Read the Energy flows simulation

The Energy flows tab of the Simulation view shows where the energy on a project moves: what the PV array produces, how much of that the household consumes directly, how much charges the battery, and how much flows to or from the grid. Energy flows and Profitability read from the same simulation, so the two views always agree: Energy flows shows the distribution of energy, and Profitability prices it.

This guide covers the decisions you make on the planning side that the Energy flows view then reflects: planning solar without a battery, adding a battery, recording an existing array, entering the customer's electricity tariff, and how the system splits production across household, storage, and grid.

Who this is for

• Account managers building offers and reading the simulation with the customer.
• Installer admins configuring the underlying packages and workspace defaults that pre-fill the planning surface. Editor-or-higher role plus offer-planning access.

Before you start

• The offer has a variant with at least one priced solar component, or you're about to create one. With no PV on the variant there's no production to distribute.
• You know whether the project is PV only, PV plus battery, or includes an existing array the customer already owns.
• For an existing system, you know the approximate kWp of the existing array and, if applicable, the existing storage capacity in kWh.
• You have the customer's electricity tariff to hand (per-kWh price, optional base fee, optional flexible / dynamic-tariff rate). The tariff drives the grid side of the flows.

Plan a PV system without a battery

A battery is optional on every Reonic offer. The Create new offer modal lets you pre-select any combination of Solar, Battery, Wallbox, Heat pump, Additional, and Optional packages, and you can leave any of them empty. You can also add or remove packages later from inside the offer.

1. Create the offer following Create an offer.
2. In the modal's Packages section, pick a Solar package.
3. Leave the Battery / energy storage package slot empty.
4. Save the offer.
5. Configure modules, inverter, and strings under Planning as usual.
6. Open Simulation > Energy flows. The view shows production, direct household consumption, and grid export only. There's no battery row, because no battery is configured.

Pro tip: For a quick solar-only price where storage comes later, use the quick-quote path for a component-list quote. Yield and Energy flows have nothing to compute against in that mode, so toggle those PDF pages off in the offer's PDF settings. Planning mode is per-variant, so you can keep one full 3D-planned variant and one quick-quote on the same offer.

Add a battery to an existing variant

Adding a battery to an offer that started solar-only is a regular planning operation. The simulation picks the battery up and re-splits the flows.

1. Open the offer in the Portal and select the variant you want to modify.
2. Go to Planning > Battery. If the variant has no battery yet, the empty state shows an Add battery action.
3. Pick a battery package from your package library. Each package bundles one or more battery components with default capacity, pricing, and connection type.
4. The displayed capacity (kWh) comes from the chosen component. To change it, pick a different battery component from the catalog.
5. Save. The variant's component list now includes the battery and the price recomputes immediately. If you set a custom total on the variant, the customer-visible total stays put when you add the battery.
6. Open Simulation > Energy flows and re-read the view. A storage row now appears, the direct-consumption share usually rises (the battery soaks up midday surplus), and the grid-feed share falls.

Note: Payment mode (Purchase, Lease, Financing) is set at the variant level, not on the individual battery line. To compare Solar against Solar + Battery side by side for the customer, duplicate the variant first and add the battery to the duplicate. The customer then picks one on the offer page.

Note: You pick the battery capacity, and the simulation computes the resulting self-consumption against that pick. To help a customer who's unsure, try two or three capacities side by side as variants.

A battery can be added on any offer. Adding a heat pump is available in most regions; in the UK, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden you can add a battery but not a heat pump.

Record an existing PV array or storage

When the customer already has a PV array (or a storage unit) on the roof and you're planning an extension or a battery-only retrofit, record the existing system using the Existing Energy / Existing Solar planning fields on the variant. You record an existing array on a normal variant, then plan the additions on top.

1. Create or open the offer and open a normal variant.
2. In Planning, mark that the customer already has solar (the Existing Energy section, or the Solar card's existing-system controls).
3. Enter the existing array's size (kWp), orientation, and tilt angle.
4. Plan the new layout on top.
5. To compare keep as-is against replace inverter / re-string, create two variants: one with only the existing system recorded, one with the additions. Read the simulation side by side on the offer page.
6. For a different feed-in tariff on the existing portion of the array (typical for post-EEG systems), use the per-offer feed-in override. The custom Feed-in tariff field lives under Planning > Solar > Solar parameters. The Override the feed-in tariff guide covers the per-offer override.

Note: This is the path for entering an existing array. For a retrofit-storage project, record the existing PV through the Existing Solar fields and model the battery as a new component on the variant.

Enter the customer's electricity tariff

The grid side of the flows (how much the household imports, and what that import costs) is driven by the project's electricity tariff. Override the workspace default for this one project when the customer's documented price differs. Enter the tariff in the Portal.

1. Open the residential project and go to the Planning view. It works in the standard and streamlined planning layouts.
2. Find the Energy Demand card and click into it to open the Energy Demand editor.
3. Set the Energy price (€/kWh). Your workspace default pre-fills (typically 0.30 €/kWh + 5%/year if not customised). Enter the customer's actual price.
4. Set the Energy-price increase (%/year) annual escalation. The default is 5%.
5. Optionally set a Base price per month and its annual escalation.
6. For a customer on a dynamic / hourly tariff (Tibber, Octopus), toggle Use flexible tariff and enter the Flexible-tariff energy price (€/kWh). This is in addition to the standard price, and the simulation applies whichever rate fits each scenario.
7. Click Save. The simulation re-runs live against the new values and the Energy flows and economics update. There's no separate "recalculate" step.

Pro tip: When a customer asks about the Eigenverbrauchsquote (self-consumption ratio) on the Energy flows view, point at the two levers that move it most: battery capacity (more capacity means more midday surplus stored, so higher self-consumption) and the consumption profile (a household that uses more energy during daylight hits a higher ratio than one that mostly consumes in the evening).

Note: For Italian projects, the single price field is supplemented by F1/F2/F3 consumption-tier bands (split by annual consumption, not time of day). Use the F1/F2/F3 picker in the Energy Demand editor. Elsewhere, Day / Night (HT / NT) customers fold both rates into one weighted average.

Pro tip: If the customer uploaded an electricity bill, the per-kWh price can be read from the bill and pre-filled into the Energy Demand field. Check the suggested value against the bill and override it if it's wrong.

A per-project override changes this project only. It doesn't move your workspace-wide default.

Net metering

In Latin-American countries, the Energy Demand editor shows a net-metering feed-in remuneration picker. Net metering credits the customer's grid feed-in against their consumption rather than paying a flat feed-in tariff, so the economics calculation models it differently.

1. In the Energy Demand editor, find the feed-in / remuneration picker.
2. Select net metering when the customer's grid contract credits feed-in against consumption.
3. Save. The simulation re-runs with the net-metering remuneration model.

For Brazilian projects, net metering follows Brazil's SCEE rules (Sistema de Compensação de Energia Elétrica), and the simulation handles them once a Brazilian project picks net metering:

• Surplus generation banks as monthly energy credits rather than being paid out at a flat feed-in tariff. The simulation tracks credit accrual and drawdown month to month.
• The Fio B wire-usage charge applies to injected energy. Fio B is the distribution-grid usage fee on the energy you feed back in. It's a non-creditable cost, shown as the injection tariff, separate from the credit-banking benefit.
• Brazil-specific daily load shapes (mixed / home / away / commercial) are available. Pick the one that matches the household's consumption pattern so the credit-banking simulation uses a realistic profile.

There's no separate Fio B input to enter: picking net metering on a Brazilian project is enough.

How the energy distribution is computed

The numbers you see for grid, household, and storage are not simple percentages of the annual totals. The simulation runs the system across the year and adds up how the energy actually moves, so the split reflects real day-to-day behaviour.

• The simulation steps through the year in short intervals, tracking the household load, the PV production, and the battery charge level at each step.
• At each step it uses production in this order: cover household load first, charge the battery with the remainder, then export anything still left to the grid. When PV doesn't cover the load, the battery discharges first, and any remaining shortfall is imported from the grid.
• The annual household / storage / grid values are the totals of those step-by-step results across the year.

The inputs that drive these flows all come from your project setup, not from manual entry on the Energy flows view:

• System — PV size, modules, strings, inverter, plus battery capacity if present.
• Consumption — annual kWh and the load profile (standard, dynamic / hourly, or Italian F1/F2/F3 bands).
• Tariffs — grid electricity price, feed-in tariff, escalation rate.

Things to know

• Battery is optional everywhere. The Create new offer modal, the variant configuration, and every simulation page render correctly with or without a battery on the variant.
• Tariff overrides are per-project. Setting the energy price on one project doesn't change your workspace-wide default. The simulation uses the saved value live.
• An uploaded electricity bill can pre-fill the tariff. If the customer uploaded an electricity bill, the per-kWh price can be read from it and pre-filled into the Energy Demand field. Override the suggested value if it's wrong.
• Existing arrays are recorded through the Existing Solar planning fields. Record the existing array on a normal variant, then plan the additions on top.
• The Annual Energy Costs PDF page renders 20-year averages, not year-1 numbers. Energy flows shows the per-year distribution; the PDF table shows the average. Both are views of the same simulation output.
• Component selection freezes at signature. Battery model, capacity, and payment mode are fixed when the offer is signed. To change them afterwards, create a new variant.

Related

• Create an offer — the offer-creation entry point, including the package picker.
• Create an offer without yield calculation or 3D — the quick-quote path for a quote without yield / 3D.
• Profitability — the lifetime-economics view backed by the same simulation.
• Variants — duplicate a variant to compare Solar against Solar + Battery side by side.
• Enter electricity costs for a project — the tariff inputs behind the grid side of the flows.

Need help?

If the Energy flows view shows numbers you can't reconcile with the planning, contact Reonic support with your user email, the offer / variant ID from the URL, and a screenshot of the view.

Last updated on August 4, 2026