How to Pay for Electricity Capacity at a Guesthouse Only When You Actually Use It

We’re Hybrid Energy — we sell diesel generators, hybrid inverters with battery
storage, and solar power components. We sell all three, so we have no reason to
defend any one of them. A countryside guesthouse, a bed-and-breakfast, or a
sauna house is usually pitched a single “right” answer straight away — this
article doesn’t do that. It shows what each option actually costs a
seasonally-run property, and which one the situation itself rules out before
you’ve even formed an opinion.

The short version

• ESO charges €3.00/kW per month excluding VAT for your
  agreed capacity — all twelve months, even if the guesthouse is full of guests
  only on summer weekends and around the holidays, and stands empty the rest of
  the time.
• From October to March, the peak-load window is 6–8 p.m. —
  exactly when guests arrive, the sauna stove goes on, and the water heaters and
  kitchen fire up. That overlap is the guesthouse’s specific problem — an office
  or a warehouse doesn’t have it.
• Exceed your agreed capacity and the same capacity charge becomes
  three times higher — €9.00/kW per month instead of €3.00. One
  overloaded Saturday evening can raise the whole year’s bill.
• The night tariff is cheaper, but it helps a guesthouse less than most other
  businesses: guests use electricity in the evening, not overnight between 11
  p.m. and 7 a.m., so there’s simply nowhere to shift most of the consumption
  to.
• A generator and a battery solve different problems at a guesthouse — one
  handles an outage, the other handles the daily peak. Which combination makes
  sense depends on whether the property sits at the end of an isolated line or
  shares a line with other customers.

What you’re choosing between

A guesthouse, B&B, or sauna house gets offered the same three solutions as
any other business, but their value here is different: the property runs
irregularly, and a guest left without power isn’t just a lost booking — it’s a
refund and a bad review.

A diesel generator with an ATS. A three-phase unit with an
automatic transfer switch (ATS in our catalogue) that starts the generator
itself the moment grid voltage drops. Our range runs from 6 kW (Marsun
MVD6000, ATS kit €1,949) up to 90 kW (Marsun MHD100, €16,499; an ATS unit for
larger machines is matched to the property). For a guesthouse, what matters
most isn’t covering the property’s total consumption but covering the heavy
loads that switch on at the same time — a well-water pump and a sauna
electric heater, whose starting current is several times their rated power.

A solar plant with a hybrid inverter and battery storage.
A hybrid inverter lets you connect a battery that stores electricity during
the day and gives it back in the evening. ESO describes it this way:

„Dalis gaminamos elektros energijos pertekliaus gali būti kaupiama elektros
energijos kaupiklyje (EEK) ir sunaudojama vakare.“ (in English: Part of the
surplus generated electricity can be stored in a battery storage unit and
used in the evening.)

ESO — Elektros energijos kaupikliai

This fits a guesthouse precisely because guest load bunches up in the
evening — the same window ESO is talking about. In our catalogue this comes as
ready-made kits: from a 5 kW inverter with one 5.12 kWh battery module
(€1,799) up to a 15 kW inverter with four modules (Deye kit, €5,849).

A combination. A hybrid inverter with battery storage for
the daily evening peak, and a generator for the rare but long outage. Some
hybrid inverters have a generator input and can start the generator
themselves.

The axis the guesthouse’s choice turns on: a generator
solves a rare outage; a battery solves the daily evening peak
that repeats every weekend at a guesthouse. Unlike a warehouse or a
workshop, “daily” here really means “every time guests arrive” — and that
happens more often on weekends and holidays than on weekdays.

Comparison at a glance

When the generator is the right answer

A generator wins where a power cut immediately stops the well pump: without
water the guesthouse or sauna can’t take guests at all, no matter how much
energy is stored in the battery for lighting. The second obvious case is a
wedding or a large event: a cancelled celebration means refunding the whole
amount, not offering a discount next time.

A less obvious case is a remote property fed by a single line, where the
repair crew doesn’t arrive first. In that case a sauna can’t predict outage
length any better than any other property at the same end of the line — but
the mechanism doesn’t change: the more line sections and equipment between the
property and the substation, the more places something can fail, and the
longer it takes to find where.

The mechanism is simple: a generator is the only option whose runtime
depends not on sunshine or battery capacity but purely on the fuel tank. That’s
why it’s the only one that covers a wedding evening or a full sauna weekend
when the outage runs longer than a battery can hold out.

What that costs. For most of the year, while the
guesthouse is empty, the generator sits idle and earns nothing. A 9.5 kW
Marsun MVD10000 with ATS costs €2,399, and on top of that price you need fuel
reserves and regular test runs — without them a generator no one’s touched
since last season may not start on the day of a wedding. And it’s audible: for
a guest who came for peace and quiet, a running diesel engine is the opposite
of what they paid for.

When the right answer is solar with battery storage

A battery wins where electricity use repeats at the same time each evening
every weekend, and supply interruptions are rare. That’s most guesthouses,
B&Bs, and sauna houses that run continuously, where guests arrive Friday
afternoon and leave Sunday, rather than dropping in once a season.

The mechanism is ESO’s peak-load windows. In October, November, December,
January, February, and March that is:

„spalį, lapkritį, gruodį, sausį, vasarį ir kovą — nuo 8 val. iki 11 val. ir
nuo 18 val. iki 20 val.“ (in English: in October, November, December, January,
February, and March — from 8 to 11 a.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m.)

ESO — Elektros energijos persiuntimo paslaugų kainos verslui

6–8 p.m. is exactly when guests check in, the sauna stove switches on, and
the water heaters and kitchen fire up. If this combined peak gets close to or
exceeds your agreed capacity, the battery releases the energy it stored during
the day during precisely these two hours and takes the load off the grid. On
exceeding the limit itself, ESO states:

„Atkreipiame dėmesį, kad viršijus objekto leistiną naudoti galią, vartotojas
privalo sumokėti trigubą vartotojo objektui taikomo tarifo plano galios
dedamosios kainą.“ (in English: Please note that if a property exceeds its
agreed capacity, the customer must pay triple the capacity charge under
their tariff plan.)

ESO — Elektros energijos persiuntimo paslaugų kainos verslui

On top of the base rate of €3.00/kW, that means €9.00/kW per month. For a
guesthouse that already pays for capacity all twelve months despite running
seasonally, every kilowatt exceeded on a peak weekend hits hard across the
remaining eleven empty months too.

What that costs. The night tariff helps a guesthouse less
than another business: the third-group minimum-load rate applies from 11
p.m. to 7 a.m., and by then guests are already asleep. There’s simply nothing
to shift into the night, because there’s barely any consumption there anyway.
And in winter, when the sauna season is busiest, Lithuania gets the least sun
— the battery charges poorly and may hold less energy than you’d like during
peak hours.

What the property itself decides for you

Some choices disappear before you’ve even had a chance to form an
opinion.

Your agreed capacity sets a hard ceiling. If the property
is allowed, say, 20 kW, no system lets you draw 30 kW from the grid at once —
the sauna stove, kitchen, and water heaters simply won’t all fit at the same
time. Anything over the limit has to be covered by a battery or a generator —
or you raise the agreed capacity and start paying more every month.

The nature of the load rules out a battery or a generator.
A short but powerful surge (starting a well pump or sauna stove) is a job for
a battery or a generator — depending on how often it recurs. A long-lasting
load (water supply running all night with guests on site) requires whichever
system you choose to hold that load for hours, not minutes.

Your reliability category adds a fee that’s rarely talked
about. For second- and third-group properties, ESO applies a
reliability-category charge: €1.00/kW/month for the first category and
€0.50/kW/month for the second. That’s another line on the monthly bill, paid
regardless of whether the property took in a single guest that month.

Building status can rule out solar before the price question even
comes up. If the guesthouse building is a heritage-listed property or
stands in a protected area, changing the roof covering or mounting panels on
it is often not allowed without a separate approval — that’s an
administrative “no,” not a technical or price one, and it needs checking
before you plan any solar system.

Position on the line determines how much the guesthouse needs a
generator. The further the property is from the substation and the
more other customers sit between it and the substation, the more points where
the line can fail, and the less control the guesthouse has over when power
returns. Neither a battery nor solar changes this mechanism: both only extend
the time the property runs off-grid, without guaranteeing that’s enough to
outlast the outage.

What changes in day-to-day operation

A generator demands a routine — test runs, fuel management, oil changes. At
a guesthouse it’s easy to forget this routine between seasons: a unit no one’s
touched since last summer can turn into a decoration on the day of a wedding.
On top of that, the test run needs scheduling so it doesn’t overlap with guest
arrivals — otherwise you’ll end up testing the generator exactly when it
should stay quiet.

A battery and inverter don’t need daily maintenance, but they do need an
upfront decision: which panel circuits — the well pump, sauna stove, room
lighting — stay powered when the grid is down. That’s decided at installation,
and redoing it later costs more than getting it right the first time.

What doesn’t change: neither option changes the
guesthouse’s supplier, contract, or meter. Once a battery is connected, the
property remains the same ESO customer with the same agreed capacity — only
how much of it you actually draw during peak hours changes.

Do you really have to pick just one?

Usually not — three combinations come up repeatedly at guesthouses.

Battery first, generator later. Suits properties connected
to a well-maintained line with rare outages and a steady flow of guests. You
first solve the daily evening peak, then add a generator once large events
come up that can’t be cancelled.

Generator first, solar later. Suits remote properties with
their own well, where one day without water means closed doors. A generator
with ATS is bought first, and solar with battery storage is added when the
budget allows — a hybrid inverter allows this without redoing anything.

Both from the start. Makes sense when the guesthouse is
still being built or the sauna with rooms is still at the design stage: the
panel is being wired from scratch anyway, and running separate backup
circuits costs nothing extra.

Frequently asked questions

Will a generator lower the guesthouse’s electricity bill?

No. A generator only runs when the grid is down, so it doesn’t reduce
either the kilowatt-hours consumed or the monthly capacity charge (€3.00/kW
excluding VAT). A battery lowers the bill by shaving the evening peak; a
generator is insurance against downtime, not a way to save money.

What generator capacity does a guesthouse or sauna house need?

It’s determined not by the property’s total power draw but by the starting
current of the largest single load that switches on — usually a well pump or
a sauna electric heater. Send us a list of these units with their power
ratings and we’ll calculate the generator capacity you need.

What happens if we exceed our agreed capacity on a guest check-in evening?

ESO states that exceeding the agreed capacity means paying triple the
tariff plan’s capacity charge — €9.00/kW per month instead of €3.00. And
since the peak-load window from October to March is 6–8 p.m., it overlaps
exactly with guest arrival time.

Will a battery cover a whole evening when the guesthouse is full of guests?

It depends on the capacity you choose, not on a general rule — battery size
is matched to your real evening load, not to an average guesthouse. Send us a
list of what runs at the same time in the evening and its power, and we’ll
tell you which kit capacity is enough.

Can you install a solar plant on a guesthouse if the building is old?

It depends on the roof’s condition and the building’s status, not its age.
If the building is listed as heritage or stands in a protected area, mounting
panels needs separate approval before you even plan the system — we check
this together with you before making an offer.

What we suggest you do

Send us four things: the property’s agreed capacity (stated in your ESO
contract), a list of equipment that runs at the same time when the guesthouse
is full of guests, whether the property uses its own well water, and an
answer to one question — what one day without power costs you once the season
is in full swing. That’s enough for us to tell you whether you need a
generator, a battery with solar, or a combination of the two. We deliver
across Lithuania.

Sources

• ESO, Electricity distribution service prices for business customers — capacity charge, reliability categories, peak-load windows, capacity overrun:
  eso.lt (reviewed 2026-09-18)
• ESO, Electricity storage units — storing surplus and using it in the evening:
  eso.lt (reviewed 2026-09-15)
• Hybrid Energy, generator catalogue — models, capacities, and prices:
  hybridenergy.lt (reviewed 2026-09-18)
• Hybrid Energy, hybrid inverter with battery storage (example — Deye SUN-10K-SG04LP3-EU + SE-G5.1PRO-B kit):
  hybridenergy.lt (prices from exported catalogue, 2026-09-18)