Louise Dalton, a partner in the Energy & Infrastructure team at CMS and a leading legal expert in battery storage, discusses the evolving landscape of revenue models for battery energy storage systems. She delves into the intricacies of tolling agreements and how they help manage risk in fluctuating markets. The conversation also highlights the importance of adaptable contracts amid changing regulations and market conditions. Furthermore, Louise emphasizes the need for revenue certainty to navigate today's complex energy industry.
01:06:29
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Battery Storage Experience
Louise Dalton began advising on battery storage in 2015 when projects were small 10MW systems.
She witnessed the sector advance to multi-hour, gigawatt-plus systems globally over ten years.
insights INSIGHT
Innovative Revenue Structures Needed
Battery revenue streams need diversification due to market saturation in different ancillary services.
Innovation like floors, tolls, and insurance products help manage merchant risk and adapt revenue models.
insights INSIGHT
Tolls vs Floors Revenue Models
Floors provide downside revenue certainty with upside sharing for battery owners.
Tolls offer full revenue certainty at a fixed price but require complex risk negotiation.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
As battery storage continues to scale, the commercial and legal frameworks behind each project are becoming more sophisticated and more critical to long-term success. From merchant risk and revenue sharing to tolling agreements and long-term partnerships, the legal foundations of battery projects are becoming just as important as the technical ones. What are tolling models and how are they being used to share risk? How are contracts adapting to new market realities, and what should developers and investors look for when structuring battery deals in volatile or policy-driven markets? In this episode of Transmission, we’re joined by Louise Dalton, a partner in the Energy & Infrastructure team at CMS, and one of the UK’s leading legal experts on battery storage.
In this episode, we cover:
Tolling agreements in battery storage: What they are, how they’re used, and why they’re gaining traction across merchant-heavy markets.
Managing risk through contracts: How legal structures are being used to distribute volatility between developers, operators, and offtakers.
Market change and contract flexibility: How deals are being designed to respond to evolving market conditions without breaking down.
Revenue certainty vs. upside potential: Balancing risk and return in a maturing but still fast-moving storage landscape.
The evolution of the legal landscape: How storage contracts have changed over the past decade and what’s still missing from many standard structures.
About our guest:
Louise Dalton is a partner at CMS, an international law firm, where she specialises in energy and infrastructure transactions. She has worked on some of the UK’s most high-profile battery storage deals and plays an active role in industry development through initiatives like WiNES (Women in New Energy Storage). For more information on CMS, head to their website.
Transmission