Energy storage |
Gaps in battery data are jeopardising the transition
The energy transition is in many ways a story of the rise of batteries. As noted recently by the International Energy Agency, delivering climate targets will depend on our ability to scale up battery deployment
Jean-Marc Guillou Chief Technology Officer for Energy Storage Systems at Socomec
Stationary lithium-ion batteries will be the cornerstone of clean energy, storing surplus power to fill gaps in supply from intermittent renewable energy sources and smoothing out spikes in demand. Utility-scale batteries will provide essential flexibility to renewable electricity grids and help store and integrate more clean power into networks. On the demand side, batteries will also be essential to reduce the burden on electric grids by providing backup power for everything from EV charging stations to data centres, flattening out peaks in demand. Batteries are also the core component of the Uninterrupted power supply systems that guarantee uptime and business continuity across mission-critical services from utilities to hospitals. Cumulatively, this means the success of the energy transition and the continued supply of dependable power across society will hinge on the continued reliability and longevity of batteries. Yet as society places ever growing demands on batteries, there are rising risks of battery degradation, fire hazards, and even failures. Batteries are highly vulnerable and failure-prone, and their performance is affected by a range of factors such as temperature, charge cycles, and age. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are composed of several battery modules, containing cells connected in series and in parallel, which makes them complex and difficult to manage. There are persistent technical challenges around keeping lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries in a prolonged high state of charge, as required for certain applications such as data
SoH (state of health) diagnosis, blue circles are the estimates made by algorithm, stars the real measurements on site. (Image: Socomec)
centres or utilities. Battery failure is now the leading cause of downtime for battery energy storage systems.
As society becomes more reliant on battery performance, poor battery management could affect the safety, durability, and reliability of critical applications, from hospitals to the electric grid itself, while jeopardising the energy transition. For example, arbitrage strategies that involve rapid charging and discharging of BESS to store renewable energy at low prices and sell it during peak demand could quickly deplete battery capacity. Other use-cases that involve
fast, unpredictable charging and discharging such as providing long-term flexibility or ancillary services for renewable grids can overtax batteries and lead to faster degradation, reducing capacity and lifecycles. In this way, poor battery management could reduce our ability to provide dependable clean power to society. A key cause of battery degradation and safety hazards is the inability of current methods to predict battery health and lifespan with sufficient confidence. Current battery management systems can only predict state of health or state of charge with around 90% accuracy. Battery data is often captured retrospectively instead of in real-time or the data quality is too poor to allow proper analysis. This means red flags such as abnormal temperature or voltage levels are often overlooked or detected too late. Battery data is also often incomplete or unstructured, which renders it unusable for data analytics and machine learning systems.
Battery state of health prediction according to three scenarios : intensive use; moderate use; low use. RUL = remaining useful life. (Image: Socomec)
30 | November/December 2024|
www.modernpowersystems.com
An incomplete picture of battery conditions is masking critical risks and leading to batteries being overused, causing overheating, accelerated degradation and premature repair or replacement costs. This is creating uncertainty around everything from fire risks to maintenance and insurance costs. Inaccurate historical data also prevents operators understanding how overuse may be reducing battery lifespans, and even storing up the risk of potentially catastrophic failures. This also means operators cannot tap into the full range of potential battery
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