Investing in battery energy storage systems
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) have become a key element of the sustainable development and energy transition initiatives by governments around the world.
The U.S. government allocated $370 billion as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to finance climate change and renewable energy initiatives. 30% of that is going directly toward energy storage equipment. China on the other hand, is growing its domestic energy sector by aiming to achieve a 30-gigawatt energy storage scale by 2025.
Because of these and numerous other global investments, energy storage technology is becoming considered the “fifth pillar” in the power grid system, among the other four of generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption.
The growth of BESS
BESS has evolved beyond being a simple charging and discharging device and has become an advanced power intelligence management system merging power flow with data flow. “To optimize power usage, BESS operations entail battery management and create secure network connections to exchange data with power generation and the grid.”
But with every advancement comes a challenge. Due to these improvements in BESS, power and automation system providers are seeing networking and cybersecurity challenges. Although in the past connectivity was the main requirement for network transmission, with the way BESS has become integrated into national power grids, network availability and cyber security have become more imperative.
Due to this, industrial network and industrial control cyber security technologies have been included in critical infrastructures.
Four considerations for BESS providers
There are four network technology requirements that should be considered by BESS providers when designing systems. These include monitoring network communication-related indicators, high-availability network architecture, and simplifying equipment IP management to increase network security. Finally, it is important to maintain compliance with international industrial control system cybersecurity standards or specifications.