Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) | Renewable Energy Solutions

What is Battery Energy Storage System(BESS)? How does it work?

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are rechargeable batteries that can store renewable energy from different sources and be activated when they need to be discharged. Compared to batteries in small device electronics, energy storage battery systems are much more advanced, using computer control systems to regulate and balance the stability of the grid, or used as backup power. Home energy storage systems work the same way as large battery storage systems.

It is important to build a solution that is flexible, reliable, and affordable enough to store energy from wind, solar, and other renewable sources for release during The Times when power is most needed. Among the many solutions, lithium-ion batteries have cost advantages and high efficiency, and are currently the preferred energy storage technology.

Since the battery technology of small electronic devices and electric vehicles is the use of lithium batteries, lithium battery technology has reached a relatively mature stage of development, and a reliable lithium battery energy storage system technology has been formed.

The entire BESS will be integrated in a storage container, and for those engaged in the energy storage industry, it is necessary to have a general understanding of the key components of the energy storage system:

Battery system

The battery is the core component of BESS, and a certain number of lithium batteries in series and parallel form the battery module. Each battery module forms a RACK battery system.

Battery Management System (BMS)

Any system assembled from lithium batteries requires a battery management system to ensure that the relevant parameters are normal, including current, voltage, charge and discharge status.

Power conversion system (PCS) or inverter

In the energy storage system, the battery is stored and transmitted in the form of direct current, and most of the external electricity is operated on alternating current. Therefore, a power conversion system or inverter is required to convert the external alternating current into direct current when charging and store it in the battery, and the internal direct current is converted into alternating current output when discharging.

PCS can set different charge and discharge strategies for the application, preset the depth of battery discharge, and the degree of full charge cutoff.

Controller

The controller is equivalent to the brain of the entire energy storage system, carrying out internal and external devices, monitoring and protecting the system, and conducting complete energy data collection and management.

Energy Management System (EMS)

EMS is usually responsible for controlling and scheduling the operation of the energy storage system, and generally communicates with PCS, inverters, and BMS to optimize the performance of BESS by balancing the load.

Fire Extinguishing System

BMS can not be used as the only strategy to protect the battery. In order to improve the safety of the energy storage system, international fire extinguishing standards are adopted. In the case of thermal runaway, the fire extinguishing system is started, the fire suppression spray is released, the cooling is carried out and the heat is absorbed.

HVAC (Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning)

For temperature control, the HVAC system can adjust the internal temperature, which helps the battery system to dissipate heat and play the best performance, so as to better ensure the battery life and environmental safety.

Find the right BESS solution for you

The battery energy storage system of the NPP Power has been very comprehensive certification and obtained all aspects of the test certificate, as a reliable service provider you can rely on us to support the installation of system components, remote service and maintenance support. Our professional technical team can provide you with the design and help in the commercial operation and use of energy storage.

At present, NPP provide lithium battery energy storage solutions for the off-grid market, and are widely used in industrial and commercial energy storage Marine energy storage, supporting the provision of customized battery storage system solutions to meet the special needs of any industry.

What are the main applications of battery energy storage?

Battery energy storage systems are generally divided into industrial and commercial energy storage and home energy storage:

Commercial industrial energy storage applications

• Power storage: For device components that rely on batteries, power is backed up at any time to ensure normal operation of the devices at any time.
• Peak regulation: Reasonable management of energy use, in the case of sudden surge in electricity consumption in the short term, to ensure the stability of power supply.
• Load transfer: When the energy cost and electricity price are relatively high, the energy storage system is started, and the electricity load is transferred to the moment of low electricity price.

Home energy storage applications

• Solar backup: Collect solar energy generated during the day for daily household electrical use.
• Emergency self-use power supply: In the case of power failure, the energy storage can be used as an emergency backup movie, so that the household electricity is not affected by power failure.
• Off-grid: Entirely off the public grid if the energy storage battery can supply enough power.

Why is the battery storage system BESS important? What are the advantages?

Protect the environment

Compared to traditional grid storage solutions, BESS has lower cost, better flexibility, higher scalability, and better efficiency. Ensure that homes and businesses can be powered by green energy. Energy storage helps to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the greenhouse effect, battery storage systems will become a very important role in the green energy supply and electricity demand market, and accelerate the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy has a very important impact.

Reducing energy costs

Whether it is renewable energy producers, traditional coal-fired power plants, grid operators, industrial power, home storage, offshore exploration, ship power, BESS is able to greatly improve energy storage efficiency and save costs, manage charge and discharge cycles according to real-time demand and availability, and ensure a stable supply of electricity.

Reduce dependence on the grid

Reduce dependence on the grid: BESS can even generate income with the help of electricity regulation, because in electricity regulation, electricity is stored when the price is low, and the use of energy storage system during the price peak process can directly reduce the electricity bill, so as to obtain benefits, even when there is no sunlight or wind stops BESS plays a vital role in reducing costs and maintaining daily electricity use.

Flexible call never power off

Improve the efficiency of power supply, given that the supply of energy may fluctuate due to changes in electricity prices due to weather, intermittent power outages, and political factors, battery energy storage systems are very important for public facilities, business operations, and household electricity stable and continuous power supply.

For example, China, the United States, Europe, India, Egypt and India all have a variety of large-scale Solar Power Plants, which play a crucial role in alleviating power use. Battery energy storage supply can replace part of the peak electricity consumption. Technical engineers of the global power grid are adjusting and managing the power matching every moment. Battery energy storage is one step closer to achieving zero carbon emissions globally. A study by the University of Oxford suggests that switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy could save the world up to $12 trillion by 2050.

What are the challenges facing battery storage system BESS?

Raw materials rally

The large-scale deployment of battery energy storage systems on the grid can achieve the reduction of carbon emissions, although the rapid development of electric vehicles, lithium battery technology has also been developed, but market competition has also led to the rise in the cost of lithium raw materials. At present, battery production is still dependent on lithium materials, and the development of sodium-ion batteries that can replace materials will take some time to promote.

Thermal runaway risk

The lithium iron phosphate of lithium batteries has high safety at the expense of energy density. However, if some manufacturers use ternary lithium as a battery module assembly component, once the heat is out of control, it will cause spontaneous combustion, and the temperature is as high as 1000 degrees Celsius, which may ignite other energy storage systems. In the future, sodium-ion batteries will eliminate the risk of thermal runaway.

Other renewable energy systems in development on the market

As an energy storage system, the continued use must be a long life of thousands of times of charge and discharge, and it is safe enough and efficient enough to store energy.

Sodium ion battery

The sodium battery has excellent fast charging performance (charging 15min at normal temperature can reach 80%), good low temperature performance, cycle life at normal temperature is 4k-5k times, and energy density is the same as lithium iron. The abundance of sodium in the Earth’s crust is much higher than that of lithium and is widely distributed around the world, and sodium chloride is rich in seawater.

Flow battery

Flow battery is a kind of high performance battery in which the positive and negative electrolytes are separated and circulated respectively. It has the characteristics of high capacity, wide application field (environment) and long cycle life. According to the different electrode active substances can be divided into iron chromium, vanadium, zinc bromide, iron chromium and vanadium for the current mainstream commercial direction. The iron-chromium battery has a long cycle life, a wide operating temperature zone, and an imminent cost reduction.

Gravity energy storage

Gravity energy storage is a kind of mechanical energy storage, the main principle is based on the height drop of the energy storage medium to achieve the charge and discharge process of the energy storage system.

Advantages of gravity energy storage:

1. It has advantages in cost, lower than pumped storage and compressed air energy storage costs. Lower than most electrochemical energy storage systems;
2.  High safety, low requirements for the construction environment, little damage to the environment;
3. Long life, the average life of gravity energy storage is about 30-35 years, close to pumped storage, compressed air energy storage.

Compressed air energy storage

Compressed air energy storage refers to the energy storage method that uses electric energy for compressed air during the low load period of the power grid, seals the air at high pressure in abandoned mines, gas storage tanks, caves, expired oil and gas Wells or new gas storage Wells, and releases compressed air to drive turbine power generation during the peak load period of the power grid. The pricing mechanism of compressed air energy storage power stations is still in the exploration stage.

Flywheel energy storage

The mutual conversion and storage of electrical energy with the mechanical kinetic energy of the flywheel at high speed is carried out by the electric/generator reciprocal bidirectional motor. Flywheel energy storage has the advantages of long service life, high energy storage density, not limited by the number of charge and discharge, easy installation and maintenance, little harm to the environment, etc. It can be used for uninterruptable power supply, emergency power supply, power grid peak regulation and frequency control. However, flywheel energy storage still has great limitations, such as low relative energy density and large static loss, and it is only in the early stage of commercialization.

Outlook of lithium battery energy storage system

In general, all major energy storage systems have application markets, but lithium batteries still play an important role in the development of energy storage technology, according to a McKinsey report, from 2022 to 2030, the entire lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery chain, from mining to recycling, may grow by more than 30% per year, when it will be worth more than $400 billion. The market size will reach 4.7 terawatt-hours, and the global battery market will grow fourfold, with lithium battery energy storage systems also accounting for a certain share in the future.