Base Power brings cheap batteries to residents in power-starved PJM

If you live in Chicago's ComEd territory, there's a new cheap way to get home battery backup power. Battery startup Base Power, known for its work in Texas, has launched in Illinois, offering the first 2,000 sign-ups a 40-kilowatt-hour backup battery for just $95 upfront. After that, later customers pay $295. That's far below the $10,000-plus these batteries usually cost. Customers also buy their electricity from Base Power at a 25% discount off ComEd's standard rate, currently 10.4 cents per kilowatt-hour. The catch is a 12-year contract, though you can exit early for a $500 fee.

Base Power can offer such low prices partly because it profits from operating these batteries as a network, drawing on them to help balance the regional grid, which covers 13 states including Illinois and has struggled to keep up with rising power demand from data centers. Illinois also has favorable rules: it allows customers to buy power from companies other than their utility, and ComEd pays market rates when batteries send power back to the grid at peak times. A new state law taking effect this summer adds a rebate for customers who agree to discharge their battery during summer evening peak hours, which Base Power will use to keep its pricing low.

For now, this offer is specific to ComEd customers in northern Illinois. Base Power has said it may expand further into the same regional grid, and other states within that grid could adopt similar rules if they want utilities to offer comparable deals.