SECTOR SNAPSHOT Ӏ BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS


It can hardly have escaped readers’ attention that there is a fuel crisis. It is worldwide. The Strait of Hormuz, at time of writing, is blockaded by both Iran and the US. It shows no sign of reopening and, when it does, it will be several months at the very least before tanker traffic and oil flow returns to stability. Consumers are realising this. One response is that demand for oil is reducing. The International Energy


Agency has made large cuts to its forecasts for global oil demand and supply, citing the disruption in the Middle East. It is calling it ‘the most severe oil supply shock in history’. The agency says that ‘demand


destruction’ – a permanent decline in consumer demand that will not return to previous levels – will spread as ‘scarcity and higher prices persist’. Global oil demand is projected to decline by 80,000 barrels per day in 2026, a sharp contrast to the forecast of only a month before that had predicted a 640,000 barrels per day rise. Simultaneously, prices are rising. The price of oil saw its largest ever monthly gain in March 2026. Oil price volatility is extreme, but above or only just below $100 a barrel is around the current average. This would seem a very good


time to reduce one’s dependence on, and use of, oil. Happily, operators of tower cranes can do exactly that. Tower cranes are electric. They can operate from the grid – if a grid supply is available at the site and if it is strong enough. Many grids, however, cannot supply the current needed for heavy and fast lifts. Failing that tower cranes can,


and frequently do, operate via a diesel generator brought onto the site. It needs to be a large and powerful one to supply enough power for the crane’s lifting phases. This, obviously, uses fuel but that fuel use can be drastically reduced, or even eliminated altogether, by using a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) – which does what it says on the tin. The principle is fairly simple:


you put a large, rechargeable battery on your site. You trickle- charge it, either from your


inadequate-for-big-lifts mains grid or from a generator – which can now be a very much smaller one since it doesn’t have to power the big lifts: the stored energy in the battery does that. All the new generator has to do is recharge the battery – and it can do that over a period of time, so requiring very much less power. Nor does it have to run all the time.


As a technology BESS is ideally suited to tower cranes. The reason is simple: tower cranes have a hugely uneven demand for power. They need a lot of it while they are actually lifting a load; but a crane lifts a load for only a tiny proportion of its time on a site. Alex Keys is sales and marketing


director at Dumarey – a UK company that makes battery energy storage systems and also, uniquely, fly-wheel-powered energy storage systems for cranes. “Most of the day the crane is not actually moving,” he says. “It is slinging, unslinging, waiting for trucks, and so on.” In other words, tower cranes


are very suitable for energy storage systems because they take large but infrequent amounts of energy, allowing plenty of time for whatever is supplying that energy to recharge the battery. “Our batteries can charge


from a small mains supply; just 32 amps is enough for it to power most tower cranes. This is due to the low average power demand,” says Keys. “If no mains supply is available and you are charging from a generator then that 32A would typically need only a 40 kVA generator which will run for just three to four hours in any 24-hour period. The battery itself can turn the generator on when it needs to charge, and off again when it’s full. “Small generators like that are


much cheaper to rent than bigger ones and require less emissions tech to comply with Stage V emissions rules. They also use less diesel per hour to run, so the net effect is significant fuel saving. “A generator must be sized


for the peak power which is only achieved very briefly as the crane accelerates the load. A large generator might use 10 litres an hour just idling on zero load. This is wasted if the crane is not moving.”


Diesel generators run extremely inefficiently on low or zero loading; Stage V generators, with all their added complexities to ensure low emissions, make the problem even worse. “Stage V generators do not


really work unless a generator is at 40% average load, and a crane cannot produce this loading,” says Keys. “We have seen a lot of sites either not complying with emission standards and getting enforcement notices, or else seeing a lot of breakdowns on their Stage V generators, or using load banks – basically banks of resistors – to produce an artificial load which drives up the diesel usage significantly.”


PEAK POWER WITHOUT GRID CONNECTION


PEAK POWER WITHOUT GRID CONNECTION


For the construction project of a new city district in Zaandam, The Netherlands, by contractor Heddes Bouw & Ontwikkeling the requested grid connection could not be delivered on time. The project would therefore have been delayed or would have had to rely solely on a diesel generator. To deliver the peak power for the tower crane lifts a large generator would have been needed, which would run ineffi ciently most of the time, resulting in high emissions.


Instead a BESS battery of 422 kWh capacity


was used supplied by Amsterdam, Netherlands- headquartered Greener Power Solutions. It could deliver 318kVA. The mobile battery was directly available. Delivered in a three-metre-cubed container it ensured that the construction project could start on time. The smart peak shaving capabilities of the battery ensured that a smaller diesel generator could be used – and this was supplemented by solar panels, which were mounted on the roof of the site offi ce. This saved diesel and created a cleaner environment; it also saved also the money which a large diesel generator would have cost.


Heddes used an all-in-one ‘B 10ft container


Heddes used an all-in-one ‘Battery 422’ solution in a 10ft container, delivering 318 kVA and 422 kWh


422’ solution in a CRANES TODAY 15


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