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Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) have been on the rise due to their ability to provide numerous benefits to homeowners and businesses. From storing excess energy as backup to providing battery peak shaving to save costs during high-demand hours, BESS have become a must-have for people who want to avoid extra electricity costs and get reliable energy as needed.
What makes BESS so great is that they can store energy from various sources. Whether from the grid during off-peak hours or via renewable sources such as solar panels, these systems provide versatility, convenience, and cost savings.
When used efficiently, BESS can also be used to avoid grid upgrades, added charges, and can easily offset high-demand energy requirements for your home and business.
Read on to find out all about battery energy storage systems, the factors that help avoid grid upgrades and promote long-term savings, and a few real-world peak-shaving setups that can help you save money:
Battery storage systems are like any other battery: they store energy that can be used later. However, these systems are a bit more advanced than your typical phone battery. They are usually made up of a few key components that include the battery system itself, an inverter, a battery management system, environmental controls, sensors, alarms, and a fire suppressant system.
BESS are designed to store direct current (DC) electrical energy, which is converted into an alternating current (AC) by the inverter. The battery energy storage system is charged by either storing excess energy generated by renewable energy sources like solar panels or wind turbines, or by drawing power from the grid.
Both charging methods can be used smartly to enable BESS to save you a lot of money. Using each method, BESS can:
The grid provides a finite amount of energy to an area. While most people will never need to know about grid upgrade considerations, for BESS owners, it is important to understand just how these systems can help you avoid added costs from grid upgrades.
When the local demand on a feeder or local network gets close to or exceeds the power rating of its existing infrastructure, power companies must invest in upgrading these components to address the growing demand. These upgrades aren’t free, of course, and the cost is pushed forward to the customers.
However, by using a BESS, users can shave off the peak loads by discharging during high-energy demand time periods. This can effectively reduce peaks and help avoid expensive upgrades.
Let’s look at BESS in the real world by highlighting a few important use cases:
Leighton Buzzard received an upgrade of a different kind. To defer investment in a network upgrade that would otherwise require a new transformer and up to 20km of underground cables, the primary substation opted for using grid batteries for peak shaving.
Using this system, the battery provided support for approximately 1.5 hours at peak times. It was sized for the local demand peaks and was established as a way to defer expensive infrastructural upgrades.
To combat high energy demands during peak hours, larger batteries and a more complex BESS system were installed to handle grid services. This helped suppliers combat expensive infrastructural upgrades and shave peak hours without accruing added costs.
The system is designed not only to provide grid services related to frequency and reserves, but it also reinforces the grid network to make it more reliable, efficient, and cost-effective.
This distribution centre paired solar PV and BESS to significantly reduce its peak charges. The centre managed to improve self-consumption and avoid peak grid charges by keeping high-energy demand hours in check via the system.
By avoiding peaks, the station was able to reduce stress on the local distribution network and improve grid reliability.
The Energy Management System (EMS) is a crucial aspect of any effective BESS. This component serves as the main “brain” or processing hub for the battery. That’s right, batteries are smart!
Batteries require this system so that they can effectively manage the load and charging time, thereby improving efficiency and driving up savings.
EMS provides three core benefits:
One of the key benefits of having an EMS is that it enables real-time monitoring of load and network constraints. It can actively measure a site’s demand profile in real time. This includes analysing data that can help reveal energy usage statistics and highlight the total or average energy demand at any given time.
Using this data, along with historical data and even EV schedules and the weather, the system can forecast demand and predict short-term future load.
The EMS is also responsible for handling the economics of the BESS. The system uses Time of Use (ToU) tariffs, demand charges, capacity charges, historical triads, and even distribution network operator (DNO) charges if applicable.
This gives full transparency to the user and enables them to actively track and assess the ROI of the system. What’s even better is that the EMS can highlight high-cost and demand periods so that users can prepare beforehand by charging the battery ahead or limiting imports or exports during peak hours.
The EMS smartly schedules the charging and discharging of the battery using historical data or prefixed preferences entered by the user or, more preferably, by the installer. The EMS decides when to charge during off-peak or excess generation hours and when to discharge, like during peak hours.
The system can also charge in advance for expected peak hours based on usage and energy statistics of the property. This boosts efficiency and helps with the economics of the BESS.
The EMS uses best practices for avoiding excessive cycling. In simple terms, charge cycles degrade the battery over time. However, by effectively charging and discharging the battery, the system can efficiently boost the lifespan of the battery and avoid unnecessary degradation over time.
Some intelligent systems can also make smart decisions and manage the charging/discharging by assessing the trade-off between how often to use the battery for peak shaving and how much it costs in wear and tear. This ensures that the battery always maintains a minimum state of charge for rainy days and manages the depth of discharge according to the specifications of the battery.
EMS are designed to integrate easily with other components. This is important if you wish to upgrade the system down the road. For example, the system can integrate solar PV and even handle cogeneration from multiple sources.
By using algorithms, the system smartly optimises charging and discharging to reduce grid import, especially during peak hours. This helps avoid grid upgrades and even provides optimal battery peak shaving.
The EMS accounts for various variables, which include weather conditions and the required load during different times of the day. This helps create a predictive model that the system uses to anticipate high-demand windows.
The more the system is used, the more it “learns” and improves its predictions. This leads to more effective peak-hour shavings and higher savings.
Now that you know all about the benefits of BESS and how it works with EMS systems to provide better efficiency, let’s look at some useful tips that can help you achieve higher savings and efficiency:
By installing the system using professional help, users can derive more value from their investment by getting things right from the get-go.
This includes tweaking the system to user demands and feeding the system accurate historical data that it can use for forecasting loads. A professional installation company, like Calder Electrical, uses best practices and their years of experience to help customers make the most out of their investment and achieve a better ROI.
Sizing is an important aspect of obtaining the most value out of the BESS. This exercise involves conducting an audit of the property and understanding the specific energy needs of the home/commercial space.
A professional installer can easily size the BESS for you and help you get a quicker ROI and establish a long-term foundation for avoiding grid-capacity upgrades.
Maintenance is an important activity for managing BESS for the long term. While these systems don’t require a lot of maintenance, consistent check-ups can enable the system to work efficiently throughout its servicing years.
Trained technicians can not only identify problems before they cause trouble, but they can also conduct minor repairs and keep an eye on the overall performance and health of the battery. This may seem like a simple activity, but it will pay huge dividends in the future by securing higher efficiency and supporting better peak shaving.
As per recent statistics, powering your property with an effective BESS can potentially cut your electricity bills by half. Even better, if you combine the system with solar panels, you can further reduce your bills, avoid grid upgrade costs, and drive savings by up to 70 to 80%.
These figures heavily depend on individual use-cases, though. For example, an average small home with a 5-kWh battery storage system (no solar panels) and an annual energy consumption of 1,800 kWh/year could save around £280 per year on its energy bills by charging its battery during off-peak hours and using it during peak hours. This is considering that the peak electricity tariff is 24.5p/kWh and the off-peak tariff is 9p/kWh.
For a medium-sized home with an 8-kWh battery storage system, solar panels generating 2,800 kWh annually, and an annual energy consumption of 2,700 kWh/year, you could save up to £600 per year on your energy bills.
Want even more savings? Then you could also earn around £50 per year through the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) for any excess energy exported to the grid.
The most effective way of determining a great ROI for your BESS is to consider the battery’s total lifespan. Most modern battery technologies last about 10 to 15 years, depending on how efficiently they are used and maintained. So, if you are looking for long-term savings, then we recommend that you factor in the total savings over the battery’s lifetime compared to the initial cost of the investment.
The return on investment (ROI) for BESS depends on various factors. Let’s look at the most important ones:
Batteries come in different types. The exact chemistry used to run the battery dictates its performance and lifespan.
Some of the most common types of battery storage include lithium-ion batteries and lead-acid batteries. These batteries provide reliability and longevity; however, if you are looking for higher efficiency and a better lifespan, then the lithium-ion battery is the way to go.
The more efficient the battery, the better the ROI. Keep in mind that there are also other types of batteries like flow batteries, Sodium-Sulfur batteries, Nickel-Cadmium batteries, Zinc-Bromine batteries, and solid-state batteries. A professional installer will help you choose the right type of battery for your individual needs so that you can get the most out of the investment.
When it comes to batteries, the larger the battery, the higher its capacity and backup. The goal is to find the perfect balance for your property. A smaller battery may provide some relief, but it will not be viable for the long term or save you as much.
A larger battery will result in a higher initial cost, and you may not be able to achieve the ROI effectively. This is why professional installers aim to get the size just right so that you can address the energy needs of the property with a bit of headroom for the rare blackouts.
The Depth of Discharge (DoD) is another important factor to consider. The DoD is the percentage of the battery’s total capacity before it needs to be recharged. A higher DoD means that you can use more of the battery’s stored energy before recharging it. This allows you to not only drive efficiency and savings, but it also ensures that the battery’s lifespan remains intact.
If you remove all the complexities, the basic economics of savings in the context of batteries comes down to energy in and energy out.
Your usage dictates how much you will eventually save. By following best practices and ensuring healthy usage habits, you can achieve more savings. However, if you are using more energy during peak hours and are running high-energy appliances, you can’t expect to save much.
BESS systems work best when you follow the best practices. While installing the system does result in automatic savings, to get the most out of the system, you will have to adopt a healthy energy consumption lifestyle.
Calder Electrical Services provides a wide range of solutions to help you play your part in making the world a more sustainable place.
If you wish to have solar panels installed on your residential or commercial property, our experts can conduct a site visit to determine your requirements and propose the best type of solar system for your needs.
We also offer battery storage installation so that you can minimise any wastage of the energy you create. This will help lower your energy bills and make you more independent from the grid.
We have been providing electrical services to residential, commercial, and industrial properties for over 40 years and are specialists in all aspects of electrical installations, maintenance, and testing.
All our work is fully insured and meets the current regulations and standards set by the NICEIC. Also, all the notifiable work is signed off by the local authorities.
Contact us here or call us at 0800 612 3001 to get in touch with our professional electricians for more information on battery storage systems and how they can help you save money on energy bills.
