How can energy storage support the transition to electric commercial vehicles?

For truck and bus operators, most recharging of their EVs will take place off shift, meaning when the vehicles are parked up at a depot. However, in both sectors, most depots are older buildings. They didn’t previously require a large amount of energy to run them, and this is reflected in the quality of their grid connections.

It is important to understand that the grid is not prepared to provide the levels of power that these charge points require. Currently, the most popular charge point sizes for buses and trucks are 150kW and 350kW – but 1MW chargers are now also commercially available. To put that into perspective, a single 150kW charger is the equivalent of 21 standard 7kW car chargers on site – and using them all at once. A 1MW charger would equate to 143 7kW chargers.

Upgrading the local energy infrastructure to accommodate high-powered chargers is therefore expensive – it can run into millions of pounds. It can also take years to achieve as the distribution network operators (DNOs) responsible for carrying out this work have a backlog due to high demand.

With such huge sums being discussed, it makes sense to look at other options, and this is where battery energy storage systems (BESS) can come into their own. As the name suggests, a BESS is a bank of batteries that can act as an energy reservoir, making them ideal for these EV charging scenarios.

In this use case, the BESS draws down energy at a rate that is well within the grid’s capabilities. It stores this energy and can then provide it as required, at much faster rates, such as when a truck plugs into a 150kW charger. Once that truck moves on, and the charger is dormant again, the BESS reverts to replenishing its batteries from the grid, ready for the next vehicle.

In fact, BESS is already a proven solution in electric car and van charging, deployed across Europe at depots and charging hubs to increase on-site power availability. BESS can often be a quicker and much more cost-effective alternative to grid upgrades. The only difference for high-power chargers is that they require bigger energy storage solutions. However, systems like E-STOR by Connected Energy are modular, so they are ideal for these applications.

BESS can help avoid expensive DNO upgrades now, while the modularity of systems like E-STOR enables you to futureproof your sites for when 1MW chargers become more mainstream.