Understand incremental profits#

This page is for site owners and operators reading the Monitoring > Profits tab in the Octave Portal.

The Profits tab shows how much extra value Octave generates for the site by comparing what actually happened With Octave against what would have happened Without Octave. The difference is your Incremental Profits.

Info

The Profits tab does not consider the following use cases: assets controlled by an external partner ("external control"), PV curtailment and EV load balancing.

The following video explains how to read the Profits tab.

The Profits tab at a glance#

Reading the tab always follows the same path:

Selected period: the date range you choose at the top right.
Two scenarios: With Octave (what really happened) and Without Octave (what would have happened on the same energy market prices, without our optimization).
Profit components: every revenue and cost item (energy, distribution, capacity, flex, FCR, …) for the selected period.
Total profits per scenario: all components added together.
Incremental Profits: the difference between both totals, shown for the Selected Period, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date.

\[ \text{Incremental Profits} = \text{Total profits}_\text{With Octave} - \text{Total profits}_\text{Without Octave} \]

Prerequisites#

For the Profits tab to display meaningful values, your site must have:

A BESS fully controlled by the Octave EMS, meaning the BESS External Control box in the Monitoring tab should not be ticked.
A complete site energy contracts configuration. See Configure site energy contracts for the full setup. At minimum, the offtake and injection contracts, distribution costs, and taxes & certificates must be defined.
For FCR revenue: the BESS must be enrolled in an FCR product (FCR up/down or FCR 100).

What you see in the Profits tab#

Date range#

Use the date picker in the top-right corner to choose the Selected Period. All values on the tab (KPIs and chart) are recomputed for that range.

Incremental profits KPIs#

Three headline numbers, all in euros:

Selected Period: incremental profits over the chosen date range.
Month-to-Date: incremental profits since the start of the current month.
Year-to-Date: incremental profits since the start of the current year.

A positive number (green) means Octave generated additional value compared to the baseline. A negative number (purple) means Octave underperformed the baseline over that window.

Profits With Octave vs. Without Octave chart#

A horizontal bar chart compares each profit component under both scenarios:

Solid bars: With Octave (what happened).
Hatched bars: Without Octave (counterfactual baseline).
Green bars: revenues (positive contributions).
Purple bars: costs (negative contributions).
Top bar: Total profits, the sum of all components for each scenario.

The gap between the solid and hatched Total profits bars is the Incremental Profits value shown in the KPI block.

Profit components reference#

For every quarter-hour and every scenario, the EMS computes the following components, then sums them over your selected period.

Component	Sign	Driven by	What it represents
Energy injection revenue	Revenue (+)	Energy injected into the grid × supplier injection price	Revenue from energy exported to the grid at your supplier's injection price.
FCR 100 revenue	Revenue (+)	See FCR revenue	Estimated revenue when the battery runs the FCR 100 service.
FCR up/down revenue	Revenue (+)	See FCR revenue	Estimated revenue when the battery runs the FCR up/down service.
Flex revenue	Revenue (+)	BESS energy × BESS contract price	Estimated revenue from charging and discharging the battery against a defined "flex" price. Only relevant for special cases.
Energy offtake cost	Cost (−)	Energy consumed from the grid × supplier offtake price	Cost of energy imported from the grid at your supplier's offtake price.
Monthly capacity cost	Cost (−)	Monthly power peak × capacity price	Distribution capacity charge based on the highest monthly power peak (kW) and the applicable capacity price (€/kW/month).
Distribution injection cost	Cost (−)	Energy injected into the grid × TSO + DSO injection tariffs	Proportional TSO + DSO charges on active energy injected into the grid.
Distribution offtake cost (active)	Cost (−)	Energy consumed from the grid × TSO + DSO offtake tariffs	Proportional TSO + DSO charges on active energy consumed from the grid.
Misc. offtake cost	Cost (−)	Energy consumed from the grid × certificate & excise prices	Green-certificate (GSC & WKC) and federal-excise charges applied to active energy consumed from the grid.
Total profits	Sum	All of the above	All components added together. This is the bar compared between scenarios.

Important

The following components are not yet considered in the estimation:

Access power cost (toegangsvermogen), only relevant for Flanders.
Distribution (TSO + DSO) offtake cost for reactive energy.
Any fixed costs that would be the same in both scenarios and therefore cancel out when computing the incremental profits.

How profits are computed#

For every 15-minute slot in the selected period, the EMS multiplies each measurement by the matching price, sums everything up by scenario, and shows the difference. The sections below describe each component in plain language.

1. Energy and distribution components#

For every 15-minute slot:

Energy injection revenue = energy injected into the grid × supplier injection price.
Energy offtake cost = energy consumed from the grid × supplier offtake price.
Distribution injection cost = energy injected into the grid × (TSO + DSO) injection tariff.
Distribution offtake cost = energy consumed from the grid × (TSO + DSO) offtake tariff.
Misc. offtake cost = energy consumed from the grid × (green certificates + federal excise).

All prices come from your contracts in Configure site energy contracts. Energy is computed from your site meter measurements over each 15-minute window.

2. Monthly capacity cost#

The distribution operator bills a monthly capacity charge based on the highest measured power peak of the month:

\[ \text{Monthly capacity cost} = \text{monthly power peak (kW)} \times \text{capacity price (€/kW/month)} \]

Because Octave actively shaves peaks with the battery, the With Octave peak is typically lower than the Without Octave peak. This is a key driver of incremental profits.

Tip

At the beginning of the month, the monthly capacity cost might lead to negative incremental profits. This is usually expected, as the battery typically charges to a peak-shaving target which can temporarily be higher than the currently estimated monthly power peak Without Octave.

Tip

The Local Optimizer might lead to a higher monthly capacity cost if it considers that this increased cost is compensated by a higher incremental profit on the energy offtake and injection components.

3. FCR revenue#

FCR (Frequency Containment Reserve) revenue is computed only when the battery is enrolled in an FCR product. Two services are supported, and at most one is active per 15-minute slot:

FCR up/down
FCR 100

FCR revenue is only attributed to the With Octave scenario; the Without Octave baseline assumes no FCR participation.

Both services use the same formula. For every 15-minute slot:

\[ \text{FCR revenue} = \text{average flex power} \times \text{FCR market price} \times \text{service premium} \times \text{reality factor} \times \text{sharing key} \]

Where:

Average flex power: the average of up flex and down flex measured by the battery during that slot. In normal conditions, the flex power corresponds to the FCR capacity allocated to the FCR service.
FCR market price: the FCR settlement price for the slot (published on regelleistung.net).
Service premium: a service-specific multiplier (set by Centrica): 0.6 for FCR up/down, 1.4 for FCR 100.
Reality factor: a discount accounting for market unavailability, based on historical data: 1.0 for FCR up/down, 0.8 for FCR 100.
Sharing key: the client's share of the gross FCR revenues.

If the battery is not allowed to provide FCR for a given slot (e.g. during maintenance or downtime), the revenue for that slot is set to zero.

Important

The FCR revenues remain an estimation. The true realized FCR revenues are generally communicated later, once the final settlement with Elia has been done. Slight deviations from the final revenues are expected.

4. Flex revenue#

In some specific cases, the battery's energy flows are valued under a different contract than the energy flows measured at the grid connection point.

For every 15-minute slot:

\[ \text{Flex revenue} = \text{battery energy delivered} \times \text{BESS contract price} \]

With the sign convention that discharging the battery produces positive revenue and charging is a cost. Over a period, profitable arbitrage cycles add up to a net positive bar.

Flex revenue is only attributed to the With Octave scenario; the Without Octave baseline assumes no flex participation.

5. Two scenarios on the same prices#

The full computation runs once for each scenario, using the same prices but a different set of measurements:

With Octave: your actual measurements (site meter, battery, PV).
Without Octave: a counterfactual showing how the site would have behaved without our optimization.

6. Aggregation in the Portal#

For each scenario, the Profits tab adds up every component over the selected period to get Total profits. The KPI block shows the difference between the two totals (Incremental Profits) for the Selected Period, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date.

Troubleshooting#

A component bar is missing or zero

The contract or measurement that drives that component is missing for the period. Check the relevant section in Configure site energy contracts and confirm the corresponding measurement source is reporting data.

FCR up/down or FCR 100 bar is empty

The site is not enrolled in that FCR service, the battery was not allowed to steer for the whole period, or its FCR capacity is not configured. Check the site's FCR setup with your account manager.

Incremental profits look unexpectedly small or negative

The selected period may be too short to capture meaningful arbitrage cycles, or the counterfactual baseline may not match your expectations. Widen the date range first, then reach out to your account manager if it still looks off.