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BESS Battery Manager

Battery Energy Storage System optimization and management for Home Assistant.

About

BESS Battery Manager is a comprehensive solution for optimizing battery energy storage systems. It uses dynamic programming algorithms to minimize electricity costs by intelligently scheduling battery charge/discharge cycles based on:

  • Electricity spot prices (Nordpool or Octopus Energy)
  • Solar production forecasts
  • Home consumption patterns
  • Battery capacity and efficiency

Features

  • Intelligent Optimization: Dynamic programming algorithm for cost-optimal battery scheduling
  • Price-Based Control: Automatic charge/discharge based on electricity price spreads
  • Solar Integration: Optimizes for solar self-consumption and grid export
  • Real-Time Monitoring: Live dashboard with energy flow visualization
  • Decision Intelligence: Detailed hourly strategy analysis and economic reasoning
  • Savings Analysis: Historical financial reports and performance tracking
  • Auto-Configuration: Setup wizard scans Home Assistant and detects Growatt, Nordpool, Solcast and other integrations automatically — no manual entity ID lookup required
  • System Health: Comprehensive diagnostics and sensor validation in the Settings page

Installation

For detailed installation instructions, see the Installation Guide.

Quick Start

  1. Add this repository to Home Assistant:

    • Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store → ⋮ → Repositories
    • Add: https://github.com/johanzander/bess-manager

  2. Install BESS Manager from the add-on store

  3. Configure your battery settings, sensors, and pricing parameters

  4. Start the add-on and access the web interface

Configuration

All settings are configured through the web interface — no manual YAML editing required for battery, pricing, home, or sensor settings.

The only setting that belongs in the add-on configuration (Options tab) is influxdb:

influxdb:
  url: "http://homeassistant.local:8086/api/v2/query"
  bucket: "homeassistant/autogen"
  username: "bess"
  password: "your_password_here"

First-Time Setup

On first launch, a Setup Wizard guides you through auto-discovering your Growatt, Nordpool, Solcast and other integrations. It fills in sensor entity IDs automatically. The wizard can be re-run at any time from Settings → Sensors → Auto-Configure.

Settings Page

All other configuration is done in the Settings page:

  • Home — Currency, consumption baseline, fuse, voltage, phase count, safety margin
  • Pricing — Energy provider (Nordpool/Octopus), price area, VAT, markup, additional costs
  • Battery — Capacity, power limits, SOC range, cycle cost, min action profit threshold
  • Sensors — All sensor entity IDs grouped by integration, with live health status per sensor
  • Health — Full component health check with refresh and debug export

Required Sensors

The add-on requires sensors for:

  • Battery: SOC, charge/discharge power, control switches
  • Solar: Production, consumption, grid import/export
  • Pricing: Electricity spot prices via Nordpool or Octopus Energy (today and tomorrow)
  • Consumption: 48-hour average forecast

See the Installation Guide for full setup instructions.

Usage

Web Interface

Access the BESS Manager dashboard via Settings → Add-ons → BESS Manager → Open Web UI.

Dashboard Pages

  1. Dashboard: Live monitoring and daily overview
  2. Savings: Financial analysis and historical reports
  3. Inverter: Battery schedule management and status
  4. Insights: Decision intelligence and strategy analysis
  5. Settings: All configuration — battery, pricing, sensors, and component health

How It Works

  1. Data Collection: Gathers real-time data from Home Assistant sensors
  2. Price Optimization: Analyzes electricity prices from Nordpool or Octopus Energy (today + tomorrow)
  3. Solar Forecast: Integrates solar production predictions
  4. Battery Optimization: Dynamic programming algorithm generates optimal 24-hour schedule
  5. Schedule Deployment: Converts optimization results to Growatt TOU intervals
  6. Continuous Monitoring: Hourly updates adapt to changing conditions

Troubleshooting

Check System Health

Go to Settings → Health in the web interface to verify all sensors and integrations are working correctly.

View Logs

Check add-on logs for detailed information:

Settings → Add-ons → BESS Manager → Log

Support

License

MIT License - see LICENSE