Inside Cohort 17: what battery pros built this term
From a BESS revenue-stacking model in Texas to a sodium-ion qualification plan, here is what our latest cohort actually built.
Every BatteryMBA cohort ends with case-study presentations where small teams take on a real industry decision and defend their reasoning to faculty. Cohort 17 wrapped in early June. Here is a short tour of what they worked on — and what we learned about where the battery industry's questions are heading in 2026.
BESS revenue stacking on the ERCOT grid
One team modelled a 100 MW / 200 MWh BESS in West Texas. They built a merchant revenue stack across energy arbitrage, ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS), and Regulation Up/Down, then stress-tested it against a flatter 2027 price curve as more storage comes online.
Their headline conclusion: ECRS revenue alone has compressed faster than most 2024 underwriting assumed, and projects underwritten without a clear secondary-revenue thesis are at real risk of refinancing problems. The team walked through the merchant assumptions they would actually defend to a credit committee today.
Sodium-ion qualification for a European fleet operator
A second team took the operator's perspective: when does it actually make sense to qualify a Na-ion pack for a depot-charged commercial fleet? They mapped the qualification programme — abuse tests, cycle-life acceptance, supplier scorecards — against the cost-per-kWh delta versus LFP at different cycle counts.
Their honest answer was 'not yet, but start the qualification work now'. The interesting part was how they sequenced it: pre-qualifying two cell suppliers in parallel so the operator is not single-sourced when Na-ion does cross the cost-parity line.
Western pCAM: build, partner, or buy?
A third team looked at an OEM evaluating localised NMC precursor (pCAM) supply in the US under IRA constraints. They compared three routes — equity in a JV with a Korean partner, a long-term offtake from a new US entrant, and internal build — and ran the IRR sensitivity to a 2027 nickel price shock.
The team's recommendation surprised the room: a strategically minority equity stake plus offtake, sized small enough that the OEM is not pretending to be a chemicals company. The faculty pushed hard on whether 'small enough' was governance-credible. The defence was sharper than most boardroom decks we have seen.
What this tells us about the 2026 battery industry
Three patterns ran through the term. First, project-finance thinking is now standard vocabulary for battery teams, not a specialist skill. Second, supplier sovereignty under IRA and CRMA is shaping engineering decisions, not just procurement. Third, the most valuable case studies were the ones where the team said 'no' to the obvious answer and defended why.
If you want to be in the room for Cohort 18 (14 September – 5 December 2026), enrolment is open now.
Want to be in the next cohort?
Cohort 18 runs 14 September – 5 December 2026. Enrolment is open.
