Schneider Electric and Saft today announced a partnership agreement to develop and supply an electrical energy storage system (EESS) to industrial and commercial energy users. The combined power conversion and battery storage systems will help businesses maximise self-consumption of renewable generation and other onsite energy resources, optimise energy bills, enable more remunerative participation in demand-response programmes, and provide a backup power supply to help ride through grid blackouts.
The EESS will feature Saft Li-ion battery technology that supports thousands of highly dynamic charge and discharge cycles, guaranteeing high efficiency and long life. Scalable battery blocks of 100 kW power rating with 50 kWh storage capacity will enable a high degree of flexibility and adaptation to meet a customer’s current and future needs. The battery components integrate tightly with the Schneider Electric power conversion system, and will respond to commands from a smart gateway and cloud-based platform. The combined solution analyses onsite energy generation assets, storage system capacity, and building load trends, while managing demand-response requests from the smart grid. The system and components have been tested thoroughly by the partners to ensure high reliability and functionality.
‘Saft is well known for being a leader in high performance lithium-ion battery technology’, noted François Borghese, offer manager for Schneider Electric. ‘As a specialist in energy management and smart grid solutions, Schneider Electric plans to deliver a comprehensive range of electrical energy storage systems to our customers. We consider the Saft partnership to be a perfect fit in terms of their strengths in battery development, qualification, and manufacturing.’
‘Schneider Electric’s competence in smart building technology, energy management, and energy conversion systems combines perfectly with Saft’s experience in delivering complete, kilowatt-to-megawatt sized energy storage systems’, said Michael Lippert, marketing and business development manager for Saft. ‘Our combined solutions will enable smooth integration of renewable energies with electricity grids.’
The first combined energy storage system will be installed during the summer of 2013 for Syndicat Départemental d’Énergies du Morbihan (SDEM), in the Brittany region of France. The project will involve the design and construction of the country’s first demonstrator prototype of a smart grid-ready energy storage and management system for an office building. The complete solution will integrate electric vehicles and maximize consumption from local solar and wind energy production, while helping maintain power availability during potential grid blackouts.