ENERGY SYSTEMS
Second life battery energy storage benefits in focus
Matthew Lumsden, the founder and CEO of Connected Energy, a company that has designed and commercialised battery energy storage solutions using second life EV batteries, discusses how battery energy storage can ‘smooth out costly peaks in energy demand, increase energy security, and overcome grid constraints’. He also considers the potential for such technology’s wider use in hospitals and other healthcare settings.
Picture the scene. It’s a grey, cloudy day, and a small, blue Renault electric car approaches a hospital car park and heads for the undercover area. It stops in front of a charging point, and the two passengers get out. One plugs in the charger, and the other registers for both charging and parking on their phone. They smile at the person standing next to them as they read a sign on the hospital parking notice board which says: ‘Thank you for driving electric’. Not far away, on the other side of the car park, a battery energy storage system has just provided energy to the hospital’s local energy network, as this was the 40th car to be plugged in this morning. Inside the energy storage system – encased in a shipping container – are 24 used vehicle batteries connected together to operate as one. The batteries in the energy storage unit are very similar to the one in the blue Renault, and a sign on the side of the unit says: ‘Second life electric vehicle batteries are helping to power this hospital. Thank you for using electricity’.
All-electric ambulances The couple move towards the Outpatients’ entrance, passing a short queue of ambulances waiting outside A&E. Although the ambulances are running, they are all-electric, so the area is peacefully quiet, with birds singing from
nearby trees. On the other side of the hospital another battery smooths out the sudden peak in energy demand from the ambulances being silently charged while they wait. As the couple open the first of the double doors at Outpatients’, the sun breaks through the clouds, and the solar panels – which cover the roof of the parking shelter – capture even more energy than they did when it was cloudy. The energy will be used to charge the battery system, which stores it, knowing that it will rain all the next day, and that its energy reserves will be needed. Moments later the solar panels on the roof swivel silently, automatically hunkering down to avoid any damage from the high winds which will bring the next day’s rain. Sitting at a desk on the other side of the
country, the hospital Energy manager’s computer receives an alert. It’s the automatic notification that the hospital estate where the blue Renault parked has reached its 500th day of using the battery energy storage system to maximise its renewable generation, has saved 49 tonnes of carbon, and kept within its green tariff.1 Looking out the window at the clouds
blowing south, Alex knows that the estate buildings are energy-efficient, and ready for the change in temperature coming the next day.
A not too distant scenario Sometimes it helps to envisage the brighter future we are working towards, and the scenario we have described is not so far away. This year, Nottingham City Council is installing 40 vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bi-directional chargers with three solar arrays with a combined generation of 176 kwp and Connected Energy’s battery energy storage systems. This is to support a fleet of over 200 electric fleet vehicles, including six new electric bin lorries, as well as a disposal depot with an incinerator and on-site recycling.
Settings such as this one at Nottingham,
where equipment has intense energy peaks, with hundreds of electric vehicles coming and going all the time, will be commonplace in hospitals across the country. Nottingham’s two 300 kW battery energy storage systems will allow the depot to store and redistribute the energy generated on site. All technologies are interoperable, with an overarching energy management software solution which will operate multiple devices to increase the efficiency in the supply of renewable energy. Nottingham’s systems will support the site in two main ways. Firstly, they will act as a store for the energy generated from the solar and vehicle-to-grid technology, allowing these technologies to charge the batteries,
A battery energy storage system.
The Renault van whose ‘used’ batteries are combined to create an E-STOR battery energy storage system.
March 2023 Health Estate Journal 59
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