2022 saw further increases in electricity prices, which companies cannot pass by indifferently. This increase significantly increases the fixed costs of the company's operation. The key issue in this situation is to reduce fixed costs, and thus also to reduce the costs of purchasing electricity. With the help of energy storage, entrepreneurs can actively manage energy while reducing the cost of its purchase.
The role of energy storage in the enterprise
Energy storage will be used in enterprises with a very diverse business profile. They are perfect for office buildings and production plants, reducing the demand for energy from the network during tariff peaks. On construction sites and production lines, they will cover the increased demand for energy. In data centers, they can be used as a collective UPS that will keep the servers running during a power outage. In addition, they can be a power source for fast chargers of electric cars. All functions of warehouses have a significant impact on the financial condition of the company, its safety and can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint. Undoubtedly, energy storage will be one of the basic elements of the Polish energy transformation.
Stock up and save
In September 2021, an energy storage facility was erected on the ASE Technology Group Campus, the main task of which is to minimize the purchase of electricity from the network during tariff peaks. The installed warehouse with a power of 48kW and a capacity of 192kWh is connected to a photovoltaic installation and a car charger. The contractor for the entire investment was Elmech-ASE, one of the companies that are part of the Automatic System Engineering Technology Group. As it has been several months since its launch, you can make the first conclusions and observations.
Polish energy storage technology
The Elmech-ASE energy storage was built on the basis of innovative proprietary solutions and the company's 30-year experience in the production of power electronic devices. The warehouse produced in Pruszcz Gdański consists of the XINUS energy processing and management module, battery cabinets, and these are monitored by specially designed software. In addition, everything is protected by a fire protection system placed inside. The warehouse on the Technology Group Campus is housed
in a 20-foot container and is a self-contained "plug & play" system, which means that it does not require additional devices or installations for proper operation. Battery cabinets equipped with batteries manufactured in LFP technology, ensuring high efficiency and long life of up to 4000 cycles (11 years). The heart of the warehouse is the XINUS bi-directional power inverter, which not only manages the direction of energy flow, but also improves the quality of energy, with which there are more and more problems.
Real reduction of the cost of purchasing energy from the network
The function of the warehouse is of fundamental importance for the scale of cost reduction
and possibly connecting it with installations producing energy from RES. The company will achieve the greatest benefits when the warehouse is additionally powered by, for example, a photovoltaic installation, as in the case of the one at the ASE Technology Group Campus. The entire process of optimizing the cost of purchasing electricity begins around 10:00 p.m., when, according to the tariff, Grupa Technotyczna ASE pays the least for electricity taken from the network. Loading the magazine lasts until about 7.00. From that moment on, the warehouse begins to release energy, and the rates for its purchase from the network increase, because the first, so-called morning tariff peak. At this point, the operation of the entire system is joined by a photovoltaic installation, which, together with the energy stored in the warehouse, satisfies most of the electricity demand. Finally, the real price of electricity is lower than the tariff price from 7:00 to 23:00. The course of the energy purchase cost is shown in the chart below.
As you can see, the increased cost of purchasing energy from the grid takes place at night, when it is cheaper. During this time, the magazine is loading. On the other hand, during tariff peak hours, it was significantly reduced by energy produced from photovoltaic panels and transferred from energy storage facilities.
Quality of power and elimination of additional costs
The XINUS power management module is the flagship product of Elmech-ASE that has been selected
for the best product of the ENERGETAB 2019 energy and electrical engineering fair. Since then, the module has been improved, and during the last year it was specially adapted to work in an energy storage. Its role is not only to manage the direction of energy flow, but also to compensate for reactive energy
and higher harmonics. These two elements affect: firstly, the entrepreneur's budget, and secondly, the lifetime of receivers in the network. Capacitive or inductive reactive energy is sometimes necessary for the functioning of some types of devices, e.g. LED lighting, air conditioning systems, drive inverters, etc. Consumption of reactive energy is associated with additional costs for the company. XINUS compensates for its consumption practically to zero, and eliminates another cost from the invoice from the energy supplier. It should be taken into account that large industrial plants are characterized by the highest consumption of reactive energy. Sometimes this cost is up to 50% of the invoice amount. What is important for the company's internal network, XINUS compensates for higher harmonics that deteriorate the quality of power, and this is reflected in the service life of the receivers. Thanks to the compensation of higher harmonics, the load devices will operate longer.
Intelligent energy management
If you want to generate savings, you need to manage energy intelligently. This is made possible by the software prepared in cooperation between Elmech-ASE and Squadron, which is also part of the ASE Technology Group. The software allows you to monitor the amount of energy taken from the grid and produced by photovoltaic panels on an ongoing basis. The interface also shows the charge level of the storage and the power of receiving devices in the enterprise network. The application is available in the browser. After logging in to your account, you can observe the working parameters of the warehouse both on desktop computers
and mobile devices. In addition, the monitoring presents graphs that are useful in analyzing network parameters in different periods of time.
Effects
In the months from January to April, smart energy management using energy storage reduced the cost of purchasing energy by 34 thousand zl in relation to what would be the cost of its purchase without storage. No other technologies to reduce energy consumption have been introduced at the ASE Technology Group Campus. In the mentioned months, energy production
from photovoltaics was negligible, but the intelligent management of energy taken from the grid alone allowed to reduce the cost of purchasing energy from the grid by 4,000 zl. An additional advantage is the fact that not a single kW of energy has been transferred to the grid. Thanks to this, the company avoided the cost of storing energy in the network and the resulting losses. The entire investment, including energy storage and photovoltaics, is expected to pay off within 6-7 years. If energy purchase prices continue to rise, it will happen
it's faster.
Conclusions
Energy storage undoubtedly brings economic benefits, because instead of buying expensive electricity during peak tariff hours, the company buys cheaper electricity at night, when the tariff is lower. In addition, the efficiency of the system is improved by photovoltaic panels. An element that cannot be omitted is the increase in the energy security of the company, because interruptions in the supply of energy do not affect its operation. Importantly, by using a set of energy storage and RES, the company reduces its carbon footprint. It is a perfect solution for companies that are striving towards zero emissions.
As the example of Germany shows, the energy transformation cannot take place without energy storage. They visibly affect the financial optimization of the company, and are also a good investment
in times of rising inflation and electricity purchase prices. Paradoxically, the more expensive the energy, the faster the warehouse will pay for itself.