Intelligent Battery Storage: Enabling Sustainable and Reliable Power for Operations in the Blue Economy

There is a growing market demand for an enabling technology which is the nerve center of a reliable and resilient electrical grid: intelligent battery storage. Responsible for augmenting output from resources such as wind and solar, helping to reduce the environmental impact of power generation and improving grid efficiency, battery storage is experiencing rapid growth on a worldwide scale.

Taking my native UK as an example, there is now over 20 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of onshore battery storage across more than 800 projects, with a record-breaking number of applications being submitted in Q2 of 2021. In early August, the UK became home to Europe’s largest storage battery with two 50 megawatt-hour (MWh) systems being connected to the grid in Wiltshire.

The US has also made significant progress to meet demand, with figures from the national Energy Information Administration showing a net increase in large-scale battery storage of 972MWh between 2010 and 2019. The costs associated with battery storage have also fallen by a substantial 72% between 2015 and 2019.

INTELLIGENT BATTERY STORAGE FOR THE BLUE ECONOMY

In the so-called Blue Economy, a term which describes the sustainable utilization of the marine environment, there is an increasing focus on decarbonization as well as the automation of dangerous underwater tasks and operations.

Battery storage in this underwater environment provides a local power enabler for remote and autonomous operations, reducing the need for people to be offshore therefore increasing safety, as well as improving the environmental impact associated with the transportation of personnel and equipment.

However, due to the remote nature of the offshore environment, it is simply not viable to connect offshore equipment directly to the onshore grid for smaller underwater operations such as environmental monitoring. Instead, through a combination of ocean energy and intelligent battery storage and management, an underwater micro-grid can be developed to power these remote assets in a sustainable and reliable way.

AN INTELLIGENT ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

EC-OG, a leader in intelligent energy management and storage technologies for the energy industry, has developed a modular, scalable battery storage platform and gateway for renewable energy to high value underwater assets. The Halo system has been specifically designed for the harsh underwater environment, to provide a reliable, uninterrupted power supply for use primarily on the seabed.

A fundamental basis of the Halo system is its Intelligent Energy Management System (IEMS). The IEMS, a completely unique offering in the marketplace, is a fully integrated battery management system which autonomously maximizes available capacity of the battery system in real time. This allows the IEMS to monitor, control and protect the generation and storage system, alongside providing safety functionality.

Halo can enable longer duration operations through its high energy density and efficiency of the battery platform. This is particularly important for cost reduction of environmental monitoring and leak detection for pipelines and other underwater structures.

A WORLD FIRST DEMONSTRATION

The Halo system is part of a world first demonstration project where C-Power, a wave energy developer, will demonstrate its SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system (AOPS) in partnership with the US Department of Energy and US Navy.

The AOPS provides in-situ power, energy storage, and real-time data and communications to enable autonomous, connected, and resident offshore technologies. The configurations of an AOPS are flexible, allowing them to meet the needs of a wide array of customer applications. Examples include unmanned offshore activities such as subsea resident vehicle recharging and environmental monitoring, where it can provide in-situ power, energy storage, and real-time data and communications to autonomous underwater vehicles, sensor packages and operating equipment.

With sea trials set to begin in Q4 this year at the US Navy Wave Energy test site off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, this will be the first time that an integrated battery storage and wave energy system such as this will deliver energy to a subsea payload.

EC-OG will supply its Halo lithium-ion battery system which will be fully integrated with the AOPS, providing the seafloor base unit and the payload interfaces for power, data, and communications. Other project partners include Saab, BioSonics and Franatech.

THE FUTURE OF UNDERWATER POWER

A further project where Halo is being used as part of an underwater demonstration is the second phase of the Renewables for Subsea Power Project; where EC-OG will provide the gateway for wave energy into a subsea hydrocarbon production control system. The project has E&P support from Harbour Energy, with Baker Hughes, Mocean Energy, the Net Zero Technology Centre and Modus completing the consortium. Another active project for EC-OG is in battery storage and energy management for offshore wind platforms, an area which requires modular battery systems for long duration offshore energy storage and auxiliary services.

Projects such as these demonstrate the value that a reliable intelligent battery system can bring to underwater operations, enabling decarbonization and improving reliability. Over the next few years, I expect that we will see rapid technical innovations as the applications for battery storage widen.

We are predicting that battery storage technology will become integrated across the underwater environment, including underwater substations, as well as in maritime operations such as vessel power. There may even be applications in harsh, difficult to power onshore environments and grid services—let’s challenge conventional operations and see how far this nerve center technology can take us.

For more information, visit: www.ec-og.com

This story was originally featured in ON&T September 2021. Click here to read more.