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Hello, and welcome to AdventTech's Inotalk. I'm your host, Matt Dentino. Today's topic is battery energy storage systems. Or BESS. In this ever changing world of EVs of energy prosumers, not just consumers, renewable energy and, and, and aging grid structures, the ability to generate, store, distribute and recapture energy is a huge topic. In our conversation today, well, we'll begin with a a BESS one zero one class. And explain exactly what it is. We're gonna then talk trends and explain why it's so critical to future energy management. We'll look at some challenges from, an IoT integration point of view into a BES S system, as well as wrap up that part of the conversation with solutions. I mean, you can't talk about trends and needs and challenges without providing some workable solutions as well. So to help me unpack all of this and, and to present our case to you today, we We have with us from Powell Energy, Mr. Justin Wolf, VP of software development, and from advantech, we have Ken Cow, Renewal sector lead. Justin, Ken, I wanna thank you both for being here with us today. And now let me set the table, with this. Energy storage has been integral, and it's been an integral part of energy generation transmission, distribution, consumption just forever. But but with the growth of renewable energy and the need for decarbonization and decentralization and then digitization. Energy storage has become more important than ever before. And to facilitate that ESS technology, that's energy storage system technology. That capability has grown just exponentially. Uh-uh, we're gonna talk now about the parts and pieces of that kind of ESS system, and a primary component of that ESS solution is our topic today, a BESS or a battery energy storage system. So let's jump into a quick BESS one hundred and one lesson. What is the battery energy storage system? You're gonna have to hold on tight here because we're we're gonna we're gonna cover a lot of acronyms. So get your pencils ready and and write some of these down. Can ingest and I'll explain more about them as we move on. First one is ESS energy storage system. So the energy storage system is is is a technology that that stores electrical energy typically generated from renewable sources like solar or wind for for later use. That's the overarching concept. Okay? Battery energy storage systems or the PESS is is the most common type of an ESS. They're they're comprised of battery packs and, in battery management systems. So there there's another acronym for BMS battery management system, that's a critical component of an energy storage system because it's It's responsible for monitoring and controlling the battery cell's performance to ensure that you get optimal operation and prevent any kind of damage. Alright. Here comes another, another one for you. Power, conversion system, a PCS. The PCS is is the heart of the energy storage system. It's responsible for converting the DC power stored in the battery to AC power that can be used in the home or the industrial or commercial application. Moving on, an energy management system, an EMS. That's responsible for managing and controlling the entire energy storage system, including the battery, the power control system, that PCS, and then other components to ensure efficient and safe operation In addition to those key components, and then any energy storage system is also going to require an environmental control system. An ECS. That maintains the stable operating conditions. Okay? And then it also allows for communication and enables data transfer between the various components of the system and maybe external systems like a power grid. Okay? So with that as our backdrop, Let me introduce Justin Wolf, vice president of software development for Powell Energy. Justin, thanks for being here today. Thanks for having me here. Yeah, Powell's been making battery systems for about a decade. And we've certainly come a long way since those first projects We have about our seventeen gigawatt hours, now either awarded under construction or deployed in the US and several other countries around the world. Our largest operational sites are here in the US right now, but our biggest project to date is actually in Australia. The Water of Super Battery is going to help supply eight million people in and around Sydney with reliable power. The battery stores one point seven gigawatt hours of energy, and can deliver that at eight hundred and fifty megawatts of power. At sites, this size, we have about fifteen hundred centipede segments. Each of those has hundreds of battery cells, dozens of embedded systems, and an IoT computer that's part of our telemetry acquisition and our command and control system. Here in the US, the inflation reduction act is accelerating investment in energy security and climate change programs. This should boost investment in products like Palins, and analysts are expecting an almost seventy five percent increase in the gigawatt hours of energy storage between now and twenty thirty. This broad program uses federal investment tax credits to incentivize companies to develop and deploy technologies that will help with electrification and decarbonization. To protect this investment, our Stack OS software has three major components to ensure that the batteries are operated efficiently, safely, and cost effectively. This isn't just in operational cost, but also lowers the cost of maintenance, and it improves our reliability. Since battery life is directly related to the temperatures that they're operated at, we monitor each of the hundreds of cells in a segment. Remember, there are over a thousand of these segments at the larger site So that's a lot of cells that we have to monitor. This state is used by our three management systems, the energy management system that controls the entire site. The thermal management system controls segment heating and cooling, and the battery management system controls battery state and energy movement. Without this management software that I'm responsible for, these large scale sites just wouldn't be safe or cost effective. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you, Justin. That is great information.