
On older estates such as Stephens Way, space is tight and the battery may have to go indoors behind fire separation. Newer plots at Westwood Park or Wheatlea usually have yard space for an outdoor enclosure, though crash barriers against lorry traffic add to the bill.
If SP Electricity North West needs new protection, metering changes or a revised connection agreement, that work and its timing are part of the cost. A flexible connection can avoid reinforcement but brings control equipment of its own.
Adding storage to an array already on the roof can mean an AC-coupled system with its own inverter. Designing panels and battery together from scratch is often neater, and where both routes are open we price them side by side.
Often, yes. If the DNO caps export, the battery stores surplus that would otherwise be curtailed. Whether it pays depends on how much surplus there is over a year and whether your evening load can soak it up, which we model from your own data.
Part 14 of the GPDO has no permitted development class for battery storage, so we treat an outdoor containerised system as something to check with Wigan Council's planning team. National guidance also asks applicants for systems of 1MWh or more to speak to the fire and rescue service before applying.
It can be, if it's sited and specified properly. We follow the IET Code of Practice for energy storage, keep enclosures clear of escape routes and stacked goods, and give your insurer the fire information before installation. PAS 63100, which you may see quoted, is written for homes, not commercial buildings.
Winter changes what the battery does rather than whether it's useful. PVGIS shows December solar output in Greater Manchester at around a quarter of the May to July level, so there's little surplus to store. In those months the battery can charge in the cheap overnight green band and discharge in the red band, and a good controller switches between the two.
It depends on chemistry, how hard it's cycled and the temperature it runs at. Lithium iron phosphate modules are usually warranted on both cycle count and retained capacity, and the datasheet sets out each. We'll show you the warranty terms for the product we propose and model how capacity fades over time.
Hundreds of acres of woodland, walled gardens and play areas around the Georgian Haigh Hall, which is part-way through a major council restoration. The restored Plantation Gates and the park's land train are open, with the hall itself due to reopen later in the decade.
Learn more about Haigh Woodland Park and Haigh Hall on Google Maps
The old coal-loading wharf made famous by George Orwell sits in a cluster of restored canal warehouses beside Trencherfield Mill. From here the towpath runs east past the 21 locks of the Wigan Flight or south along the Leigh Branch towards the flashes.
Learn more about Wigan Pier and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal on Google Maps
A chain of lakes and reed beds that formed when old mine workings subsided in the early 1900s, now a wetland nature reserve with around six miles of paths. It is a well-known spot for birdwatchers, including one of England's stronger willow tit populations.
Learn more about Wigan Flashes Nature Reserve on Google MapsWe're a new name, so you won't find a wall of reviews here yet. We'd rather show you nothing than make some up.
For a project this size, reviews were never the best evidence anyway. Ask any installer you're considering for a reference site you can visit, a year or more of generation data from a system they fitted, and the grid connection paperwork from a past job. If they can't produce those, keep looking.
Send it to us with your half-hourly data. We'll tell you whether a battery makes the difference for your Wigan site, or whether a smaller array is simply the better answer.
