Energy management platform company Wärtsilä Energy has launched an upgrade of its GEMS software product, which the company says can transform the way GWh-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) are managed in Australia.
The GEMS digital energy platform connects energy assets to markets and monitors, controls, and optimises assets at both site and portfolio levels, with the new iteration, GEMS 7 operating autonomously to support multi-GWh-scale energy storage projects.
In Australia, Wärtsilä uses the GEMS management system at project sites it built including the South Australian AGL Energy Torrens Island 250 MW / 250 MWh BESS, and in New South Wales, Origin Energy’s Eraring Power Station, Stage 1 BESS (460 MW / 920 MWh) and Stage 2 BESS (240 MW/1,030 MWh).
Like previous versions, GEMS 7 provides a single, unified platform in which plant owners can control and monitor project hardware, including BESS, renewable and thermal generation assets, as well as full balance of plant assets.
The new iteration allows users to comply with dynamic utility and market regulations quickly and easily as they adapt to renewable energy sources.
Wärtsilä Software Product Management General Manager Ruchira Shah told pv magazine the technology is well suited to Australian energy market-specific challenges and aligns to the country’s 32 GW in renewables by 2030 commitment.
“There are numerous benefits to the GEMS 7 update. Not only are we now enabling large scale projects, but we are also enabling more intuitive visualisation of those projects,” Shah said.
“For small projects, it’s easy to visualise a site on a single screen, because there might only be a few inverters and battery units. For a large project, you need to have the ability to zoom in and out of different sections of your plant. GEMS 7 enables this.”
Image: Wärtsilä Energy
The technology also includes expanded alarm features and algorithms to enable cell balancing and state of charge calibration.
Shah said a desire and need to continuously be update the GEMS platform to meet the needs of customers has been a driver for the latest rendition.
“Two of the biggest trends we see among customers are, a movement to increased BESS size and increasing complexity in grid code requirements and a desire for batteries to perform advanced functionality like synthetic inertia, black start, and grid forming,” Shah said.
“Our GEMS 7 update is intended to support customers as they move to larger BESS sizes, while also maintaining our solid architectural platform that allows customers to quickly meet dynamic market requirements.”
Key features for GEMS 7 include the ability to control multi-GWh-scale BESS facilities within a fraction of a second, while providing asset visibilities at a battery cell level using more comprehensive and actionable visualisations for the management of large sites.
Optionality to restrict remote site control is a GEMS 7 capability, as are, reduced latency for fast frequency response events, critical in Australia, and ongoing module-level data access for users.
Site partitioning for allocation to different revenue streams is also a key feature.
“Generally, GEMS benefits customers by providing a platform that can easily be adapted for new markets and new grid code requirements, which means when a new market becomes available, customers can quickly enter into that market if it is lucrative,” Shah said.
“Another benefit of our platform is that we retain module-level data. This enables us to see operational issues that may go unnoticed or absent in that data.”
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