Base Power sells Illinois a $95 battery and keeps an $11,760 rebate
Base Power's Illinois contracts put every rebate and grid revenue stream in the company's hands, not the homeowner's, in exchange for a supply discount and a 12-year lock-in. Investors priced that machine at $13 billion in August.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
A $95 battery moves into ComEd country
For $95, a homeowner in Plainfield or Joliet gets a 39.2 kWh battery bolted to the house, backup that Base's own marketing compares with a $13,000 whole-home generator 13. Base Retail launched in ComEd territory on 24 June 2026 under supplier license 26-0121, at $95 for the first 2,000 installs and $295 after 12. ComEd's price to compare reset to 10.103 cents per kWh on 1 October, repricing the offer live in the rollout's first week 14.
The rebate is the business model
Base's own line is "Base earns from the grid, not you," and the Battery Services Agreement, read line by line in a published review, says how: Base is entitled to "any and all tax credits, rebates, incentives," and it names ComEd's Distributed Generation Rebate, $300 per kWh for residential storage 13. On 39.2 kWh that is about $11,760 per household, the reviewer's arithmetic at the full residential rate, not a figure Base publishes 1. The household hosts the machine; Base keeps the paperwork and the cash flows.
The rebate Base keeps per battery is about 124 times the $95 install fee
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Install fee, founding 2,000 | $95 |
| Install fee, standard | $295 |
| Early termination fee | $500 |
| ComEd storage rebate Base keeps (estimate) | $11,760 |
Twelve years, one exit bill
The supply agreement runs 24 months and can be dropped without a fee; the battery agreement runs 12 years and requires Base supply throughout 15. Leaving costs $500 if Base reclaims the hardware, or fair market value, "which may be upwards of $10,000 per battery," if it cannot 1. The same contract bars joining any municipal aggregation program and seats disputes in binding arbitration in Austin 1.
Solar owners take the worst seat. Base's Net Metering Addendum credits exported power at 3.48 cents per kWh, against the 8.413-cent supply credit ComEd pays on default service, and Base itself says switching "may cost you more than using ComEd as your supplier" 145.
Base pays 3.48¢ for exported solar, less than half every other rate on the page
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| ComEd price to compare | 10.1¢ |
| Base on-peak, standard tier | 8.6¢ |
| ComEd credit, exported solar | 8.41¢ |
| Base off-peak, standard tier | 8.3¢ |
| Base on-peak, founding tier | 7.58¢ |
| Base off-peak, founding tier | 7.38¢ |
| Base credit, exported solar | 3.48¢ |
The discount is real, and it is not the whole bill
Two discounts are in circulation, and the marketing shows one. The founding tier takes 25% off the price to compare on-peak and 27% off it off-peak, about 7.58 and 7.38 cents from 1 October under the contract formula 12. The 8.6 and 8.3 cents on Base's published Illinois table are the standard tier, 15% and 18% below the new peg, for every household after the first 2,000 installs 23.
Either way the guarantee covers supply only; delivery charges, the lines climbing with every grid plan, do not move 13. The Citizens Utility Board, with no stake in the deal, notes both plans guarantee savings against the price to compare, unlike most alternative supply plans, and that Illinois' CRGA law pays batteries for grid services as a cheaper alternative to new plants 5. Its caution sits in the same Q&A: "Both offers tie you to a supply plan and a physical battery for more than a decade" 5.
What $13 billion is buying
Base raised $1 billion in August at a $13 billion valuation, with more than $2.5 billion raised all time; Ribbit, Addition and JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group are in, and Michael Dell, Zach Dell's father, is not 67. The round helped push Austin startups to a record $5.6 billion quarter 7, and Base counts 30,000-plus homes, up from more than 23,000 batteries in early August 36.
The number nobody has published is the one the valuation rests on: what a 12-year, rebate-funded book of locked-in households is worth. The $95 install may be the cheapest customer acquisition in electricity; the exit clause is the moat.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
