Aggreko Provides Smart Battery Storage System, High Power EV Charging for ANL

Aggreko, the global leader in mobile and modular energy solutions, has delivered a smart battery storage system to Argonne National Laboratory. The solution will expand high power charging for electric vehicles at the organization’s Smart Energy Plaza near Chicago. With this net zero battery storage system Aggreko is helping ANL to demonstrate EV grid integration efforts that leverage smart management of stored energy systems with co-located EV fast charging and solar photovoltaics to decrease grid impacts and reduce site owner energy costs.

The 1 Megawatt 30-minute system enables extreme fast charging by providing peak power mitigation and power quality services. ANL will also gather data on EV charge profiles exceeding 200kW to quantify EV and charging system efficiencies and explore the impact on the grid.

The project will support ANL’s federally funded research and development work to develop sustainable and reliable EV fast charging infrastructure to meet growing demand for affordable, convenient charging stations across the U.S. Aggreko’s services will be used to assess the project’s performance in order to lay the foundations for more efficient EV charging and support the adoption of electric vehicles more broadly. The plaza expansion and EV charging stations will also serve as assets for the ANL Employee EV charging program.

This is the latest milestone in Aggreko’s own net zero journey following commitments from the company to work with customers to reduce local emissions, halve diesel usage and operate as a net zero business across all of the services it provides by 2050. To reach these goals, Aggreko is increasingly offering clean technologies like battery storage and solar power, as well as prioritizing the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel.

“The shift towards electric vehicles is an important factor in helping global decarbonization efforts, but the infrastructure needed to support this is extensive and complex,” said Karim Wazni, managing director of Aggreko Microgrid and Storage Solutions. “The team at Argonne National Lab are playing an important role in removing the barriers to adoption of EVs and supporting the broader rollout of this sustainable transport option and we are proud to be helping to achieve this. Our solution will not only make ANL’s energy infrastructure stronger and more flexible but will also monitor the impact of EV charge profiles and evaluate system efficiencies to support the fantastic work being undertaken by Argonne National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy.”

“The movement toward low-carbon electric transportation systems is growing at an ever-increasing pace,” added Donald Hillebrand, division director, energy systems, Argonne National Laboratory. “Battery energy storage systems are the key to making a modern and more responsive power grid that can support the expected growth in electric vehicles. Argonne is a global leader in research that explores the intersection of electric transportation and the future grid. The Aggreko battery energy storage system is useful in our research in that it is flexible, allows for fast deployment, and can be used in many different case studies. We hope that our research findings using the Aggreko system will lead us to more solutions in electric transportation systems, grid reliability, and ultimately clean carbon-free transportation in the future.”