By the end of this year, and for the first time in history, more people are going to store energy in personal residential batteries that are tied to the electrical grid. This represents a 57% increase in total residential battery system sales. Grid-tied home batteries offer users a more reliable source of power because they are independent of fluctuations in renewable energy generation, such as low solar output on cloudy days. Energy generated by turbines on a windy day, for example, could be stored in a battery for use when there is little to no wind.

Residents can choose to charge their batteries and store energy at times when rates are less expensive such as in the middle of the night. Power companies tend to support grid-tied batteries because users tend not rely so heavily on electricity during peak usage times; some power companies even offer to purchase excess stored energy at the same rate as they charge.

Residential battery energy storage is driven by an increased number of homeowners adding backup power for failures or outages as well as by utility companies which are looking to decrease the effects of greater amounts of solar energy entering the grid which may overload their infrastructure.