High energy costs are a pressing issue for many companies, leading more commercial and industrial businesses to focus on solar power with storage solutions to ensure reliable energy price planning. “Solar self-consumption is and remains the most important driver of demand for solar power and battery storage at the moment,” says industrial engineer Guluma Megersa in a webinar with photovoltaik. He is Senior Business Development and Solutions Manager Smart String ESS at Huawei Fusionsolar, working at the interface between customer enquiries and product development, and receiving direct feedback from realised projects.
SOC is determined in a complex manner
The latest market figures from the Battery Charts website of RWTH Aachen University show a further increase in demand. After self-consumption, it is peak load capping and emergency or backup power supply, among other things, that customers want. More and more customers also want multi-use applications for storage systems.
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On the other hand, designing for various applications involves many considerations. For example, the operational management of a C&I storage system is quite complex. The status value for the battery SOC is a calculated value based on several factors, including the chemical states of the batteries. “A service partner has to recalibrate this value at least once a year,” reports Guluma Megersa.
Huawei Fusionsolar
Each LFP battery module of the commercial storage system from the LUNA-2000 series presented during the webinar has its own optimiser. Six to twelve modules are connected in a string, which are controlled per string via an intelligent controller. The matching battery inverter also comes from Huawei, of course. A total of 20 systems can be connected in parallel. This achieves a capacity of almost four megawatt hours (MWh). If there is a need for even more, the manufacturer has a large storage system in its portfolio that starts at two MWh.
Each cell is monitored automatically
Battery safety is a particular focus at Huawei. Each cell is monitored individually and can be isolated at module level. Active shutdown is also possible. Several detectors monitor the system for fire development, and an active exhaust air and fire extinguishing system are installed in the device. Heat and smoke detectors in the battery cabinets can trigger an alarm if the detected temperature is above the set threshold value or if smoke is detected.
The fire suppression system is also equipped with a temperature-sensitive glass ball. If the temperature inside a battery cabinet exceeds a certain temperature and this condition persists for a certain period of time, the temperature-sensitive glass sphere breaks and firefighting is initiated. Novec 1230 is used as the extinguishing agent. Should something happen, the airbag only opens upwards to release the pressure. This prevents people standing next to the storage tank from being endangered. Further details can be found in a white paper produced in collaboration with TÜV Rheinland.
Optimisation at module level
The manufacturer's optimisers are located at module level. This means that battery modules that are not working normally are automatically bridged. They are charged and discharged independently of each other without influencing each other. “This increases the discharge capacity of energy storage systems by an average of 5%,”says Guluma Megersa. With the help of the optimisers, the modules can also be recalibrated on site without the need for a technician.
Reference projects with multi-use
The business models for battery storage systems are diverse. In addition to maximising self-consumption, it is also about technical and commercial peak load capping and dynamic electricity tariffs. These applications can be realised with the integrated EMS of the Luna storage system, but the feed-in management requirements in Germany require a higher-level control system. With a higher-level control system, other business models such as participation in the balancing energy market or electricity trading as well as backup power supply are also possible. The multi-use application of the storage system is increasingly in demand and can also be realised.
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Huawei already has many reference projects. One example is a chicken farm in Bavaria, which is focussing on more self-consumption, peak load capping and peak shifting. To achieve this, 999 kilowatts of solar power were combined with 1,158 kilowatt hours of storage. A campus with 120 kilowatts of solar power in the Netherlands also markets two storage systems with 193 kilowatt hours each. ‘This requires external energy management,’ explains -Guluma Megersa. This application will then also work with Huawei technology.
New Luna storage system: TÜV Rheinland certified safety
The new commercial storage tank from the Luna 2000 series delivers a capacity of 215 kilowatt hours. According to the manufacturer, it comes with the world's first hybrid cooling system. The system combines liquid and air cooling to ensure maximum efficiency and longevity. The system thus remains stable even under demanding conditions, which extends the service life of the battery and minimises the maintenance effort and thus also the levelised cost of storage (LCOS).
The new Luna 2000 series: Huawei commercial storage system with hybrid cooling technology
With a maximum cycle efficiency (RTE) of 91.3 percent, the intelligent Smart String ESS optimises economic efficiency. Patrick Zank, Business Development Manager at VDE, confirms on the basis of real test data that the new Luna system from Huawei even achieves a round trip efficiency (RTE) of 92 per cent at 0.25C. In April, the new system was officially presented at the partner meeting in the Messe Frankfurt congress centre. The new storage series offers flexible capacities of 107, 161 and 215 kilowatt hours and guarantees high efficiency with a charging and discharging capacity of 108 kilowatts.
A multi-layer safety concept guarantees a very high level of protection, which has been awarded the highest level of Safety Prime certification by TÜV Rheinland. Further details on the new Luna2000 series commercial storage system and other project examples are expected to be presented at the next webinar in June 2025. (nhp)
