Tales of BESS #1 - Case Study : Root Cause Analysis
Root Cause Analysis – Internal Communication issue: 20MW / 20MWh (UK)
The client was looking for an independent third party to review a 20MW/20MWh BESS asset capability to enter and participate in ancillary services (DC/DM/DR) as well as assessing the overall reliability of the control systems (coms between RTM, SCADA and BESS/PCS).
Greensolver team has been appointed to establish the root cause of 3 main issues encountered during the SAT period, and evaluate the reliability of the mitigation action carried out :
- Issue 1: communication misfunction between the Battery OEM’s BMS and the PLC of the SCADA
- Issue 2: impossibility to pass the tests for DC, DM et DR services
- Issue 3: communication outage between Battery containers and the PLC of the SCADA
Greensolver also assessed in parallel the Balancing Strategy of the Battery OEM.
Greensolver team well conducted the analysis by flagging the root cause and mitigation action reliability:
- Issue 1: bad MODBUS protocol configuration due to uncompliant MSS setting in the Battery OEM BMS
- Issue 2: uncompliant operational policy of the Battery BMS during standby period leading to greater latency of the system response and preventing being compliant with DC/DM/DR requirements
- Issue 3: uncompliant MODBUS protocol configuration following the mitigation action done to solve issue 2
Regarding Balancing Strategy, main risks raised concerned improving the SOC calibration and SOC calculation accuracy.
Written by David Roissé
