Classical dynamic programming on a disclosed 1 kWh battery-state grid; no quantum execution.
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LuniQ Energy Guide: Enter a Tariff, Check Constraints and Export a Schedule
This guide uses LuniQ Energy as a local learning and scenario tool. It does not connect to your utility account or battery hardware. Start with the included synthetic sample, and keep a separate copy of any hourly data you prepare.
Step 1: Understand the units
Capacity and initial charge are whole kWh. Maximum charging and discharging power are AC kW. Each row covers one hour, so an AC limit of 5 kW permits up to 5 kWh of charging or discharging energy during that slot. Demand is energy consumed in the hour, not an instantaneous power peak.
Enter a single consistent price unit, such as dollars per kWh, throughout the table. The output cost uses the same currency unit. A price entered in cents while another is in dollars can create a plausible-looking but meaningless result; the application cannot identify that semantic mistake for you.
Step 2: Set the battery assumptions
Choose capacity, initial charge and both AC power limits. The current limits allow capacities from 1 to 50 whole kWh and zero through 50 kW for each power control. Initial charge must be between zero and capacity. A zero-power case is a useful sanity check because it should leave the battery inactive.
One-way efficiency must be between 0.01 and 1. If you enter 0.9, charging and discharging each apply that factor; the resulting round-trip efficiency is 0.81. Do not paste a manufacturer's round-trip figure into this field without converting the modeling convention appropriately.
Step 3: Enter hourly price and demand rows
Each line has two comma-separated fields: price, demand. Keep the row order chronological. The tool accepts between one and 168 hourly slots. A short synthetic sequence with lower prices early and higher prices later is easier to inspect than a full week of data.
Do not add a header row to this input box. Use numerical values and the same units throughout. Negative prices are supported within the input bounds, but negative demand is not. There is no column for solar production, export revenue, a demand charge or a minimum grid-import obligation.
Step 4: Calculate the schedule
Press Calculate schedule. The method label identifies exact dynamic programming on a 1 kWh stored-energy grid. This is classical computation. The Quantum / QAOA disclosure remains planned / unavailable because no executable quantum circuit or measured quantum result is produced by this app.
Read the total cost alongside the no-battery reference and modeled savings. The reference serves the same demand entirely from the grid. The scheduled result must end with at least the initial charge, so it cannot manufacture a saving by consuming the initial stored energy without replacement.
Step 5: Audit the hourly table
For each row, check charge, discharge, state of charge, grid import and cost. Charge and discharge are AC-side energy values for the hour. The state-of-charge change includes the one-way efficiency convention; it is not always equal to the AC value.
Only one direction can be active in a slot. Discharge cannot exceed demand, so the result should not show negative grid import. A charging hour increases import above demand, while a discharge hour reduces it. Row cost is grid import multiplied by the entered price, including the sign of a negative price.
Step 6: Change one assumption and compare
Try a smaller power limit, a lower efficiency or a different demand shape. Change one thing at a time and record the previous result separately. The app clears stale output when an input changes, preventing a downloaded table from being mistaken for the new scenario.
If no movement appears, inspect the grid resolution and limits. A fractional physically possible change may not be represented by whole-kWh states. This is a disclosed modeling limit, not proof that a real battery has no useful operating policy.
Step 7: Export with the right expectations
Export CSV downloads the calculated schedule. Reopen it in a spreadsheet and verify units, row ordering and the total cost before sharing. The CSV is a report, not a battery-control program, a complete utility bill or an automatic backup of the original editing session.
The app omits degradation, demand charges, solar/export behavior, equipment purchase cost, safety controls and live forecasts. Use it for bounded comparisons and education, then validate any real engineering or financial decision with the relevant site data and equipment controls. Read the Energy overview for the reasoning behind the terminal-charge and efficiency choices.