Enhanced recommendations in Battery insight® now not only guide operators to the root of battery asset issues but offer clear instructions to remedy them
Managing a BESS is no easy task. There is a myriad of hardware: the cells, modules, racks and containers that make up the BESS infrastructure for a
start. Finished with the hardware? Then you need to consider the highly complicated process of maintaining the delicate balance between interacting battery KPIs: SoC, SoH, SoS and C-Rate for a start. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, mother nature can throw another spanner into the works by deciding on a temperature that is non-conducive to correct Lithium-ion battery functioning. In other words. It can get complicated.
What battery asset managers really need is a battery analytics platform that gives them a 360° view of their BESS tracking anomalies in advance – one that just doesn’t guide them to the issue – but suggests practical, tangible corrective measures. Because the more time your battery assets spend offline – the greater the impact, in financial terms, on your bottom line.
The latest update of Battery Insight® does just this, through a two-tier monitoring system that will first identify BESS anomalies but then recommend solutions for the battery issue in question – even down to suggesting component replacements when necessary.
Detect. Inform: RESOLVE
Already at the forefront of battery analysis solutions with Battery Insight®, which combines artificial intelligence with physical modelling of battery assets, PowerUp has enhanced its system with new functions designed to identify the causes of an incident and, if necessary, draw up a maintenance recommendation plan to avoid any recurrence of service interruptions or further degradation.
Level one of actionable intelligence:
What and where is the issue? (or how can I find that needle in a haystack?)
The ability to identify battery asset issues through effective monitoring; saving operators time and money, is a fundamental objective of Battery Insight®, PowerUp’s battery analytics solution. Battery Insight® is a cloud-based battery analytics software platform that analyzes and monitors the safety and performance of battery electric storage systems (BESS) and Electric Vehicle (EV) fleets. This powerful predictive battery analytics tool processes operational data daily and provides actionable feedback in the form of alerts to inform battery asset managers of anomalies.
The ability to identify these battery asset anomalies enables rapid and highly targeted corrective action to be put in place, mitigating or even stopping costly service disruptions or even material damage.
This intelligent warning system detects all forms of battery-related risk before an incident occurs. These may include abnormal operating conditions such as overheating, overvoltage, undervoltage, overcurrent or cell imbalance in the battery body. On the monitoring dashboard, an alarm log tracks all safety problems, categorised by order of importance. Battery asset managers can then decide to personalise a notification system to decide which alerts they wish to receive.
But if, for understandable reasons, “safety comes first” these alerts are by no means limited to purely safeguarding the BESS. Capacity loss has a significant impact on batteries’ State-of-Charge (SOC) and State-of-Health (SOH) accuracy. BESS operators rely on SOC/SOH indicators to determine how much energy a battery asset is capable of dispatching. The Battery Insight® Performance Pack gives operators the ability to develop sizing and operational strategies driven by highly accurate estimates of battery degradation over time, improving the performance of the BESS and helping to increase revenues and RoI. Similarly, the 360° vision awarded to BESS operators of multiple, high precision battery KPIs means that PowerUp’s battery analytics cloud-based software platform can help maximize untapped energy and revenue opportunities for battery asset managers.
Armed with this vital information the BESS battery asset manager or EV fleet manager can then intervene before the incident leads to a serious incident such as a thermal runaway, or worse, a fire .
Illustration 1: – Logic chart explaining how Battery Insight®
helps Battery Asset Managers resolve battery anomalies.
Level two battery intelligence: What and where is the issue? How do I resolve it? (Now that I have found that needle, how do I fix the damage it has done?)
PowerUp’s data engineers and battery experts have further improved Battery Insight® with a new range of functionalities that go one stage further. The new alerting module now gives clear recommendations to the battery asset manager to resolve detected issues.
In addition to identifying an anomaly in progress, Battery Insight’s® algorithms now track back to the origin of the problem. This information, coupled with the level one battery alerts noted above, enables even more precise maintenance actions to be recommended.
“Houston we have a problem” (thanks for the heads-up, but what we really need to know is how to fix it ”)
The example of cell imbalance…
For example, if cell imbalance is detected, this new service can distinguish between reversible and non-reversible anomalies and provide appropriate and specific maintenance recommendations. This is a real advantage when it comes to BESS monitoring, which most other monitoring solutions do not provide. By analyzing the causes of a malfunction, the Battery Insight® Safety Package provides deeper granularity in terms of alerting and recommendations, enabling immediate action to rectify and implement corrective measures where specifically required, without wasting time on time-consuming investigations or unnecessary operations.
Illustration 2: Flow chart illustrating alarms and root causes,
system impacts and recommendations
Illustration 2 (above) demonstrates how easy it is to identify BESS anomalies and then find the appropriate solution for your BESS. Battery Insight®, PowerUps’s battery analytics platform will monitor the BESS for a variety of issues related to overvoltage, undervoltage, cell imbalance and many more. PowerUp’s battery analytics platform will then categorize these issues into two different sections: battery performance and safety. The Battery Asset manager then just needs to click on the button relative to this issue to find the appropriate recommendation.
People power: The importance of battery experts and data engineers
Whereas most battery analytics platforms rely on a purely data-driven approach, which drive users to the issue, without giving information about the cause – Battery Insight® adds a totally new level of troubleshooting data, facilitating the resolution of battery asset issues.
While AI, and machine learning play a vital role in all battery analytics platforms, including Battery Insight®, it is the invaluable expertise of PowerUp’s data scientists and battery experts that make this enhanced; resolution-oriented battery intelligence possible. Users are given all the information they need to resolve the issue themselves, but operators can even contact the PowerUp team, with a direct access to its battery experts, if necessary.
This new alert system has been “road tested” across multiple real-life use cases demonstrating its validity and impact across three key areas
- Reducing service interruptions and reaching resolution of issues faster and more efficiently
- Maximising the tradeable capacity of battery assets
- Maximising the RoI of battery assets monitored by Battery Insight
In short, the complexities of BESS and EV fleet maintenance are such that “raw alerts” pointing to the reasons for battery incidents are no longer enough. What operators need are the reasons for anomalies, together with clear, practical recommendations to resolve their battery asset issues.
What next ?
Other areas soon to be covered by recommendations in Battery Insight®
PowerUp is extending these enhanced alerting/recommendations to other BESS-related issues, including deviations from recommended usage operating conditions and air-conditioning faults (see the article on the HVAC thermal control system). These recommendations will help operators maximise the efficiency of their battery assets, quickly and easily.
For a free demo of Battery Insight’s recommendations functionality please contact the PowerUp sales team here.
