ZnBr Flow Battery Targets Commercial and Industrial Buildings
ZBB Energy Corporation announced today the introduction of a zinc-bromine (ZnBr) flow battery specifically designed for behind the meter energy storage applications in the commercial and industrial building market. The Agile Flow Battery has been engineered based upon ZBB's flow battery design expertise, it's breadth of real world application data derived from dozens of installations, and stringent lab testing at ZBB and Meineng Energy, ZBB's China joint venture company. The Agile Flow Battery enables a large amount of energy to be deployed from a relatively small "footprint" within a building, for applications requiring up to 8 hours of discharged energy. The Agile Flow Battery is available for configurations of up to 1.0MWh, with shipments beginning in the 2nd half of 2015.
The distributed energy generation market for commercial and industrial buildings is in the early stages of what is predicted to be phenomenal growth. While implementation of solar PV is now common in many regions, the implementation of energy storage into the distributed generation system is in its nascent stage and can enable the owner of the building to perform many more applications that can both reduce electricity expense and generate cash for the stakeholders. Much of the energy storage deployed to date in the commercial and industrial building market is limited to short duration power applications, such as PV ramp support, or UPS for data back-up.
The Agile Flow Battery opens new pathways to realizing reduced operating costs and actually generating cash for the owner, all while delivering safe, low cost energy in large amounts that can be discharged for hours. The building owner can now utilize the Agile Flow Battery to consume hours' worth of energy stored during low rate time periods for use during high rate time periods, perform peak shaving, store underutilized PV energy for later use, participate in demand response programs with "smart export" of electricity to the utility, and access critical back-up power for elevators or other emergency load requirements in the event of a grid outage.
"The Agile Flow Battery was designed from the start for commercial and industrial building applications, and the performance and safety of the product is ideal for this emerging market. Advanced storage technology, in conjunction with ZBB's leading behind the meter energy management system products, position us to lead the transition towards full connectivity between the building level power plants and the utilities that want to utilize that electricity in the grid," said Brad Hansen, President and Chief Operating Officer of ZBB Energy.
"The Agile Flow Battery also represents a paradigm shift in product development at ZBB, as the cycle time from start of concept design to completion of prototype build was less than 5 months. The quick time from concept to data validated prototype completion is attributable to leveraging the complementary capabilities between ZBB Energy and Meineng Energy, including engineering, supply chain, assembly and testing. The Agile battery has been undergoing reliability cycling almost continuously since initial powering on of the system in early December at Meineng's test center. The battery has performed very well, demonstrating high efficiency and solid reliability."
In the United States alone, there are more than 5.5 million commercial, industrial and occupied multi-tenant buildings that spend more than $200 billion on electricity every year, offering a huge potential savings pool from which to draw. Additionally, the trend towards higher electricity rates, renewables mandates and phase-out of aging CO2 emitting energy producing assets makes these buildings prime targets for installation of distributed generation. Leading utilities are beginning to envision and embrace a future where these installations are viewed as energy producing assets rather than grid disruptors.
To move to that future, in which the building owner can turn their property into a cash-generating asset that can reduce electricity charges and sell the surplus to the utility, building level energy storage and advanced energy management systems are required. The Agile Flow Battery is the latest addition to ZBB's leading product portfolio of solutions for behind the meter systems that store and manage electricity. When coupled with ZBB's patented "Auto-Sync" DC-Bus modular control platform, ZBB provides building owners with a scalable solution that can be customized for any application, effectively "future-proofing" the building as various monetization opportunities become reality.
"Our 'Auto-Sync' DC-Bus modular control platform is foundational to high efficiency and simplicity of multiple A/C and D/C input integration," said Hansen. "Auto-Sync is an elegant, simple and cost effective approach for creating "Net Zero" or "Smart Export" building capability. The 'Agile Flow Battery' brings a leading energy storage product into our portfolio, creating a powerful solution for sale of systems or creating power purchase agreements."
