Grocery shopping in Heemstede thanks to BESS

‘’For the new construction project of a supermarket and car park, ELINEX designed and delivered a perfect solution, at excellent value for money,’ said Tim from client Enerzien. The communication and support from ELINEX was very good and led to a great project, where 2 units of 60kWh Sunwoda systems were installed.  

It seems so normal: parking the car in the supermarket car park and then doing your shopping in comfort. Yet the power supply that makes this possible is not automatically present these days. The gate in the car park, the underground light, the lift, the lights in the supermarket, the refrigerator and the ovens that deliver the fresh sandwiches et cetera, everything requires electricity. Today, anyone building a new commercial building is faced with truncated power supply via the grid and years of waiting times when a larger grid connection is requested. This was also the case with the new building in Heemstede. There, we had to work with two 3*80 ampere connections that were allocated. ‘Too few in other words,’ says Tim Tuïnk of Enerzien. ‘The solution was found in the installation of two Sunwoda 60kWh by ELINEX Power Solutions.’

Fresh bread creates peak voltage

Enerzien designs smart energy systems for its customers and works as an independent consultant, engineer and project manager for electrification and grid congestion issues. Tim: ‘With us, you can count on an energy partner who thinks along with you. From design to implementation, from project management to operation. We support our customers, independently and sincerely, in the transition to a sustainable and smart energy system. With our clear advice and functional designs, we create overview, enabling customers to achieve their energy goals. Hoorne Vastgoed has been a customer of ours for years and the energy supply of the new building in Heemstede required smart work. The permit process for the new building started ten years ago, and construction of the new retail building with parking garage started three years ago.’

Enerzien knows better than anyone else the energy needs of supermarkets and knew immediately that the two allocated 3*80 amp connections were insufficient to power two premises. ‘Those fresh croissants you put in your basket in the morning created peak voltage,’ Tim explains. ‘When early in the morning the indoor bakery starts up its ovens, there is peak power consumption. On a 3*80 ampere connection, a maximum of 55 kW may be used. However, the supermarket peaks at 70 kW due to the ovens. So this peak is too much for the limited contract power and technical connection. So the big issue for the project was: how to ensure sufficient power supply for the supermarket and the car park?

Ideally, the best solution would have been to increase the load on the technical connection, so that only maintaining the contract power would have to be focused on. However, this is far from always possible, but through Enerzien's experience and many discussions with the grid operator, a partial solution was found in transferring the existing building connection to the supermarket. This turned the 3*80A connection into a 3*250A connection and, with a contracted power of 67kW, a solution was gradually found. This combined with the solar panels and a BESS, with smart software eventually provided the final solution.

The powerful combination of BESS and smart software

The new-build project now has the grid connection and a BESS installation. ‘BESS enables peak shaving,’ Tim explains. ‘Envitron'sEMS (Energy Management System) handles the situation intelligently. A peak should never exceed 67 kW. The EMS has a sensor that sends a signal at 64 kW consumption, after which the BESS is switched on and will also discharge. On top of that, the installation is programmed so that the ovens are started up in stages. A very nice and smart solution that ensures that peak consumption is distributed.

EMS as the beating heart of the plant

Power security is important, Tim outlines, ‘which is why the BESS is parallel to the main power supply. The EMS is prepared for the future. The biggest ‘power eater’ in the car park at the moment is the heated driveway, so that everyone can drive in and out safely in winter. It is expected that charging stations for electric cars will one day be installed in the car park. When that time comes, it will be a matter of software tuning in to the EMS to make everything work together. The EMS is the beating heart of the whole system. 

Conscious choice of ELINEX Power Solutions

A compliment to ELINEX is in order, according to Tim: ‘Enerzien works independently, we prepare our plan in a tender. We receive several tenders, which we compare critically. For us, ELINEX stood out because of the ratio of price, quality and support. We had incredibly good communication with the ELINEX team and their level of thinking along with us is very high. Willard, Niid, Beau and Obed were superbly matched as an ELINEX team.’