SimpliPhi Power, a California manufacturer of non-toxic, safe, residential, commercial and mobile energy storage systems, has partnered with Heila Technologies, a developer of software and hardware that integrates diverse generation and storage assets into microgrids, to deliver a dynamic platform that aggregates multiple customer-cited SimpliPhi battery systems into a 'virtual' power plant. The SimpliPhi+Heila solution will be on display at Solar Power International/Energy Storage International in Salt Lake City from September 24-26 in SimpliPhi's booth #3415.

"Too often distributed assets are viewed as a threat to centralized energy infrastructure. In fact, distributed assets can and should be regarded as providing a grid advantage capable of strengthening our existing infrastructure," says SimpliPhi CEO, Catherine Von Burg. "Distributed energy storage and microgrids are essential in building the grid of the future. The key is to deliver solutions that make it possible for utilities to more easily deploy, seamlessly aggregate and successfully control distributed storage and other assets as part of their established grid operations. The Heila platform does what no other can in terms of making distributed assets easy for a utility to manage."

Heila's Senior Engineer Jorge Elizondo adds, "Heila's vision is to enable the grid of tomorrow by dramatically simplifying the construction, operation and optimization of fleets of DERs. Our universal Heila IQ control platform uses decentralized techniques to aggregate energy resources and make them look like a single system or a virtual power plant. It is able to sense changes across all connected components and make the system holistically react to shifts and requests, without the need for any centralized agent to tell each DER what to do. This is a completely modular and extremely scalable way to build systems. With SimpliPhi, we have found an efficient and safe battery that is ready to be deployed at scale to make this vision a reality."

In the SimpliPhi+Heila solution, as many as 12 PHI 3.8 kWh batteries, an inverter, a solar array, controllable loads, and other balance of system components are connected to a single Heila controller, which acts as a Battery Management System (BMS) and an Energy Management System (EMS). All Heila devices in a system are then aggregated and optimized to form a distributed intelligent network that can be used by any central controller, ADMS or SCADA to control the fleet as a single entity using common protocols. The PHI batteries measure and report voltage, current and temperatures, and perform useful calculations to determine real-time battery state of charge (SoC), state of health (SoH) and fault detection. Hei la is programmed to operate the PHI battery units in either grid-connected or off-grid mode, and manage transitions between modes, enabling full control of the flow of real and reactive power to and from the grid, load curtailment, and more. Utilities are able to set performance objectives at the aggregate level, rather than on a customer-by-customer basis, and collect real-time and historical data from all systems to streamline grid operations.

The SimpliPhi+Heila solution was first developed as part of the Stone Edge Farm microgrid laboratory in Sonoma, California, where Heila is used to manage microgrid operations and SimpliPhi storage has been deployed to protect the farm's most critical systems. During the 2017 wildfires, the Stone Edge microgrid was able to successfully island and operate independently for 10 days because of the Heila platform, as flames knocked out power in the surrounding community. Visit Heila at SPI in booth #5351 to see a demonstration of the Stone Edge Farm system, including real-time and historical data from the microgrid's Simpliphi+Heila solution.

Heila and SimpliPhi are currently working with a utility to build a solar and battery aggregated system in Louisiana that will provide services to the electric grid as a single entity using a decentralized approach for optimization. The project is intended to serve as a model for other stakeholders who are interested in the benefits of decentralized energy generation and storage working as a virtual power plant.

"In addition to utilities, we've been approached by real estate developers and municipalities that are looking for innovative ways to aggregate distributed assets as part of new construction or community storage and resiliency projects," adds Von Burg. "We're excited that SimpliPhi+Heila delivers what they're seeking: a means to empower their communities with the economic and energy security that storage allows, while aggregating distributed assets in such a way as to ensure both seamless grid integration and flawless off-grid, backup power performance."

To learn more about the SimpliPhi+Heila integration, attendees at SPI are invited to attend a free "Building Energy Resilience With Safer, More Reliable Energy Storage" training on Wednesday, September 25 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. MDT in the Radisson Hotel, room Wasatch 2. Register at https://simpliphipower.com/training-calendar/.

SimpliPhi Power | https://simpliphipower.com 

Heila Technologies | https://www.heilaiq.com