Pictured above: Relectrify prototype of kind as installed with AEP

This announcement was featured in PV Magazine US.

In December 2019, US utility American Electric Power (AEP), Nissan North America, and Relectrify installed a world-first battery installation combining repurposed batteries from Nissan Leaf vehicles with Relectrify’s BMS+Inverter technology. Integrating batteries equivalent to 4.5 electric vehicles, the resulting second-life storage system offers over 60kWh storage capacity.

Since installation at AEP’s Dolan Technology Center in Ohio, the battery system has undergone extensive functional and lifetime testing. This includes over 500 charge and discharge cycles into and out of the grid, the majority at over 20kW continuous power, for a total energy throughput in excess of 25MWh. In this testing, the pilot system achieved a round-cycle efficiency averaging approximately 88% AC-to-AC, including charge and discharge conversion and second-life batteries. This efficiency compares favourably with real-life efficiencies of industrial new storage systems, such as 84.5% round-cycle efficiency for a Tesla Powerpack installation with the University of Queensland, Australia.

Testing data from the Relectrify prototype in operation with AEP

AEP’s involvement in this prototype pilot was motivated by AEP’s interest in the ability of Relectrify’s BMS+Inverter technology to cost-effectively provide cell-level battery management without the need for separate external and expensive inverters. As confirmed by AEP, the pilot has successfully demonstrated this and provides important development insights to meet the functionality requirements of potential future grid-scale modular installations.

“As a world-first demonstration with AEP and Nissan, this pilot exceeded even our own expectations of the benefits of battery cell-level control architecture”, said Relectrify Co-Founder and CEO Valentin Muenzel. “With high daily cycle counts at large depth-of-discharge cycles and higher temperatures than industrial and grid batteries would typically see, this demonstration is a great bootcamp of kinds for our new technology. We thrive on working with capable technical and strategic collaborators, and are already integrating a multitude of learnings in next generation Relectrify solutions suitable for both second-life and new batteries.”

Relectrify’s prototype installed at AEP’s Dolan Technology Center in Groveport, Ohio.

An industrial battery using Relectrify’s next-gen solutions with Dynamic Manufacturing in Chicago, IL.

About Relectrify

Relectrify is a developer of advanced battery control solutions enabling lower cost and longer-lived batteries. Founded in 2015 and based in Melbourne, Australia, Relectrify is now rapidly scaling its strategic collaborations with battery manufacturers, integrators and companies deploying large volumes of second-life or new batteries around the world.

About American Electric Power

American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP), based in Columbus, Ohio, is focused on building smarter energy infrastructure and delivering new technologies and custom energy solutions for its nearly 5.4 million customers in 11 U.S. states. AEP operates and maintains the largest electricity transmission system in the U.S. and also is one of the nation’s largest electricity producers with approximately 30,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity.