Public Funding for Brill Power Limited

To develop and commercialise a battery management system (BMS) product for grid-scale energy storage, which will enable Brill Power to enter a new market.

Brill Power is conducting a feasibility study for developing its novel Battery Management System (BMS) technology for application in a 49.9MW grid-scale solar plus Energy Storage System (ESS) deployed by Narec Distributed Energy (Narec DE). Solar plus storage combines clean, renewable, but variable solar energy generation with a means to store that energy and help to match supply with demand. This can assist in the avoidance of network reinforcement and can also contribute grid services such as frequency response. Co-locating solar PV generation with battery storage is the most effective and profitable way of deploying these two technologies (US Department of Energy, 2019). System costs are reduced by ~8% (NREL, 2019) by sharing hardware components, a grid connection, land use, site preparation, permitting and developer overhead. In addition, revenues are increased by optimal utilisation of variable solar energy. The problem with combining solar PV with energy storage is that lithium-ion batteries are expensive, and to create a viable business case the battery needs to be able to tap into multiple revenue streams of grid services. However, existing battery technologies are very sensitive to their use cases and the more they are utilized, the faster they degrade, the shorter their life and the greater the safety risks. This was confirmed recently by DNV-GL, who have investigated one of 28 large-scale battery fires in South Korea and found that intensive use of the batteries led to extreme wear-and-tear, which was an underlying cause of the fire (IHS Markit, 2020). Brill Power has developed a new type of BMS, which can significantly reduce the rate of battery degradation. This enables the operator to access more revenue streams without reducing the project lifetime or safety. In addition, a battery with Brill Power BMS can be directly connected to a solar PV array without the need for DC/DC converters or charge controllers, which reduces system cost and complexity. Finally, the open source BMS enables the requirements for grid services to be more readily met and modified with time as services change, future-proofing the battery system. At the end of phase 2, the stakeholders will be in the position to commercially roll out this technology for a 49.9MW energy storage system on Narec DE's site, which will be co-located with a solar PV farm.

Brill Power and AMTE Power have identified a market opportunity for a modular, long-life battery system to electrify commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines, particularly medium and heavy goods vehicles. Commercial vehicles typically have high utilisation rates, which can cause lithium-ion batteries to lose more than 20% of their driving range within a few years, at which point the battery needs to be replaced. Brill Power has developed a novel type of battery management system (BMS), which can extend the lifetime of batteries by up to 60%. This is particularly valuable for commercial vehicles and will avoid the need for battery replacements. AMTE Power are the UK's only powder-to-cell manufacturer of lithium-ion battery cells and are planning to ramp up their battery production in the UK's first domestically owned gigafactories. Combining AMTE Power's high-energy-density battery cells with Brill Power's novel BMS enables the companies to create a highly competitive product for the automotive market. Their decision to target the retrofitting market is based on market pull, as well as the faster access to this market compared to the manufacturing lines of new vehicles. This project will enable Brill Power and AMTE Power to create a demonstrator for a new and competitive product to showcase their technologies. It will also allow the partners to start a commercial collaboration and create the foundation for a UK-based powder-to-power supply chain for automotive battery systems.

Brill Power, AceOn Group and Cranfield University are collaborating on a project to design, build and install a smart, 2nd life battery system at Cranfield's Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre, made from up-cycled electric bus batteries. The battery system will be connected with a solar PV array and an inverter to feed solar energy back to the local grid at Cranfield campus. This will help Cranfield decarbonise its energy use by maximising the use of renewable solar energy. Cranfield University has more than 1MWp of solar PV generation on its Cranfield campus and is looking for low-cost, sustainable energy storage solutions to help match solar generation with electricity demands. The university also has access to 8 used electric bus batteries, which the university would like to up-cycle for use in energy storage. Upcycling lithium-ion batteries is challenging because there can be large differences in the performance of aged battery cells and conventional battery systems are only as strong and live as their weakest cells. Brill Power has developed a novel battery management system (BMS), which compensates for these differences in cell performance and ensures maximal lifetime, performance and safety. AceOn Group has more than 25 years of experience in designing and manufacturing battery systems and will create a smart 2nd life battery, using Brill Power's BMS and Cranfield's used electric bus batteries. Together, the partners will be able to create and demonstrate a novel energy storage system with a circular economy approach, which helps Cranfield University decarbonise its energy use and save electricity bills. The project will also help Brill Power and AceOn Group create a blueprint for a broader commercial roll-out of this novel technology. The project will enable the partners to overcome a number of challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, including fewer commercial opportunities in the energy storage industry, lower direct use of solar energy at Cranfield University due to lower student an staff numbers on campus, and a lack of funding and project opportunities to re-purpose used electric bus batteries for stationary energy storage.

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"The Hybrid Battery Optimisation (HBO) project will develop a novel type of high-performance hybrid energy storage system (HESS) with higher power and energy storage capability per weight than existing alternatives. Existing energy storage systems for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) are typically based on a single type of electrochemical energy storage device (typically lithium ion batteries) which is designed for either high power or high energy but not for both. The HBO project will screen all commercially available high-quality devices, such as lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, and select a combination of devices to optimise for both energy and power capability. The result will be a smaller and lighter energy storage system, which will be particularly well suited for high-performance HEVs, such as those developed by Aston Martin, one of the project partners. The HESS will be designed through a new method of optimal system design, which involves a wholistic modelling approach -- from cell to vehicle. This modelling approach will be developed in collaboration between Imperial College London, Delta Motorsport and Aston Martin. By simulating the performance of the different energy storage devices, the most suitable devices can be chosen, which avoids additional hardware tests and accelerates the product development process. Once the optimal combination of energy storage devices is chosen, the HESS is designed and built by Delta Motorsport, a specialist provider of high-performance automotive electrical energy storage systems. To combine the different energy storage devices into a single system, a novel battery management system (BMS) will be developed by Brill Power, a spin-out of Oxford University. Brill Power's BMS can combine any type of lithium-ion battery or supercapacitor while maximising performance and cycle life. Two HESS will be built -- one for lab tests in a controlled environment and one for tests in an Aston Martin vehicle. The tests will confirm the compliance of the HESS with the high performance requirements defined by Aston Martin. Once the performance of the new HESS is confirmed, the consortium will develop a plan for commercialising the technology. The first target market will be high-performance vehicles, such as those developed by Aston Martin but the technology is expected to find many more applications, including off-highway vehicles, marine and aerospace."

"The growth in the electrification of transport, including electric vehicles (EVs), has been driven by lithium-ion batteries. However, to make the next-generation of vehicles cheaper and more efficient, we need to be able to monitor, diagnose and respond to batteries in real-time. This project aims to combine new types of sensors to feed data into a battery management system (BMS) that will be able to react to the changing state of battery health and charge and improve operational safety. This could lead to an increase in battery life of up to 60%. Crucially, we will look at producing sensors that are robust, sensitive and significantly cheaper than those commercially available. Our goal is that the sensors will be deployed into battery modules at low cost and adopted by industry. Eventually, they may become a requirement for new car certification and help to improve consumer safety, confidence and uptake of EVs. To verify the feasibility of our approach, our consortium covers a range of commercial and academic expertise that will build sensors into a prototype battery pack."

"Project Pozibot brings together prominent organisations involved in battery development from university to a battery pack manufacturer, to a BMS developer, to a niche EV market manufacturer and a leading FCA regulated Insured Warranty provider from the LLoyds' and London insurance market. The aim of Project Pozibot is to enable a new type of dynamic insured warranty to be developed, covering components too young for traditional history-based risk calculations. It will enable partnerships between insurance providers and smaller (local) battery pack suppliers removing market entry barriers; Pozibot will play a significant role in the development, and real-life rollout, of next generation batteries. Battery packs need remote monitoring for predictive maintenance, to flag high-level information such as state-of-health, predictions of remaining asset value and lifetime enabling a modern dynamic warranty insurance product which, with the help of AI, goes beyond traditional risk calculation and forecasting and enables the insurance provider to conduct prescriptive analytics based on real-time battery health and usage data. Using patented quantum-based asset tagging technology enables an unforgeable logging and monitoring system for battery packs. Cells and battery level suppliers need a warranty to get their products to market. The warranty provider needs the data to provide the insured warranty. Project Pozibot will deliver a warranty thus supporting a significant UK industry initiative at each point in the supply chain. The project responds to many of the challenges on measurement needs within the battery industry identified by the National Physical Laboratory report on Energy Transition: Measurement needs within the battery industry (c)NPL Management Ltd 2017\."

"This project presents a unique opportunity for a young British start-up, Brill Power, to prove the business case for its pioneering battery management control system technology, through partnering with E-Car, the UK's leading electric vehicle (EV) sharing club. Currently EV batteries degrade at an unnecessarily quick rate (which will be worsened by the introduction of rapid charging) and under EV leasing models it is the manufacturer's responsibility to replace the battery. Furthermore, EV drivers often experience range anxiety, whereby drivers are unsure of the vehicle's ability to cover certain distances due to charge levels and limited charge infrastructure. Brill Power's revolutionary battery management control system addresses these factors, specifically by increasing the life of the battery by up to 60% and increasing the range of vehicles, whereby a vehicle that started with a 200km range will still be at 180km with the Brill Power battery management control system, when a conventional system would only be at 150km. This project seeks to confirm the predicted impact of Brill Power's technology on EVs, through comparing its performance to previously unobtainable data from E-Car's 140 EV fleet. This analysis will then underpin proposition testing, to be undertaken with the key EV fleet manufacturers Nissan and Renault (Brill Power's target market), shaping the commercial and technological development of Brill Power. Overall, the project will generate significant insight into the potential role of Brill Power's intelligent BMCS in EV battery manufacture and performance."

This project will make a critical step towards a clean energy future by improving battery intelligence. Brill Power's innovative technology will not only mean that battery packs will last 60% longer, they will perform better over their lifetime, and reduce the cost to make batteries since fewer cells are required for a given battery performance. The application of this technology is quite broad. Brill Power aims to have their technology built into grid-scale storage systems in order to unlock the potential of renewable power sources. Furthermore, Brill Power expects this to make a significant difference in Electric Vehicle performance and lifetime. The technology will keep the driving range higher for a longer period of time. This project will test the boundaries of this new technology. It will allow Brill Power to engage with their potential customers and ensure the best product design for their system. It will pave the way to the UK remaining a leader in energy storage technology.