Novosibirsk State Technical University has created software to monitor the operation of the electricity storage system.
"There are problems with electricity in remote settlements, and interruptions often occur due to its uneven consumption. To balance the peaks of energy consumption, diesel generators, wind turbines, solar panels, and other generating energy sources are installed. The diesel generator has an optimal mode when all its characteristics are optimized for minimum wear and maximum power generation. However, not always enough energy is consumed for the engine to work in this mode, so an electric power storage device (a battery or several batteries with a control system) is installed in the diesel generator. With high consumption, electricity is generated from a diesel generator and consumed from a battery, and when consumption decreases, the generator gives excess electricity to the battery. Energy storage systems are complex, and their correct operation depends on many nuances. Monitoring is necessary to collect information about the characteristics of the battery and, to fix errors and their subsequent analysis. We have developed software that can be flexibly reconfigured for new hardware. A very wide range of functionality is available to the user of the system — up to the analysis of equipment errors that the system issues," said Alexander Yakimenko, Head of the Department of Computer Engineering at NSTU-NETI, Candidate of Technical Sciences.
The software includes a desktop operator program* for monitoring energy storage systems, a desktop administrator program for configuring energy storage systems, a software emulator of an energy storage system for debugging critical algorithms outside of real equipment (analog of a digital twin), an editor program for creating dialog boxes for highly specialized configurations of energy storage systems, a software module for detecting anomalies, a hardware configuration management system, and a system for remote deployment and updating of hardware configuration.
A mobile application has also been developed so that the operator can connect from anywhere to monitor the electric energy storage system. When developing the application, security issues were taken into account — the ability to access the equipment for someone who has permission to do so. Different user roles have appeared: viewing, making minimal changes, and completely reconfiguring the system.
"Work is currently underway on a forecasting system. The battery has a certain number of charge-discharge cycles, and then its capacity decreases. The predictive module will enable the system to inform the operator in a timely manner that some battery is beginning to become unusable or that certain nodes have failed. We also plan to make a light indication so that the system can use light to signal people at the facility that something is wrong with it," Alexander Yakimenko added.
* Desktop program — a program designed for use on personal computers/laptops.