We get a lot of questions about how Base charges and discharges our batteries—and for good reason. It’s key to understanding how Base works and what sets us apart from other energy providers.

Base’s batteries operate in charge-discharge cycles optimized for grid-balancing. They send energy back to the grid when it’s needed most and charge when there’s an abundance. The compensation Base receives for efficiently stabilizing the grid is what keeps your energy rates low and gives you backup power at an affordable price. (Want a deeper dive? Check out our blog How grid-balancing works)

In this post, we’ll help you understand your battery’s state of charge, explain how it connects to energy rates and outage protection, and clear up a few common misconceptions.

How does Base charge and discharge batteries?

When the grid is up and running, our grid-balancing software automatically detects spikes in demand through price surges. During these periods of high energy demand, the batteries pass some energy back to the grid, stabilizing it. When there’s plenty of energy to support the grid, the batteries recharge.

Our batteries are engineered for rapid charge and discharge. This design enables them to respond instantly to brief demand fluctuations and balance the grid faster than any other energy source.  

How grid-balancing works in an outage

During an outage, the batteries automatically detect the loss of grid voltage and immediately disconnect your house from the grid. At that point, the battery supplies energy exclusively to your home—you are legally entitled to this energy, and our batteries will never discharge to the grid during an outage.  

Once the outage is over, your battery seamlessly reconnects your house to the grid and resumes normal operation.

For more on how your Base battery works during an outage, read How the Base battery works: A complete guide to grid connectivity and outage protection.

Why does Base discharge its batteries? 

Base discharges its batteries for three reasons: to sustain our business, to save you money, and to support the grid.

1. Sustain our business. Unlike traditional power companies, Base earns revenue from grid operators in exchange for helping balance the grid. When our batteries pass some energy back in moments of peak demand, we help balance supply and demand, keeping energy more reliable and affordable for everyone. This method is what distinguishes Base's business from other home energy solutions.
   
   
2. Save you money. Because we get compensated for stabilizing the grid, we can keep your rates lower than the market average. We’re also able to include backup power as part of our energy service—your only cost is a one-time installation fee. In other words, the earnings we get from grid-balancing allow us to:

• Keep rates low: We contractually guarantee rates stay below the market average. 
• ‍Include backup power in our energy service: You don't pay for the expensive battery hardware because we can recoup the cost of our equipment through grid-balancing. You pay only the one-time installation fee, which covers our electricians’ work to install the battery in your home. You also get free maintenance of the battery for its entire lifespan (10-15 years).

3. Support the grid. You can think of grid-balancing as sharing energy with your neighbors during brief moments of high energy demand. When Base discharges energy during these short peaks,  it helps prevent blackouts and keeps the grid running smoothly for everyone.

Grid balancing might seem tricky to understand, but Base’s mission is simple: install as many batteries as possible to strengthen the grid and lower costs for Base members (both for backup and for monthly energy). More batteries mean a more reliable grid and more affordable energy for our members. 

To learn more about how batteries support the grid, read How batteries support the grid.

By the numbers

At Base, we manage our distributed battery network with a focus on two key priorities: grid support and ensuring backup power for our members. Seeing how this looks in numbers is a helpful way to understand how state of charge relates to outage protection. 

Backup power priority: average state of charge = 93%

We prioritize keeping batteries fully charged so they're ready to provide backup power during outages. In fact, over 90% of the time, your battery stays above 80% charge. Our data shows that batteries never drop below 20%, and it's extremely rare that they ever even fall below 60%. Our batteries have never been below 70% charge at the time of an outage. 

To learn more about how battery state of charge impacts backup duration, read How the Base battery works: A complete guide to grid connectivity and outage protection. 

Rapid recharge: your battery’s fully charged > 90% of the time 

After supporting the grid by discharging energy, Base quickly recharges batteries to keep them ready for our members. This fast recharge can incur high costs for Base, especially during high-demand periods, but we prioritize keeping batteries above 90% most of the time for our members.

The graphs below show how often Base batteries stay fully charged (97%) versus when they briefly drop below optimal levels. Most days (90%) are typical, with batteries maintaining high charge. On the rare “interesting” days, charge levels may dip for 1–2 hours during peak demand before Base rapidly recharges them—our batteries are built to recharge as quickly as possible!

Transparency is important to us. In the Base app, members can check their battery’s charge level anytime, as well as available backup power during outages. This backup estimate is based on current charge and your average energy usage over the last 15 minutes, so you always know how much power you have when you need it most.

Outage prediction: batteries protect against 97% of outages

We prioritize keeping batteries charged so they’re ready to provide backup power during outages. Our outage prediction technology helps optimize this process.

It’s exceedingly rare for your battery to be less than 90% charged when an outage occurs. In those rare cases, it’s still capable of backing up over 97% of outages. Additionally, Base aims to reserve at least 20% for members, ensuring you always have backup power when needed. It’s worth noting that our batteries have never fallen below 70% during an outage—so you’re well-protected even in the most unlikely scenarios.

Common misconceptions

A common misconception is that spikes in energy demand mean a higher risk of outages. Since Base discharges during periods of high demand, some members assume we do this when the risk of outages is elevated. However, increased demand rarely causes power outages.

99% of outages are caused by random, local events—known as distribution outages—which often occur due to trees falling on power lines or damage from animals like squirrels. Local poles and wires are far more prone to failure because there are thousands of times more distribution lines than transmission lines. More lines means more possibility for things to go wrong.

One of the biggest benefits of Base’s battery system, however, is that it protects you from these frequent, inconvenient distribution outages. The average outage in Texas is only 2.5 hours. 

On the other hand, transmission-level outages, which happen when there isn’t enough energy supply to meet demand, are extremely rare. Over the past century, large-scale failures from insufficient bulk supply have been exceedingly rare. For example, in the early 2000s, rolling brownouts in New York and California were caused by unique circumstances like unexpected plant failures combined with regulatory changes. These events occur at the transmission level (ERCOT), where grid-wide disruptions may require shutting off large portions of power.

For a deeper dive, check out A guide to power outages: causes and misconceptions (2025).

Winter storms and outage risk

Winter storms increase outage risks due to icy trees falling on power lines while also driving up energy demand for heating and indoor appliances. Thus, it’s important to note that demand itself doesn’t directly cause outages during winter storms—it’s the conditions behind the demand. In these scenarios, the same weather factors that increase energy usage also elevate the risk of outages.

During winter storms, Base focuses on keeping batteries optimally charged for members and closely monitors affected areas to ensure reliable support.

Battery's state of charge during an outage

For transparency, your battery’s state of charge is always visible in your Base app. Sometimes, members get anxious if they notice the battery charge is low. 

Here’s why you can feel confident:

• Base prioritizes keeping batteries as full as possible during periods of increased outage risk.
• Our advanced outage prediction technology ensures we’re closely monitoring affected areas and our batteries are prepared.

For a deeper dive into how your Base battery works, check out our blog How the Base battery works: A complete guide to grid connectivity and outage protection.