If electric power is the ultimate example of “use it or lose it,” the Holy Grail of reliable electrical supply is storage.
There are many ways to try and store electricity before it immediately dissipates when generation slows or stops, but they all vary in implementation difficulty, retention efficiency, capacity, cost, scalability and other crucial factors. The most convenient and well known is the battery, of course, and the most widely employed format at scale is the battery energy storage systems (BESS), such as Honeywell Ionic.
“Energy storage and digitalization is needed to support net-zero emissions efforts due to climate change, satisfy demand for clean energy and renewables, give utilities more flexible procurement, reduce the cost of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, and enable greater reliability and resilience,” said Salman Sheik, energy management portfolio director at Honeywell, who presented “Advanced analytics for BESS” at the 2024 Honeywell Users Group meeting in Dallas. “Our BESS solutions provide remote operations and controls, allow asset performance and forecasting and enable training, but we’re also looking at using BESS to help with advanced software-based tasks such as assisting digital twins, energy trading and other outcomes-based services.”
Values, sizes and device stacks
Some of the values that Honeywell Ionic and its related, support services provide include:
- Improved reliability, availability, safety and resilience via continuous monitoring and condition-based maintenance;
- Flexibility via service packages that are tailored to suit the needs of individual users;
- Reduced costs due to predictive maintenance for early detection of failures, and battery-health monitoring with warranty tracking; and
- One-stop-shop solution thanks to its single, unified platform that combines analytics from Honeywell’s Experion and Forge solutions.
In addition, the Experion Energy Control System (ECS) can take in data from diesel generators, grid equipment, solar panels, wind turbines and other equipment, and relay it to Forge Energy Services. This can be done with smaller commercial units with storage capacity of less than one MWh, industrial units with 1-5 MWh storage capacity, and utility units with 6 MWh to more than100 MWh storage capacity. The end result being that multiple storage units can be managed and work in conjunction with multiple, variable power-generation sources, and help balance their production and loads.
Ionic BESS uses several essential components to achieve these capabilities and perform its functions, including:
- Honeywel l Ionic container enclosure, power conversion system (PCS), battery management system (BMS), fire and gas detection and suppression equipment, cooling, and safety and physical security devices.
- Energy management system (EMS) and microgrid controls provided by a ControlEdge RTU or PLC and an energy controls library.
- Experion ECS and SCADA driven by Experion PKS or Elevate platform, asset and fleet management software, virtual power plant, microgrid equipment templates, integration with trading analytics, and solar and facility load predictions.
Saving, sustainability and stacking services
Because today’s users have various energy goals from reducing power costs to improving return-on-investment to hitting sustainability targets, Sheik explained that onsite storage systems like Honeywell Ionic can also save money by enabling peak shaving and time-of-user optimization for electricity from local utilities and provide backup power when paired with solar generation or other sources. Likewise, utilities and independent power producers (IPPs) want to reduce development, technical and operational risks, and adhere to grid requirement. Honeywell Ionic, Sheik added, can help by adding grid capacity, supporting grid reliability, and creating operating reserves.
“The good news is we can further increase value for users by deploying multiple stacked services, which is enabled by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms that can optimize supply and demand,” added Sheik. “For example, grid reliability and resilience can be coordinated with demand responses like load shedding and limiting, such as automatically dimming lights or cycling HVAC to reduce demand on building systems and the grid. Similarly, Honeywell Ionic can automatically discharge in response to time-of-use tariffs to achieve peak shaving by onsite storage, which also reduces carbon footprints. Finally, more dynamic load management and shifting can be done by automatically adjusting consumption to less costly hours of the day.”
