Battery Metals

Tesla, fresh from the success of its newly-opened big battery in South Australia, has joined 18 other groups competing for the right to build another big battery, this time in the Northern Territory.

Expressions of interest for a big battery in the Darwin-Katherine network – with a nominal capacity of between 25MW and 45MW, and storage of 30 minutes and 1.5 hours – closed on Monday, with 19 companies responding.

Apart from Tesla, there was interest from Infigen Energy, Electranet, MPower, UGL, and Carnegie’s Energy Made Clean, along with New Zealand’s Vector (which is building a 5MW battery in Alice Springs), and international groups Kokam, Mitsui, and Alstom, among others listed here.

The government-owned utility Territory Generation wants the battery to provide contingency frequency control ancillary services (FCAS), reduce the required spinning reserve from its various gas and diesel generators, provide peak shaving and ultimately allow for more solar PV in the local grid.

Tesla has already built the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery in South Australia, located next to the Hornsdale wind farm, and will build a 20/34MWh battery next to the Bulgana wind project in Victoria that will provide electricity to a new Nectar Farms greenhouse.

Other battery storage projects are springing up across the country, at the Wattle Point wind farm, at the Lincoln Gap wind farm (both in South Australia), at the Lakeland solar and storage project, and numerous other solar and wind installations.

Tesla is also said to be a front-runner for a battery storage project near Cairns, with Hornsdale owner Neoen, that could be bigger than Hornsdale – but Neon’s Franck Woitiez says those plans are in the very early stages, and will depend on the roll-out of Queensland’s upcoming renewable energy auction.

Territory Generation, meanwhile, says it needs a battery because it is running some 40-50MW of “spinning reserve” in the case of an outage of one of its fleet of gas generators, and fears this need may increase as more solar is added to the grid over the medium term.

The grid in Darwin and Katherine has demand ranging from just below 100MW to nearly 300MW, with an average of around 195MW.

So far, it has little in the way of solar PV, with only 10 per cent of households with rooftop solar and just eight larger scale solar installations (more than 100kW) totalling 8.2MW.

This includes the 5.5MW Darwin installation, pictured above, but could soon be joined by 12.5MW of solar at two RAAF installations, and a 25MW solar plant proposed for Katherine by a group known as Katherine Solar.

Territory Generation also expects household solar penetration to nearly triple to 29 per cent by 2025, and appears to have a conservative view on the grid’s ability to handle it.

“The fluctuations and step changes in generation due to cloud cover has negligible effect on power system stability at this stage,” it says in its tender documents.

“However, with penetration levels increasing to in excess of 10 per cent of the total load issues with voltage and frequency regulation start to arise.

“It is therefore a requirement that an energy storage system with sufficient capacity can supply during these periods of large solar PV capacity loss where machine ramp up/down rates are not fast enough to respond.”

However, it also notes that the battery will not be required for shifting solar output, or smoothing solar output, in the short term.

The utility wants the battery storage array to reduce the need for spinning reserve by around half, and is open to various configurations – between 25MW and 45MW of nominal capacity – and at least 30 minutes of storage.

Proposals are due by August/September this year, with the battery due to be in service by the end of the 2018/2019 financial year.

Iran is pursuing plans to connect its power grid with European electrical systems, and Armenia, a nation of about 3 million people northwest of Iran, is seen as playing a key role in the linkup.

“By setting up a regional electricity grid and boosting current power exchanges, Iran can connect its network with Georgia, Turkey, Slovenia and other European states through Armenia,” Alireza Daemi, deputy energy minister for planning and economic affairs, was quoted as saying by IRNA on Wednesday.

To the south, Armenia shares borders with Iran. To the west and the north, it is surrounded by Turkey and Georgia, two countries lying at the intersection of Asia and Europe.

Armenia is connected to Iran through two electricity lines and a third is under construction. According to reports, the new power line, to be completed by the end of 2018 at an estimated cost of $107 million, is part of an agreement between Iran, Russia, Armenia and Georgia to synchronize their power grids by 2019, paving the way for electricity exchange between Tehran and Moscow as part of their cooperation plans.

Daemi added that Iranian companies are due to build one of the power lines in Armenia, which will reach Georgia.

On the Energy Ministry’s measures to increase electric exchanges with Turkmenistan, Daemi said bilateral power trade is being carried out through two 230-kV lines, which are being upgraded to 400-kV power lines to minimize low voltage and wastage. Iranian officials say power wastage in Iran’s national grid has witnessed a 4.5% reduction, receding from 15% to 10.68% in the last four years.

According to Daemi, Iran has power trade with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Nakhchivan, and exports electricity to Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

With an installed power production capacity of 77,000 MW, Iran meets almost 80% of its electricity demand from aging thermal plants. It is reported that steps have been taken to gradually convert the conventional plants into efficient combined-cycle units.

Close to 12,000 MW are produced from hydroelectric plants and 1,000 MW from the sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr in the south.

In 2018, we live in a world in which technology has spread into our lives in incremental and subtle ways. We probably don’t realize technology’s impact on our daily routines because it feels so necessary and natural. Indeed, technology has transformed nearly every aspect of our life — except one. The aging and inefficient power markets in the US are almost untouched by technology, and it’s become a real problem as the US anticipates new directions for energy production and distribution.

Through a combination of technological, social, economic, and policy trends, the power grid became what the National Academy of Engineers described as “the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century.” According to EIA’s Short Term Energy Outlook for Feb. 2017, US annual energy expenditures in 2016 were 5.4% of GDP, and US citizens paid over $1 trillion on energy that year.

Assessments of global innovation place the US in the lower end of the top 10 countriescurrently exploring energy expansion, as the US has been delayed by insufficient investment in energy R&D relative to the size of our economy. You see, the US spent only around $6.4 billion on energy R&D in FY 2016.

EIA expects annual retail sales of electricity to the residential sector in 2018 to be 2.9% higher than sales in 2017. Moreover, the forecast for total US consumption of electricity is expected to grow by 1.3% in 2018 and by 0.5% in 2019. The US retail electricity price for the residential sector averaged 12.8 cents/kWh in October 2017, with annual average residential electricity prices expected to increase by a further 2% in 2018 and 3% in 2019.

Our high-technology society demands electricity to power nearly all new products that come to market. Today’s grid has grown in complexity as historical patterns give way to emerging trends that reflect technological advances in how electricity is generated and consumed. Cleaner energy production and engaged, responsive energy consumers are starting to reshape the grid.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the cost of generating power from onshore wind fell by 23% between 2010 and 2017, and projects are now regularly being commissioned at a levelized cost of electricity of 4 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), with a global weighted average of around 6 cents/kWh.

And yet it’s still not enough. Average consumers have little in the way of information or sources to help them realize that they can power their residences and places of business with clean, reasonable renewable energy.

But why are green choices often more expensive, especially when it comes to energy, when the underlying costs can be lower? Drift* is a company that wants to change this. Drift partners directly with power makers, working with them to reduce their production costs. When they save money, you save money, and you also get access directly to clean energy, which means zero-emissions energy costs for you.

Reforming the Energy Industry

New York has implemented the Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) comprehensive energy strategy, which helps consumers make more informed energy choices, develop new energy products and services, and protect the environment while creating new jobs and economic opportunity throughout the state. Drift supports these goals of putting more clean energy on the grid.

“We were inspired by REV in New York, rather than going to Boston or Chicago first. You start to see a group of regulators who understand the market and what the future opportunities are,” Drift Founder Greg Robinson says.

Historically, power flowed instantaneously from generators across a vast network of transmission and distribution lines before reaching consumers, who used it for home lighting, office electronics, and powering subway systems that move millions through New York City.

While the traditional power providers make more money when their customers use more power, Drift doesn’t. Customers pay a fee and, in return, Drift gets them access to the best energy prices in the market. Drift is a company that doesn’t ever want to be at odds with their customers.

“We are completely incentivized to lower the cost of energy,” Robinson says. “We want to find more local sources, more efficiencies, and strip out the middle person. We don’t lose money if your power bill goes down. But we probably won’t sign up many people if your bill goes up.”

Since its introduction, the five-seat Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) has gone from new kid to the world’s best selling plug-in hybrid in very short order. It also sets the stage for 2020, when Mitsubishi wants 20 per cent of its sales to be either fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. A tall order perhaps, but based upon the first drive of the Outlander PHEV, it is an attainable goal. It is offered in two basic trims — SE S-AWC and GT S-AWC, with an available Touring package on the former.

The Outlander PHEV’s powertrain is comprised of a 2.0-litre gas engine, two electric motors and a generator. The gas engine develops 117 horsepower and 137 pound-feet of torque, and works with an electric motor that adds 80 horsepower and 101 lb.-ft. of torque. This combination drives the front wheels through a single-speed transmission. The second electric motor, pumping out 80 horsepower and 144-lb.-ft. of torque, drives the rear wheels through a single-speed box. This layout gives the Outlander all-weel-drive — Super All Wheel Control (S-AWC), as Mitsubishi calls it, that includes a lock mode for trying times. It proved to be a match for the mechanical system found in the regular Outlander, in spite of its obvious differences.

Now, Mitsubishi does not list a net system output, but it should around 200 horsepower and 250 lb.-ft. of torque. The result is a run from rest to 100 km/h in about 10.5 seconds, and a 682-kilogram tow capability.

A 12 kWh lithium-ion battery, which sits in the central tunnel, supplies the electric side. From a full charge, it delivers 35 kilometres of electric-only driving — it, says Mitsubishi, beats the competition including the Volvo XC60 T8, which is rated at 27 kilometres. Using a 220-volt outlet, the Outlander takes 2.5 hours to fully recharge. The battery is also covered under Mitsubishi’s generous 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty.

The driver can also monitor the Outlander PHEV’s battery through a phone app. It shows state of charge, time to full charge, allows the cabin to be pre-conditioned, locates the Outlander by turning on the lights, and shows if any of the doors or the rear tailgate is ajar, among other things.

One of the keys to the manner in which the Outlander PHEV works is regenerative braking — with two electric motors harvesting otherwise waste energy it is proficient. The plus is found in steering wheel-mounded paddle shifters; they allow the driver to pick from six stages of regenerative braking. The base mode (B0) delivers very little “engine” braking, while level five (B5) amps it up to the point where the vehicle is slowed fairly quickly. That said, it is far from being a one pedal drive.

The system has three distinctly different drive modes. EV, which is the default mode, sees the Outlander PHEV cruise along using electrons alone. In Series mode the PHEV is driven electrically with the gas engine driving the generator to produce the electricity needed to support the battery. It comes into play when the battery nears depletion. Finally, Parallel mode sees the gas engine drive the Outlander PHEV with the electric motors chipping in when needed. Typically, it comes into play at speeds over 120 km/h, where it is more economical to use the gas engine than to generate electricity at these speeds. Likewise, if the driver gooses the gas pedal, it kicks in to bring shot of urgency to the acceleration.

What’s impressive is the manner in which the powertrain switches between its different operating modes — it is seamless and better than many of its peers because the different components are “rev-matched” to ease the transition.

There are also three driver-selectable modes. EV Priority uses the electric side until the battery charge is low. Battery Charge mode is exactly that — it can put an 80 per cent charge into the battery in 40 minutes. The third is Battery Save, which allows the driver to conserve the battery for a city run where it is more effective.

Dynamically, the Outlander PHEV mirrors its regular sibling in the manner in which it drives, with one notable exception — it is remarkably quiet, regardless of speed. Running up the Sea To Sky Highway, it reassuringly handled the twisty parts. Body roll was minimal, and the feel and feedback afforded by the steering was fast and precise. Conversely, about town the suspension then soaked up gnarly pavement in stride.

Performance-wise, the Outlander was also quick to react to a prod at the gas pedal, even when climbing a fairly steep grade. The foregoing is remarkable, given the 250-kilograms in additional mass the PHEV is carrying when compared to the V6-powered Outlander. Despite the added mass, the average fuel economy returned – on a run where the powertrain was not babied – did come as a pleasant surprise. At 5.1 L/100 kilometres, it’s frugal and then some. The upshot is there is very little to dislike.

As for compromises, there are remarkably few. The size of the gas tank shrinks — it measures 43-litres, compared to 60 in the regular, all-wheel-drive Outlander. In spite of the electric-only range, the PHEV enjoys it still shaves the combined driving range by over 100 km. The other difference is found in the trunk space — the PHEV’s floor is higher, and so the capacity drops from 968 litres to 861. Interestingly, the seat-down capacity is larger than the V6-powered seven-seater, at 2,209 litres. Neither of these nits should be enough to make a potential buyer think twice.

The cabin is pretty much mirrors the regular Outlander, with two exceptions. The centre console is different — the gear lever picks the gears and a button engages park. The other difference is the instrumentation; it shows what the powertrain is doing and what’s remaining in the battery and gas tank.

Base Outlander PHEVs, the SE S-AWC model, arrives with blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert; moving up to the fully loaded GT S-AWC trim adds forward collision avoidance with automatic braking and pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, a multi-view camera and automatic high beams.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, which is hitting dealers now, has a starting price of $42,998 for the SE S-AWC and tops out at $45,998 for the GT S-AWC. These prices are offset by provincial rebates — $2,500 in B.C., $4,000 in Quebec and $9,555 in Ontario.

When the power went out at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport at the start of last year’s holiday season, the lights went on inside the corporate boardrooms. That is, companies realized that if the world’s busiest airport could suffer a power outage, any enterprise would be vulnerable? What to do?

The country’s infrastructure is aging and businesses are susceptible to power outages. It can be the kind of thing that occurred in Atlanta, where a fire knocked out not just its its main source of electricity but also its ancillary sources. Or it could be from weather-related events, such hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes.

Some key technologies are now in the offing that might mitigate such events: on site generation that uses localized microgrids that are beefed up by energy storage. Consider microgrids, which can deliver power to a single building or an entire campus, either as its main source of power or auxiliary electricity if the main grid goes down: businesses can get a continuous flow of power even if there is a major weather event.

“If you have a highly centralized grid with a single large transformer that is taken out by high winds, electricity can still be generated at a smaller scale,” Guildo Jouret, chief digital officer for ABB, told this writer in an interview.

ABB, for example, has provided a microgrid system to integrate solar energy and supply power to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in prison during the apartheid era. Now a living museum, Robben Island had previously relied on fuel-thirsty, carbon-emitting diesel generators as the only source of electric power.

Essentially a small-scale electric grid, the new microgrid will substantially lower fuel costs and carbon emissions, enabling the island to run on solar power for at least nine months of the year, ABB said. As the main energy source, the microgrid will reduce carbon emissions and the fuel demands of the diesel generators, which previously required around 600,000 liters of fuel a year but now will serve primarily as a back-up.

Meanwhile, Jouret says that battery storage adds value because if there is a momentary lapse of grid power, the storage device can kick on instaneously and supply for minutes and hours, in some cases. That can ensure that business processes are not disturbed.

Consider the case of South Australia, where it has been a task to keep the lights on: Tesla installed a back up battery system there, which kicked in less than the second after the power went out. In this case, the batteries are soaking up excess energy.

So how does all this tie back into the Atlanta airport? A microgrid, for example, would act as an extension of the main grid. But it would have some on site generation and battery storage on site, says Jouret. So, if the main source goes down, the batteries take over. And shortly after that, the on site generators — which could be gas generators or renewable power — would start up.

“Nothing gets disrupted,” Jouret said. “After the batteries go into effect, the generation kicks in as long as there is enough enough fuel stored on site.”

Even more, he said that local generation enhanced by microgrids and battery storage improves the quality of power that businesses receive. Many businesses, for example, have processes that are sensitive to the rate of currents going back-and-forth, which should be 60-times per second, or at 60 hertz. If it drops, then it can disrupt companies and equipment can prematurely burn out.

Some forecasts say that the US economy loses more than $150 billion annually to power outages. They also erode customer satisfaction. As for the outage at Atlanta’s airport last December: about 1,000 flights were canceled for that one full day the airport was out-of-service, which affected millions of passengers — not to mention the range of businesses all tied to that travel like hotels.

For those reasons, along with the environmental benefits they bring, on site generation, microgrids and energy storage devices are making their way into the mainstream.