During the past four years,the HYBRIS project (Hybrid Battery energy stoRage system for advanced grid and beHInd-de-meter Segments) has focused on the development of a Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) by integrating lithium titanate (LTO) batteries and aqueous organic redox flow battery (AORFB) technologies. The ultimate goal is to be able to address different energy demands, from power intensive requests to long-term energy release.
The central goal of HYBRIS was to demonstrate the viability of these hybrid systems in different use cases such as island microgrids, to release energy services where conventional power grids are not available, grid-connected microgrids, where energy storage can release services to ensure stability, reduced operational costs and increased renewable energy use and energy communities and private users, where usually storage systems are essential to obtain cost-saving and reliability. Two research groups at IREC have contributed to this project, including the Battery Materials group (with activities led by Elías Martínez) and the Power Systems Department (activities coordinated by Àlber Filbà).The integration of the two battery systems required advanced power electronics to manage the flow of energy between the batteries and the grid.
To facilitate the deployment of the hybrid system at multiple demonstration sites, a prototype was designed to be portable within a container. This system included all the necessary components, such as battery modules, power converters, control systems, and safety mechanisms. In a final step, HYBRIS demonstrated battery system performance at a small energy community in Messina managed by Solidarity and Energy, with several PV panels and an ESS already installed. The primary intention of this case study was to validate the capability of the HESS storage to increase the energy storage capabilities on site, increasing the self-consumption of PV energy and avoiding power outages.
The results showed that both digital twin models and HiL representations can reproduce real case studies. The system has been designed to provide both energy and power intensive services. Control and communication architecture, using both cloud and local solutions have been integrated together with batteries and power electronics in a unique containerized energy storage system, easy to transport and install to the end user premises.
The Energy Managing System (EMS) plays a critical role in optimizing the use of both batteries, ensuring that the LTO battery handles short-term power demands while the AORFB manages long-term energy storage. The EMS also monitors battery health, state of charge (SOC), and other key parameters to ensure efficient operation and longevity of the system. On top of the local control, the HESS is remotely assessed at cloud level by the Advanced Battery Management System (ABMS). The ABMS uses battery data to feed an internal model of the involved systems. The ABMS periodically sends data to the EMS with yield charts, advanced state of health, power in function of temperature for each battery and technology preference indicator. Then, this information is exploited to optimize long term HESS battery control and maximise its life cycle operations. The use of the new technologies such as big-data access, optimization strategies, AI-based algorithms, can enable the realization of advanced Energy Management Systems (EMS) able to analyze data from the grid, weather patterns, and electricity markets to optimize the operation of HESS. In parallel, digital twin modelling of the HYBRIS system has been deployed to train and predict system responses to the proposed optimization strategies.
Our project demonstrates that hybrid battery systems offer compelling advantages for building-scale energy storage. By integrating these complementary technologies, we’ve created a solution that provides both rapid power response and long-duration energy storage capabilities.
