Energy storage managed remotely

NorthStar, the Swedish-American energy storage provider, has introduced a remote management solution at Intelec in Austin, Texas. The solution, named NorthStar ACE (Advanced Connected Energy), which will change the way energy storage is managed. NorthStar ACE will be deployed in select installations during Q4 2016 and be fully available in the market from Q1 2017.

About 15-20 million batteries are purchased each year for telecom site backup power. More than 50% of these are replaced prematurely due to insufficient control throughout the product life cycle. Batteries are not properly managed and maintained in warehouses, installations are incorrectly performed and in operation the batteries are exposed to suboptimal power system settings, elevated temperatures and theft, resulting in shortened battery life. With NorthStar ACE, this is about to change.

“Voice and data service is something that many take for granted. But in the end it all comes down to having reliable power. NorthStar ACE will give operators and tower companies a powerful solution to gain full visibility and control of their energy storage, without even having to set foot on site. We will see the total cost of ownership reduce dramatically, as NorthStar ACE helps prevent most battery failures, thereby increasing network uptime and reducing costs for batteries and related operating expenses”, says CEO Hans Lidén.

NorthStar ACE is a fully integrated and cost optimized solution combining Bluetooth communication with an Internet of Things (IoT) concept. The user can retrieve real time and historical performance data wirelessly, both locally through a smartphone app and remotely through a cloud service. The batteries are managed from manufacturing throughout the life of the product. The cloud service is built with a fleet management approach, where data is aggregated and displayed on a network level, but still only requires a few clicks to display detailed data for a single site or battery.

“Until now a battery has been seen as a passive component that is installed and then forgotten. Our NorthStar ACE concept is about to change this completely by bringing innovation together with true and tangible customer values and make AGM technology an optimal opex/capex balance for the coming years”, says Hans Lidén.

NorthStar ACE is well received among key customers who have been introduced to the solution and is seen as a true game changer in the industry. The solution will be fully available from Q1 2017. It will initially target telecom and other standby applications, with plans to move the technology into other applications in the near future.