Sustainability Language

Energy & Transition

Behind-the-meter

Energy systems installed on the customer's side of the utility meter — rooftop solar, batteries, efficiency — that serve the site first rather than feeding the wider grid.

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Definition

Describing generation, storage or energy management located on the customer side of the utility meter, where output primarily serves the building's own load. The counterpart is "front-of-the-meter": utility-side assets (power plants, grid-scale storage and solar farms) that supply the grid and earn revenue through wholesale markets and contracts.

References

Power Sonic

BTM definition (customer side; solar, batteries, efficiency) vs FTM (utility side); respective roles.

AVE Battery

Comparison table (purpose, scale, ownership, revenue logic); EIA 1 MW utility-scale threshold; VPP participation.

Overview

What it means

The meter position determines purpose and economics. Behind-the-meter systems — rooftop PV, commercial battery storage, backup power — create value through bill savings (self-consumption, peak-demand management), resilience during outages and, increasingly, participation in grid services via virtual power plants. Front-of-the-meter systems earn through power sales, PPAs and ancillary services.

In US statistics, small-scale (largely BTM) solar is reported separately from utility-scale generation.

How it is used

Regulators and utilities distinguish the two for tariffs, interconnection rules and net-metering policy; corporate energy strategies use BTM assets to cut scope 2 emissions and demand charges. Aggregation of BTM resources into virtual power plants is blurring the line.

Why it matters

BTM resources turn consumers into producers ("prosumers"), reshaping grid economics and utility business models. How regulators price and integrate them strongly affects the speed and distributional fairness of the energy transition.

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