Investors in large-scale battery projects are recognising the power of software, argues Steve Hanawalt of Power Factors.

In mid-July, the 100MW / 100MWh Minety battery energy storage system (BESS) was completed in Wiltshire, southern England. Something of a landmark project for the UK and Europe’s battery storage industries, here’s what’s happened so far, as reported by our sister sites Current± and Solar Power Portal.

Electric school buses in the US could be turned into a virtual power plant (VPP) resource, through a new partnership between student transport supplier Zum Services and artificial intelligence-driven distributed energy software company AutoGrid.

Global technology company Honeywell has launched its own battery energy storage system (BESS) Platform, which includes integrated controls, monitoring and forecasting capabilities.

By the end of 2022, the volume of installed batteries in the UK is set to outstrip the demand from frequency services, marking a key tipping point for Dynamic Containment (DC).

New software that helps businesses and utilities in the US to assess the value of energy storage has been launched by Sandia National Laboratories, while the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has launched its own platform for calculating the value of distributed energy resources (DERs).

Smart software and artificial intelligence can forecast everything from how much electricity will be generated and when it will be generated, to the right strategies for putting that electricity into different market opportunities. Energy-Storage.news speaks with Matt Penfold, VP of business development for digital at Fluence, about how the company has added 1.5GW to its portfolio of renewables and storage under management in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM).

Green Mountain Power, a utility company in Vermont, has begun using Tesla Powerwall energy storage systems in customers’ homes as a frequency regulation resource to benefit the regional grid.

Battery energy storage system (BESS) and controls technology will be provided to a “smart industrial park” project in Thailand by Hitachi ABB Power Grids.

Canadian Solar has signed a new partnership with UK-headquartered energy storage optimisation specialist Habitat Energy.