It is well known that adding battery storage to a solar system minimizes the reliance on the national grid, reducing your energy bills and increases your use of green energy. VARTA Storage GmbH will upgrade their pulse energy storage systems with “Energy Manager” grid charging capabilities. This new feature will allow the homeowner not only to store the surplus electricity from the solar system during the day and use it when the energy costs are high, but also to charge the storage system during the night, when the energy is available at the lowest tariffs (off peak). As a result grid charging can improve the total economics of an energy storage system substantially.

Benefits at a glance

• Make use of the “Time of Use” tariffs: charge your pulse battery storage unit during off peak & use at peak to save you £’s.
• Have solar but no sun in winter? Increase your return on investment by using the VARTA Energy Manager to charge from grid in low yield months
• No solar, no problem: Energy Manager allows charging with low cost electricity from the grid and then discharge at high cost peak times
• Full control: Manage the time, month and charge rate from one simple interface

Operation

During the selected month, the storage system will charge during the off peak period to the configured State of Charge (SOC) with the selected charging power. When full charge is reached the storage system will change into deep sleep mode. After the off peak period the storage system changes back into standard operation mode to optimize your self-consumption. Now the low cost energy can be used during the peak period of the day. If a solar system is connected and the self-produced energy isn’t needed immediately, this will also be stored in the storage system.

Energy Manager Settings

In our example, the off-peak period is from 10 pm to 6 am. In this time the energy storage system is charged with low cost electricity. Between 6 am and 10 pm, when the electricity costs are typically higher, the storage system will provide the stored energy, allowing the use of off-peak electricity during peak times.

VARTA Energy Manager

Setup

1. Activate or deactivate the grid charging option
2. Choose the months in which the grid charging should be activated
3. Select the off peak time in which the storage system should charge from the grid
4. Set the max. charge power with which the storage system should be charged
5. Determine the max. state of charge (SOC) up to which the storage system should be charged from the grid

Grid charging will be available for pulse systems in the UK and Australia, as well as a free retrofit solution for existing pulse energy storage systems by remote software update of VARTA Technical Service.

To find out more information about our energy storage systems, or to become an approved installer visit our website or contact our UK Sales Manager Steve Saunders (steve.saunders@varta-storage.com, +44 7828 478447).

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