Powin Energy Receives Patent in China for its bp-OS
Powin Energy Corporation, a designer and developer of scalable energy storage solutions for utilities, C&I, and electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging stations, has announced that it has been awarded a Certificate of Invention Patent by the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China for its visionary Battery Pack Operating System (bp-OS). This is the second patent for Powin Energy's bp-OS, which was awarded a United States patent in June of this year.
"Our patented software is the only battery management system engineered specifically for energy storage system use cases and having our intellectual property protected by two of the largest economies in the world creates tremendous market opportunity," said Virgil Beaston, CTO of Powin Energy. "The bp-OS reduces the amount of DC connectors and other components that are required to transfer energy using BMS software that was designed for EVs. This allows us to connect more batteries onto a single string and potentially reduce the number of transformers, inverters, and electrical work on a project, all of which yields massive savings for Powin Energy customers."
The patented bp-OS takes a unique approach to balancing batteries utilized in stationary storage systems. Rather than working to maintain energy equilibrium across an entire array of batteries that transfers energy between packs - like an EV battery management system (BMS) which is also often used for large scale storage systems "“ Powin Energy's bp-OS balances individual cells to an optimized level by connecting each battery pack to the network. This industry-first approach minimizes voltage differentials across all battery cells over the system's lifetime and keeps the delta between the highest and lowest charged cells to a max of 10 millivolts. The bp-OS is battery pack technology agnostic and delivers real-time battery monitoring, state-of-charge management, and detailed diagnostics to ensure safety, optimize performance, and extend the operational lifetime of batteries used in stationary storage systems and EV fast-charging systems.
Powin Energy's bp-OS also exclusively features a Battery Odometer and Warranty Tracker. The Battery Odometer measures capacity degradation and calculates remaining battery lifetime by keeping track of voltage, temperature, state-of-charge, charge and discharge times, and other critical data for every cycle of the battery. The Warranty Tracker™ maximizes operational uptime and prevents potential economic losses by alerting operators to possible issues, isolating problem zones, automatically filing warranty claims, and avoiding full-system shutdowns. These two integral features of Powin Energy's bp-OS make lithium-ion batteries safer and more efficient by preventing them from overcharging or undercharging, avoiding costly unplanned outages, and extending battery life by reducing capacity fade.
