Japan contracts two massive Battery Storage Systems to balance Wind, Solar PV load

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has chosen three companies to install two large-scale battery systems in the northern part of the nation to support the expansion of wind and solar on Japan's electric grid.

Sumitomo's redox-flow battery will occupy 

a new 5,000 square meter facility in Hokkaido

Through the Large-scale Storage Battery System Demonstration Project, Hokkaido Electric Power Inc. (Sapporo, Japan) and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (Osaka, Japan) will jointly install a 60 MWh redox-flow battery on the island of Hokkaido. Additionally, Tohoku Electric Power Co. Ltd. (Sendai, Japan) will install a 20 MWh lithium-ion battery in the Tōhoku region.

“This project is Japan’s first effort to introduce large-scale storage batteries in electricity grids, and METI aims to rapidly acquire the necessary technology and know-how so as to utilize such batteries in electricity grids in a specific manner,” declares METI in a press statement.



Projects to study frequency variation, supply/demand balance

The two projects were chosen via a public solicitation held in April 2013. Tohoku Electric Power's lithium ion project was chosen to address the issue of frequency variation, and Sumitomo's redox flow battery has been chosen to look at the technology's ability to balance supply and demand at times when demand falls.

The Tōhoku project will coordinate the lithium ion batteries to operate with conventional power generation while utilizing the batteries as much as possible to adjust frequency, suppressing the impact on battery life.

In the Hokkaido project, the companies will not only look at how well the batteries address varying electricity output from wind and PV, but also at developing technology to control and manage the battery system. METI notes that redox-flow batteries can be used to deal with supply/demand balance over a long period of time.

METI aims for the projects to increase the capacity of the supply-demand adjustment function by 10% in each region.

Sumitomo to develop battery based on results of tests

Sumitomo and Hokkaido Electric plan to complete installation of the redox flow battery by the end of 2014, and carry out verification tests over the next three years. The massive battery system will occupy two floors of new building roughly 5,000 square meters in size, with the electrolyte tank on the first floor, and the cell stack and heat exchanger on the second floor.

The battery system will have a storage capacity of 60 MWh, and a rated output of 15 MWh.

The company notes that redox flow batteries can be used for a wide range of applications, including addressing frequency variation. Based on the results of the tests, Sumitomo plans to offer a redox flow battery with improved performance.






Source: Solar Server

2013-08-09 | Courtesy: METI; Image: Sumitomo | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

LiFePO4 ESS - La suite

First I soldered these 2 x 20 pins together to bring ground and 5V to all the relays

It looks nice & clean like this and the connections are tight

Then I worked on the 24V command part wiring: battery pack leads, fuse, voltmeter, automotive relay, Tyco Kilovac contactor, Charge Mode relay, GTI Mode relay, main switch, 24V to 5V DC-DC power supply ... 

These are the battery pack leads, with 8mm small lugs, which will be screwed directly onto the terminals

More tonight or tomorrow ...

LiFePO4 ESS - Enclosure found

Last night, after a long shopping, I think I found a good technical enclosure at Muji's; It is a drawer, made of sturdy transparent  plastic - this way I can see all the components inside lighting up -, and I will use it to cover the board by screwing it from the sides into the wooden board

Not too high

This wooden board in not wide enough now, I will have to get another one, and anyways it would have too packed and not scalable for more grid tie inverters/ chargers and maybe a bigger Arduino board like the Mega

Also found some real AC breakers

Now I just came back from a Leroy Merlin - our French Home Depot - with a 1cm thick wooden board cut at the exact dimensions of the plastic cover ...

Low Net Power used while ESS is ON

Taken this morning during breakfast, while ESS was on ... Very small Net Usage (= Usage - ESS Generation)

ESS + Wattson Anywhere = Real Time Follow up of Generated Power at Home

Now with Wattson Anywhere I can keep track of my ESS Generation Anytime & Anywhere on Any device ! For me, this is really cool ...

My LiFePO4 BESPSS = Battery Energy Storage & Power Supply System stores 4kWh of energy and pushes it back into my home grid adjusting its output automatically, thanks to Wattson color codes, to keep the usage (purchased from my utility company EDF) as low as possible

Later on, this will be much improved when my solar panels are connected to my home grid: I will then store free solar energy during the day, and feed it back to my home appliances as soon as the sun is down or when the overall home power usage is high

To seethis Real Time Graph, go to my Public Wattson Anywhere Page



Back in october, when I still had these Mottcells cells (see picture above) on my BESPSS, the generation was pretty close to the usage (see graph below)

Zoom on the two generation periods of this day: Notice how the generation follows closely the usage

The same day, but the Energy graph, showing the amount of "green" energy generated

These are two iPad screenshots taken yesterday, while having breakfast, with my (Lead AGM) BESPSS switched ON

Every 5 minutes, I get an updated graph

The following screenshots show two full days with 2 BESPSS production periods in december and in january; Note that the Wattson Anywhere portal beta release has changed in between

Blue Sea 150A DC Breaker on LiFePO4 ESS

First test of my New Blue Sea Systems 150A DC Breaker and pushing 1200W back into my home grid :-)
It works fine ...

Hydraulic Crimping Tool arrived from NL

Just received this form the NetherLands for Christmas

I knew I had to get one of these, seeing it several times at EVTV or on EVWest videos, but thought it would be very expensive and difficult to operate

I finally found and ordered this one on eBay, brand new for 40.99 EUR only, plus 6.45 EUR for shipping, and arrived in two days with GLS

It does a 16 tons of pressure (Jesus!) and hopefully will work fine to crimp some heavy gage cable endings to big lugs to carry high current on my ESS

This hydraulic crimping tool seems easy to use, and the lever is actually very smooth to operate

We'll see how it goes with real cable and lug crimping ...

I found a video of a similar one on Youtube, probably from the same Chinese maker:

LiFePO4 ESS - Auto Adjusting Power Supply Up & Down

Shot last night while my LiFePO4 ESS was auto adjusting its Power Supply Up & Down

Take a look ...

It is keeping Wattson colors Greeen (but not too much) and Blue ... the ideal spot close to 0W


And here is a graph of the evening power (red is the usage (peak at 2500W), blue the generated power (1250W max for now), and green the power imported from the grid)


along with the day Energy Breakdown

【日産】 LEAF to HOME インタビュー The SIMPLE and LOCAL ESS

日産リーフのバッテリーから一般家庭2日分の電力を供給
・PCSによる双方向のエネルギーマネジメントを実現
・太陽光発電の有効活用、停電時のバックアップとして利用可能

"Nissan LEAF's battery can provide two days' worth of electricity to a typical household*
*Japanese typical household case"


During the day, the LEAF to Home system can charge the car from free solar electricity:
If enough power is generated, the solar arrays can supply the houses needs, charge the LEAF, and why not push power back  into the neighborhood grid
It can also supply power back to the house if necessary, during luch break peak for example




Smart grid investments are loosing momentum because they could be huge

They require massive changes to the existing grid network

Keep it Simple !

"LEAF to Home" is a SIMPLE & LOCAL solution that can take care of two mains problems : 
- Store solar & wind energy 
- Level the consumption peaks using off-peak (late night) or green energy

The CHAdeMO plug is the standard for Nissan / Nichicon PCS, carrying 400V DC directly from and to the battery pack  

Charging from solar power through the LEAF to Home PCS and storing free and clean energy for later use

If necessary, after powering the house during the evening, the LEAF battery can be refilled during the lowest rate electricty period at night, also through the PCS (leveling energy production here too) - Excess supply in green circle

500 LEAF and PCS have been lended to South Ouest Japanese Regions of Osaka, Kyoto, Kitakyushu & Fukuoka and Nissan is monitoring the systems but also people's behaviour changes

Source: NissanNewsRoom

My notes:
This is exactly what I am working on with my LiFePO4 BESPSS (Battery Energy Storage & Power Supply System), storing excess solar energy during the day and using it during the evening

LiFePO4 ESS News - 24V charger security relay and 12V power supply to Arduino board

Last week end activities on my LiFePO4 ESS (Battery Energy Storage & Power Supply System):

- Swap the 12V charger security automotive relay for the 24V (30/40A) one (received quite a while ago):

The contact is better now because this relay is just more adapted to this voltage and it is heating up a lot less than the 12V one 

Also the 12V relay used to get stuck from time to time, and being a security charger side cut off, in case the charger does not stop, it would not be of any help !

- Power the Arduino board through its power supply inlet:

I am now running the programmable dual relay voltmeter and Tyco Kilovac contactor from the 24V battery pack directly, and then used the DC-DC converter to power the Arduino board, switching it on when the ESS is in Power Supply Mode ... and it worked perfectly ...

... only in the beginning, because something strange happened: the automated power on and off of the relays activating the grid tie inverters did not seem to work well anymore after that, and it took me little time to find out why. I thought : "What's wrong, this program loaded in the Arduino board micro-controller has not changed for weeks, Wattson color voltages thresholds can not change, they did not for weeks... The only thing I changed today is this power supply: from micro-USB 5V to power inlet 12V"

I also realized that this power inlet area on the board was heating up abnormaly ... (?)

So I removed it, switched back to micro-USB 5V and everything worked like a charm , as it did for the last weeks :-)   I still do not understand what is wrong with this power supply inlet, the DC-DC converter provides exactly 12V, nothing more

Nice green (small) negative usage, the (almost) perfect situation when running in Power Supply Mode

Also received in the mail, the 4 4700uF 35V 105°C capacitors to replace the vented one in the last damaged Grid Tie Inverter

LiFePO4 ESS full blast at night

C'est beau :-)

IBM and ESB make important progress on EV smart charging

For years (literally) I have been griping and whining that vendors and utilities are spending too much time on electric vehicle hardware and not enough on smart charging. Smart charging, after all, is what can unlock the benefits of EVs for consumers and utilities alike. Smart charging is essential if we want to use EVs to take advantage of late night wind energy, for example. And if we want to avoid excessive peaks and other potential EV problems.

My power engineering friends tell me that I'm some combination of impatient and naive. That the industry first had to settle on the easy stuff like plugs and basic standards. THEN they could get to work on smart charging.

Here's one example of progress: IBM is working with ESB ecars to set up a smart charging infrastructure in Ireland that will manage about 1,000 public charging points. Much of the effort is around payment options and infrastructure monitoring, but some of it touches on the utility-side software needed to properly manage EVs when they start to show up in volume. If successful, it could become a template for future, larger EV infrastructures.

According to the announcement (which you can read on page 2), the IBM EV platform will connect ESB Networks with the energy retailers and the charge-points, allowing all three to communicate energy usage and financial data directly, providing the analytics and intelligence needed to better forecast and balance the load on the power grid.

"Infrastructure readiness and consumer acceptance are and will continue to be imperatives to the success of electric vehicles, however the industry must now focus on the management aspect. It will be how we support EV market growth from an interoperable and scalable level," noted Allan Schurr, Vice President, Strategy and Development of IBM's Global Energy and Utilities Industry.

"For utilities, this project tackles both front and back office operations by addressing business services such as billing, yet at the same time, also provides continued access to real-time data needed to monitor and forecast the impact on the grid," Schurr added.

Jesse Berst



Press Release:

IBM teams with ESB to develop 

an Electric Vehicle

Smart Charging IT System in Ireland

Adds Flexibility to Smart Grid Operations during Mass-Scale EV Charging across Ireland


ARMONK, N.Y. and DUBLIN, Oct. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has teamed with ESB to implement a fully integrated smarter charging IT system that will help manage electric vehicle public charge-points, which are being rolled out across Ireland by ESB Networks.

Together the companies will add a layer of intelligence and convenience to the recharging process, allowing EV drivers to access, charge and pay, using an identification card. Additionally, this project will provide utilities with access to energy usage data that can help improve smart grid operations, reduce power strain during peak charging times, and ensure reliable energy distribution to customers.

With approximately 1,000 public charging-points currently available, ESB Networks is on track to deliver one of the largest integrated and operational electric vehicle infrastructures in Europe. ESB Networks will use IBM's Intelligent Electric Vehicle Enablement Platform to provide the services needed to operate and manage the charge-points installed throughout Ireland.

This project is bolstered by Ireland's energy policy to increase sustainable energy use in the transportation sector by 2020. Today, the goal is to produce 40 percent of the country's current electricity consumption from renewable energy and have electric vehicles represent every tenth car on Irish roads. Already on the renewable fast track, this integrated EV charging network will allow Ireland to also contribute to the European Union legislation to reduce greenhouse gas pollution levels by approximately nine million tones before 2020.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD said: "Green energy and cloud computing are key sectors being targeted by the Government as part of our Action Plan for Jobs. This innovative partnership between an Irish energy company and a global IT leader puts Ireland at the forefront of global developments in the electric vehicle sector by using cutting edge cloud technologies, and represents a clear demonstration of what is possible in this area. Ireland will now be the first country globally to put in place this system on a national basis, and I am determined to ensure that through continued implementation of our plan we will see further examples of leadership in these areas."

The platform will connect ESB Networks with the energy retailers and the charge-points, allowing all three to communicate energy usage and financial data directly. This will provide the analytics and intelligence needed to better forecast and balance the load on the power grid as well as help ESB Networks to monitor the health and status of the charge-points to ensure service reliability.

Additionally, the project will create a scalable payment transaction platform for utilities and consumers by combining financial, settlement, and management services. As the IBM Intelligent EV Enablement Platform is a cloud delivered service, it provides operators such as ESB Networks the flexibility and scalability to add charge-points, incorporate new functionality, and support more electric vehicles as the market grows.

ESB Networks will have the capabilities to securely maintain customer and charge point data such as energy consumption, charging location, and settlement data. This information can then be used to calculate and reconcile the energy market. With this level of financial insight, industry participants can manage regular and interruptible tariffs and calculate the appropriate billing costs.

ESB Chief Executive, Pat O'Doherty said, "ESB Networks is rolling out a smart recharging network nationwide and committed to offering a service that will benefit the consumer, electricity retailer as well as the electricity grid. This project has the potential to significantly improve efficiencies in EV charging, streamline management services and contribute to the overall reduction of CO2 emissions," he said.

The new system accommodates the needs of all EV owners. The IBM EV platform will enable EV drivers to select convenient payment options and access all charge-points using one ID card – a process that will aggregate usage costs and simplify billing. This smart charging capability allows consumers to charge anywhere at anytime, regardless of their electricity provider and without the need to carry multiple access cards. Additionally, drivers will also have the option to use a mobile device or browser to locate the nearest charge post, check its availability, and make a reservation if the post is available. '

"Infrastructure readiness and consumer acceptance are and will continue to be imperatives to the success of electric vehicles, however the industry must now focus on the management aspect. It will be how we support EV market growth from an interoperable and scalable level," said Allan Schurr, Vice President, Strategy and Development of IBM's Global Energy and Utilities Industry. "For utilities, this project tackles both front and back office operations by addressing business services such as billing, yet at the same time, also provides continued access to real-time data needed to monitor and forecast the impact on the grid."

This initiative along with the recently announced Smarter Charging demonstration with American Honda Motor Co,. Inc. and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), as well as the EKZ Smartphone Application pilot, demonstrates IBM's ongoing focus to improve driver services, increase renewable generation, and intelligently manage electric vehicles.

About ESBESB Networks is responsible for the roll out of electric vehicle infrastructure in Ireland and the operation of supporting IT/communications systems. A comprehensive network of charge-points is being developed, with open systems and platforms, so they are accessible to all electricity supply companies, and all types of electric cars. The primary activities of ESB and its subsidiaries are the ownership and of the electricity distribution and transmission networks and operation of the distribution system in Ireland and Northern Ireland and the generation and supply of electricity in Ireland and internationally.

For more information visit www.esb.ie/ecars, www.facebook.com/ESBecars

IBM and Smart GridIBM is involved in more than 150 smart grid engagements around the world, in both mature and emerging markets. More about IBM's vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works—how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts, can be found here: http://www.ibm.com/ smarterplanet

For more information about Smarter Energy at IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com/press/ smarterenergy. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.



Source : Smart Grid News & IBM

LiFePO4 ESS update - Power Supply graphs

I think we are getting there ... the power supply follows the usage curve more and more

I did simulate the automated GTIs switching based on what the Arduino & Relays state

LiFePO4 ESS update - Building Relay activated outlets board

I brought this home from the hardware store on friday: I figured I should build my own relay activated outlets for my needs and this is what I worked on this week end

Outlets (cheap at 1 EUR/piece and small), small 2mm screws for the relays and 3mm screws for the outlets

Japanese fishcake board used for prototyping as usual :-)

The sketch / program on the Arduino has been modified a lot to fine tune the voltage thresholds ... I am satisfied with it now

A bit messy / I found this extension cord left over that will be perfect for this build 

Finally found a piece of wood that is the right size and shape in the basement and mounted the relays & the outlets on it

I even mounted the Arduino board, left some room for more outlets on the right (in case) and on the left will be placing all the system's other components: Inverter/0/charger switch, Automotive charger relay, charger Ampmeter, pack Voltmeter, DC-DC converter, and the USB Wattson outlet