Base's Unit Economics Require Deregulation

This is what makes ERCOT more than a launch market, it is the place where Base can capture all three profit pools from the same battery. In Texas, one install gives Base a monthly lease payment, a retail power customer, and a dispatchable grid asset. In most U.S. markets, the local utility keeps the customer relationship or blocks direct wholesale participation, so Base loses the revenue stacking that drives its roughly 3.5 year payback.

• ERCOT is unusually open. Texas retail competition lets customers choose a Retail Electric Provider, and ERCOT supports wholesale market participation by load serving entities and other market participants. That is the structural opening that lets Base act as both seller of household power and operator of a battery fleet.
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• PJM style markets are not closed, but they are harder. FERC Order 2222 opened a path for distributed battery aggregation, yet PJM implementation for energy and ancillary services is slated for February 1, 2028. That means Illinois can preserve retail choice, but not ERCOT like simplicity or speed for wholesale monetization.
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• In regulated territories, the model shifts from consumer retail to utility contractor. Base describes the El Paso Electric program as about 10 MW and roughly 400 batteries for summer 2026, with the utility controlling dispatch and customer relationship. That leaves Base getting paid mainly through utility capacity economics, which is a thinner and less proven stack.
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The next phase is straightforward. Base can keep compounding inside ERCOT, then test whether Illinois and other retail choice markets can recover enough of the missing wholesale upside. If that works, the company becomes a multi market battery retailer. If not, the regulated market play becomes a lower margin utility infrastructure business.