BATTMON - Increasing the usable charging capacity, service life and safety of battery storage systems in urban areas

Starting point / motivation

To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by at least 40% by 2030. As approximately 90% of global CO2 emissions currently come from fossil fuels, the transition from fossil fuels to electricity, and in particular its storage, is the key factor in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Urban areas are of key importance, as they are responsible for nearly 40% of global CO2 emissions.

Energy storage therefore offers great opportunities to accelerate the transition to low-carbon energy use and decarbonization and to achieve a major global impact.

In order to efficiently use battery storage in buildings, the following improvements are needed

• Increased lifetime
• Increased efficiency and utilization of full battery capacity
• Increased safety against thermal runaway (fire, explosion)

In modern battery storage systems, the battery management system (BMS) monitors the state of charge (SoC) and state of health (SoH) and optimizes the operation of the battery storage system. Possible overcharging and undercharging as well as overheating and the resulting cell damage are prevented.

However, the estimation of the state of the storage system is currently error-prone and inaccurate. For this reason, a safety margin is assumed for the SoC, which limits the operating range of the battery storage system and therefore its efficiency.

Current trends are also moving towards immersion-cooled batteries, which offer improved cell cooling and should therefore lead to an increase in lifetime. However, it is difficult to implement spatially resolved temperature measurements to infer cell aging.

Contents and goals

The overall goal of BATTMON is therefore to develop an improved method for determining the condition of battery storage systems for applications in buildings in order to increase their efficiency, lifetime and safety

The improvement will be achieved through the development and integration of new foil sensors and AI-based analysis, which will also detect cell damage at an early stage, thus reducing the risk of fire and explosion.

Methods

To gain experience in the real operation of a storage system with the new sensor technology, a battery storage system in Weiz will be tested over a period of several months.

Increasing the acceptance, attractiveness and use of battery storage systems among the population is a particular concern of the consortium. Therefore, marketing materials for events and consultations for different target groups will be developed and events and consultations for different stakeholders will be organized.

Furthermore, it is planned to integrate this project into the WEIZplus Reallabor, where a separate lead project on battery storage will be established in the future.

Expected results

Finally, the work in the project aims at providing comprehensive expertise for the introduction and implementation of the EU Battery Pass, which will play a key role in the future energy transition in Austria.

Project management

Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH

Project or cooperation partners

• ATT advanced thermal technologies GmbH
• e.battery systems AG
• Green Testing Lab GmbH
• W.E.I.Z. Foschungs & Entwicklungs gGmbh

Stefan Grebien
Steyrergasse 17
A-8010 Graz
Tel.: +43 (316) 876-5612
E-mail: stefan.grebien@joanneum.at
Web: www.joanneum.at