Daily guide · LT · 2026-08-28
What a home battery earned in Lithuania this week, hour by hour
All numbers computed from the week's published auction results at publication and frozen — this article is an honest snapshot, not a page that rewrites itself. Reproduce via the API.
A single charge-and-discharge cycle on a 10 kWh battery earned between 0,98 and 1,37 EUR a day this week, adding up to 8,14 EUR across the seven days. The average spread between the cheap and peak windows was 135,14 EUR/MWh, and the best day was 24 August, when a cheap window starting at midnight averaged 41,07 EUR/MWh against a peak of 197,87 EUR/MWh, worth 1,37 EUR.
The clearest pattern is timing. On six of the seven days the peak window began at 20:00, so evening discharge was the reliable move. The cheap window was less predictable, ranging from just after midnight to early afternoon; 23 August stood out with a cheap average of only 1,64 EUR/MWh, yet the day still returned 1,29 EUR because the peak sat at 145,48 EUR/MWh, below the week's highs.
For the reader, the takeaway is that low charging prices alone do not decide earnings; the spread does. Assuming 90 percent round-trip efficiency, this pattern scales to roughly 424 EUR a year, so anchor discharge to the 20:00 peak and stay flexible on when you charge.
A home battery makes money on one thing: the gap between the day's cheapest and priciest hours. Charge low, discharge across the evening peak instead of buying it, repeat daily. The size of that gap is set every afternoon at the day-ahead auction — so it's measurable, not hypothetical. Here is what one full daily cycle of a 10 kWh battery (at 90% round-trip efficiency — losses included, unlike most brochures) would have captured in LT this week.
€8.14
captured this week — one cycle per day, wholesale component, after losses
135.14
€/MWh average cheapest-2h → priciest-2h spread this week
≈€424
a year at this week's spreads — the honest run-rate, not the best-day fantasy
Day by day: the two windows that mattered
| Day | Charge (2h) | at €/MWh | Discharge (2h) | at €/MWh | Cycle value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-21 | 03:00–05:00 | 67.19 | 20:00–22:00 | 194.17 | €1.08 |
| 2026-08-22 | 22:00–24:00 | 26.78 | 00:00–02:00 | 158.18 | €1.16 |
| 2026-08-23 | 13:00–15:00 | 1.64 | 20:00–22:00 | 145.48 | €1.29 |
| 2026-08-24 | 00:00–02:00 | 41.07 | 20:00–22:00 | 197.87 | €1.37 |
| 2026-08-25 | 13:00–15:00 | 79.36 | 20:00–22:00 | 211.3 | €1.11 |
| 2026-08-26 | 14:00–16:00 | 86 | 20:00–22:00 | 204.87 | €0.98 |
| 2026-08-27 | 11:00–13:00 | 73.35 | 20:00–22:00 | 209.52 | €1.15 |
Local time, hourly auction means. Days where charging was negative-priced mean you were paid to fill the battery.
Do it automatically
The windows move every day — automation is the whole game. One API call returns a cost-optimal schedule your inverter or energy manager can follow, and there's a full battery simulator to backtest your exact capacity, power and cycle limits against realized prices before you trust it:
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"zone": "LT", "capacity_kwh": 10, "max_power_kw": 5,
"round_trip_efficiency": 0.9, "max_cycles_per_day": 1}' \
https://voltcast.com/api/v1/optimize/batteryHome Assistant users get the schedule as a sensor via the integration. And because the value depends entirely on tomorrow's spread, the P10–P90 forecast — scored publicly every day — tells you whether tomorrow is worth a deep cycle at all.
Method & citation. Prices are hourly means of published day-ahead auction results (native 15-minute periods averaged; ENTSO-E/SMARD, attributed). Wholesale-price component only — grid fees and taxes come on top and vary by supplier. Cite as "Voltcast Research, voltcast.com/guides/battery-arbitrage-lt-2026-08-28".
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