The EnSync Home Energy System includes high-efficiency “LFP” lithium-ion batteries, a Matrix Energy Management system with 9-kWac output capacity, modular energy storage capacity of 9-kWh increments, modular DC-DC converters and the DER Flex Internet of Energy control platform.
Brad Hansen, president and CEO of EnSync Energy Systems, believes solar + storage for the home is still “in the dark ages.” EnSync Energy Systems has built a reputation for deploying high-value distributed energy resources (DERs) in the C&I segment. So why is Hansen discussing residential solar + storage? Well, EnSync has just launched a Home Energy System that will not only address some of the antiquated architecture of current home storage systems but also invent an entirely new project design concept.
At the basic level, the EnSync Home Energy System combines solar, energy storage, power electronics and Internet of Energy control into one platform. It has the advantage of leveraging technology and lessons learned from EnSync’s C&I business to achieve an outcome like lessening thermal stability concerns of repackaged lithium-ion batteries that are often used in a home energy storage applications. Instead, EnSync pairs a residential-scale version of its modular Matrix Energy Management system with thermally resilient lithium-ion batteries and its DER Flex Internet of Energy solution that are all designed to work together.
“Most [current systems] are significantly underpowered and cannot support the entire home if the grid electricity is out, or they have issues disconnecting and reconnecting to the grid during an outage,” Hansen says. “If the home is off-grid, many cannot reliably perform if high inrush currents are created by the start-up of appliances like refrigerators or air conditioners.”
Peer-to-peer exchange
This is the part that could change the sector. The EnSync Home Energy System introduces True Peer-to-Peer energy exchange technology. The goal here is to enable individual residential units in a property to be linked into a network behind the utility meter to provide highly efficient, direct energy exchange between units. Suddenly property developers, property managers and homeowners’ associations can provide seamless and economical transfer of excess energy from any given residence to any other residence in the network with excess demand via EnSync’s DC-Link.
“The future of the electricity market will be individual homes and building owners operating in a ‘spot market’ for the buying and selling of electricity across a network,” Hansen says. “At EnSync, our mission for the company is simple: the democratization of energy through innovative and economic energy systems. Homeowners and property owners that install our products today do so with the confidence that as the market for energy continues to be radically changed, they are not only prepared for it, but can capitalize on it and profit from it.”
A single residence, multifamily building or entire neighborhood could reduce consumption on the grid and possibly open up a new revenue stream. The sharing of electricity between interconnected residences on a True Peer-to-Peer energy exchange network prioritizes the use of solar generated or stored electricity ahead of that from the utility grid for any residence in the network. The network can also be configured as “non-export,” meaning no excess generation for any unit goes back to the utility grid. This capability is becoming more critical as several states and jurisdictions prohibit or economically penalize energy export.
Additionally, many utilities are in the early stages of implementing time-of-day electricity rates and are already levying punitive demand charges on customers. The evolving rate structures and impact of resident vacancy rates, vacation schedules and time-of-day load profiles frequently make deploying solar generation uneconomical for large portions of property development. Virtual net-metering and virtual peer-to-peer programs are fraught with excessive complexity and administrative overhead.
EnSync will initially target the multi-residential property market for its solution, and then broaden its market presence. At the time of launch, the company had already built a sizable order backlog for the EnSync Home Energy System. The Michaels Development Co. was the first to sign a 20-year PPA to build a solar and energy storage system at the Keahumoa Place affordable housing development, a greenfield project in Hawaii that is expected to complete construction in 2019. Savings from the PPA will finance the construction of a 750-kW PV panel-covered canopy that will simultaneously produce energy and shade the development’s parking lot, as well as a 500-kW hour energy storage system, with individual modules interconnected by the proprietary True Peer-to-Peer DC-Link behind each unit’s utility meter.
“True Peer-to-Peer revolutionizes the economics of solar + storage in residential properties like Keahumoa, by dramatically reducing the negative impacts of vacancy rates, absence during peak generation times, vacation schedules and micro-loading effects within each unit from appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners,” Hansen says.
— Solar Builder magazine
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