One of the key reasons power generators are turning to renewable energy sources is that the technology has been stable for quite a long time. Photovoltaic solar and wind turbines are well understood, and quite readily available. Putting the energy they generate on the grid can be complex, but, again, the process and its requirements are well understood.
It is when companies need to store energy that things get complicated. As Rick Kephart explores in a recent article in North American Clean Energy, battery storage, one of the most popular ways of storing renewable energy, can cause some unique problems.
“Tying the controls of multiple batteries and systems together and developing the control logic to make it work effectively and efficiently with the grid and fluctuating market demands, has been an incredibly complex and time-consuming process—one that often results in a fragile and fragmented automation strategy.”
As batteries get bigger and power generation and distribution operations get more complex, the problem continues to grow. Expansive systems with large batteries generate massive amounts of data, and managing that data is key to operating safely and efficiently, especially when the operations team is responsible for managing solar, wind, and other generation alongside monitoring and controlling battery storage. To navigate this complexity, many organizations are embracing a boundless automation vision for seamless data mobility to more easily bring all the data from their various OEM controls into a single, fit-for-purpose software solution.
Automation to the rescue
The solution, of course, is powerful software to tie an organization’s operations together into one seamless interface. Modern green energy software solutions help tie disparate battery control systems together to help teams create intuitive but advanced control strategies for their most common operations.
“With the right solutions in place, an organization can more easily engineer and manage battery energy storage control, simplify monitoring and diagnostics, and increase visibility and ease of operations across the spectrum of assets, driving the operational excellence necessary to compete in the emerging renewables marketplace.”
The key is finding software that doesn’t necessitate loads of complex engineering and programming. Solutions like those available in Emerson’s Ovation™ Green platform offer pre-generated logic out-of-the-box—allowing teams to simply install the software and get to work. Fit-for-purpose green energy management software offers battery algorithm suites that standardize control into a set of pre-generated function blocks designed specifically for battery storage. The function blocks work directly with the control system so operators can see and control everything they need from a common interface.
Simplified SCADA
Ideally, operations teams will use battery algorithm suites in tandem with a single, unified supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) solution like Emerson’s Ovation Green SCADA. The benefit of a unified SCADA solution is in its ability to cut through the complexity of the massive volumes of data generated by battery energy storage systems (and, potentially, other green energy assets). A unified SCADA solution empowers teams to bring everything together into a single system for increased decision support.
“A unified green energy SCADA solution consolidates all an organization’s data into a contextualized single pane of glass with intuitive dashboards, making it easy to train operators, and making it easy for them to efficiently manage assets to make better, faster decisions”
So, instead of trying to manage a wide variety of different OEM control systems from different manufacturers, operations teams using Ovation Green SCADA can pull data from all of them into one intuitive location to standardize control across their facility or even fleet. Under such conditions, users almost always operate more safely and efficiently.
In the full article over at North American Clean Energy, Rick goes into more detail on the ways organizations can use advanced software solutions to improve their battery energy storage solutions, including a look into how emerging AI solutions are shaping the industry.
