Batteries

Batteries shows every battery connected to your account, what each one is doing right now, and how a site battery keeps a location's grid import under the target you set.

The tab sits on the Energy management page, next to Load balancing. A battery that serves a site works together with load balancing: the battery covers the peaks first, and the chargers are only turned down when the battery cannot cover the peak on its own.

Read the battery list

Each row is one battery, with its Battery name, the Location it is assigned to, its State, its Charge, its Power, who is in Control, and when it was Last seen. For a battery that serves a site, Grid limit shows whether the grid limit mode is On or Off and what the site is doing, and Grid import shows the import against the target. The live readings refresh every ten seconds.

Click a row to open the battery's page.

The State column tells you whether the battery can be relied on right now:

Assign a battery to a location

A battery is shown under the location it is assigned to, and the admins who can see that location can see and use the battery. A battery that is not assigned yet reads Not assigned.

If your account can assign batteries, the list has Assign at the end of each row. It opens Battery location and name, where you pick the Location and, if you like, give the battery a Name that is shown instead of its technical name. Save asks you to confirm with Assign this battery? before anything changes. Remove from location takes the battery off the location again, after its own confirmation.

Check one battery

The top of the battery's page shows four figures:

• State of charge: how full the battery is, as a share of its usable range.
• Power now: above zero when the battery supplies the site, below zero when it charges.
• Can charge and Can discharge: how much power the battery can take in or give out right now.

For a battery that serves a site, Grid total power shows what the whole site is drawing from the grid.

The Control card says who is driving the battery. On site means the battery follows its own settings and the platform is not driving it. Platform means the grid limit mode is steering it, with the Target power it has been given. Open alarms are listed under Open alarms with their Code, Severity and what they say.

Keep a site under its grid limit

When the battery serves a site, its page has a Grid connection section with the site's name, the grid limit switch, a Grid import gauge with the Target and the Hard limit marked on it, the site's current state with a one line hint, the Next recharge window, and the Grid limits card.

Switching the mode On asks Switch the grid limit mode on? and explains what happens: the platform takes control of the battery and uses it to hold the grid import under the target, and during a recharge window the battery charges from the grid. Switching it Off asks Switch the grid limit mode off?: the battery goes back to its own control, any cap on the chargers is taken off, and the grid import is no longer held under the target. If the site is holding its import down at that moment, the confirmation says so, so you know you are giving that up.

While the mode is on, this is how it behaves:

• The battery discharges to keep the grid import at the target.
• During a recharge window it charges from the grid back up to the level you chose, while staying within the target.
• Outside a recharge window the battery does not charge on purpose. With no window set, it never does.
• If the import reaches the hard limit, the chargers are turned down at once.

The state of the site tells you whether you need to do anything:

Set the grid limits

The Grid limits card shows the current values. Edit opens them in a dialog, and Save stores them and closes it.

• Target (kW): the grid import you want the site to stay under. It must be lower than the hard limit.
• Hard limit (kW): the import the site must never go over.
• Recharge windows: one or more periods, From and To, in the site's own time zone, when the battery may charge from the grid. A window may run past midnight.
• Charge to reach by the end of a window (%): how full the battery should be when a window ends.
• Charger cap: Always, within the target and what the battery can give keeps the chargers inside the target at all times. Only when the battery is exhausted leaves the chargers free until the battery runs out.

Under Advanced settings you can fine tune how it reacts: Deadband (kW), how far the import may drift from the target before anything moves; Step size (kW), how much the battery changes at a time, empty for full power at once; Lowest charger cap (kW), the lowest the chargers may be turned down to; and Charger zone limit (kW), what the chargers' zone may take in total.

Look back at what happened

Activity is one feed of everything the battery and its site went through: alarms, grid limit changes, control changes and connection changes. The filters All, Alarms, Grid limit, Control and Connection narrow it down.

Two charts sit beside it, for 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days:

• Grid import: what the site drew from the grid, with the target and the hard limit as dashed lines and the Peak import for the period.
• Battery: the battery's power on the left axis and its state of charge on the right.

Each point is an hourly average. Every reading the battery reports is listed under Show all readings.

Who sees Batteries

• The tab needs the Energy module on your admin account, the same as the Load balancing tab.
• Switching the grid limit mode and changing the grid limits additionally needs Load balancing access. Without it, the values are shown read only, with the line Only an admin with the load balancing permission can change these.

Common questions

Chargers at limit. Is something broken? No. The site asked for more than the target allows and the battery could not cover all of it, so the chargers were turned down to hold the limit. It is real for the drivers charging there, so if it happens often, look at the target, the recharge windows or the charger cap.

Why does the battery not charge during the day? It only charges on purpose inside a recharge window. Check the windows on the Grid limits card. With none set, the battery never charges on purpose.

The battery says Battery exhausted. It has reached its lower limit. The chargers hold the target on their own until the next recharge window fills it up again.

A battery says Stopped for safety. The connection was lost while it was being steered, so it stopped itself at 0 kW to be safe. Once the connection is back it is steered again.

What happens if I switch the grid limit mode off? The battery goes back to its own control, any cap on the chargers is removed, and the site's grid import is no longer held under the target.

Why can I see the limits but not change them? Changing them needs Load balancing access on top of the Energy module. Ask your account owner to add it.

I cannot find a battery in the list. It is only shown to admins who can see the location it is assigned to. Ask whoever manages your batteries to assign it to the right location.