Energy-Storage.news speaks with Alon Maskovich, CEO and co-founder of enSights about BESS economics and the company’s new battery economics calculator.
Renewable energy portfolio management software company enSights has launched its Battery Economics Calculator for the PJM Interconnection market, which aims to address financing challenges that have slowed energy storage deployment in a region experiencing capacity shortfalls and surging electricity demand from data centres.
The platform is designed for asset owners, independent power producers (IPPs), operations and maintenance (O&M) providers, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that could benefit from a more accurate approach to data collection and usage
“We’ve seen a lot of analyses that have been taking weeks to analyse, depending on all these datasheets that are running, and this is why investors are struggling to finance them,” explains Maskovich. “When you are running everything on spreadsheets and you are trying to do different simulations, usually [developers] are double counting different aspects of the regulations.”
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According to enSights, it unifies and validates data across multi-OEM and multi-SCADA environments, applying AI-driven intelligence to link underperformance to financial risk and operational action.
Why PJM?
The PJM Interconnection serves 13 states plus the District of Columbia and more than 65 million consumers. According to Maskovich, several market dynamics made the region a priority.
Data centre expansion is driving electricity demand across the region, while recent capacity auctions have highlighted supply constraints, creating what should be favourable conditions for battery energy storage system (BESS) deployment. Yet, some developers are struggling to secure financing.
Maskovich explains that organisations deploying BESS often struggle to justify investments to finance teams and lenders. He identifies analysis of revenue stacking, which involves combining utility savings, demand charge reductions, energy arbitrage and capacity payments, as a key challenge.
It requires more historical consumption data than most developers have to prove the same kilowatt is not counted twice.
“You need to choose. You cannot double sell the same kilowatt,” Maskovich explains. “The basics are the consumption because we are focusing on behind the meter (BTM), and on top of it, market participation and arbitrage, depending on where you want your risk to be.”
The enSights platform provides auditable economics to help enable faster decision-making and reduce financing friction.
BTM focus
The company focuses primarily on behind-the-meter (BTM) applications for commercial and industrial facilities, rather than front-of-the-meter (FTM) utility-scale projects. The company targets small to medium-sized facilities—typically those with storage systems around 2MWh and up—helping them optimise battery sizing and revenue stacking strategies.
Accurate project evaluation requires extensive historical consumption data, but availability varies across the market.
“The sophisticated customers and partners that we’re working with, they have the data. So, when you ask for the right dataset, you get it, but not all of them are like that.” Maskovich says.
The platform uses historical data to forecast facility behavior, accounting for weather patterns, business cycles, and operational characteristics. Limited data can lead to inaccurate projections.
“When you are looking on, let’s say, three months of history, you see certain trends. If you look on two quarters, or a year, you see different trends,” Maskovich says. Three months might show summer peaks, but doesn’t capture how projects behave through full business cycles.
Battery performance management
Battery performance management differs significantly from solar operations, according to Maskovich, who spent two decades working with C&I customers on decarbonisation before founding enSights.
“Solar is a bit easy in comparison to storage,” he says. Storage is a different animal. The cells are not really ‘behaving.’ If you are charging too much or too fast, it affects the battery, the chemistry.”
Solar panels require relatively straightforward maintenance—keeping them clean and ensuring safety. Batteries demand more careful management: charging speed, temperature control, and operational decisions all affect degradation rates. Manufacturers perform differently, and battery performance depends on ongoing operational choices rather than following predictable curves like solar.
“Storage is like a gentle creature that needs careful attention from us,” Maskovich says.
The company manages several hundred sites across multiple geographies, building expertise in battery behaviour across different manufacturers. This operational experience informs the platform’s degradation models and optimisation strategies.
Drawing on his experience in the renewable energy sector, Maskovich notes the importance of performance management in storage deployments, referencing challenges the solar industry faced with orphaned systems and bankruptcies.
“It is important to look at the industry as a whole before making the same mistakes that have been done on the solar side of things,” he says. “When it comes to storage, I think [financial] performance should be the top priority.”
Data validation in the AI era
AI tools have made financial modeling faster, but not necessarily more accurate. Maskovich claims that enSights has implemented rigorous data validation processes to ensure accuracy.
“Data accuracy is one of the most important things because everyone can put their assumptions and models on Claude or other AI tools, and then they trust it,” he says.
The company employs university professors to validate data and maintains integrations with leading hardware manufacturers to verify battery performance models. Economic assumptions are cross-checked against multiple forecasting providers.
Maskovich has seen projects financed based on assumptions that didn’t match actual performance. “When you are coming to finance projects and the assumptions are not accurate, then it expires all future deals to come.”
Maskovich emphasises connecting operational performance to financial outcomes, something he believes the industry hasn’t prioritised enough.
“The assets are judged operationally and less so financially. Everything should be connected to the financial side of things,” he says
This can also matter more for BESS than for solar. A battery that degrades faster than expected can undermine the business case, and if it doesn’t reduce peak demand as modeled, customers may end up with higher utility bills than before installing storage.
Expansion plans
While currently focused on PJM, enSights has mapped all US ISOs and ranked them based on market readiness metrics. NYISO and ISO New England are next in line for expansion.
“We try to be where we feel the market is moving in the right direction, and the economics allow that,” Maskovich notes.
With favourable economics emerging in PJM and growing pressure on grid infrastructure, Maskovich sees significant opportunities for BTM storage deployment.
“The economics today make sense. BTM I think is going to be a huge accelerator for bringing energy online and stabilising the grid and helping with all these bottlenecks,” he says.
Battery Asset Management Summit USA 2026 will be held 15-16 September in Garden Grove, California, hosted by Energy-Storage.news publisher Solar Media (part of the Informa Group). The agenda emphasises addressing the roles of AI, cybersecurity, and second-life applications, broken down into two tracks: Technical Asset Management and Commercial Asset Management. This year, the conference is also co-located with Solar & Storage Finance Summit USA. Visit the official site for more details.
