Intelligent modular energy storage system
What VIES develops is not the battery itself but the system around it: a multi-chemistry BMS, an EMS controller, on-board remaining-life diagnostics, a digital product logbook and a modular architecture. Cells are a purchased component for us; the intellectual asset is what makes a storage system controllable, predictable and safe.
Development summary
- Subject
- Modular storage system with its own digital layer
- Target use
- Power grid, data centres, industrial sites
- Core
- Multi-chemistry BMS · EMS · life diagnostics
- Chemistries
- LFP · NMC · LTO · Na-ion
- Integration
- IEC 61850 · Modbus TCP · CAN
- Stage
- Prototype, bench testing
The problem
Three barriers that slow lithium down on critical sites
We start not from an elegant technology but from what stops operations teams moving to lithium and trusting it.
The battery’s condition is invisible until it fails
A conventional monitoring system shows voltage and current. It does not answer how many years the string will last or which cell will go first. Replacements are planned by calendar rather than by condition — part of the service life is thrown away and part of the failures happen early.
Thermal runaway is detected by temperature
By the time temperature rises noticeably the process is already irreversible. The early signs — gas release and rising pressure inside the cell — are not monitored in typical systems, although they give tens of minutes of margin.
Every chemistry needs its own platform
LFP, NMC, LTO and sodium-ion behave differently. Changing chemistry usually means changing the control platform and re-integrating on the customer’s side — which slows down the move to new cell types.
Architecture
Where our work sits inside the system
On the left, the purchased component. On the right, the customer’s systems. In the middle, our layer: it turns a set of cells into a controllable product with a clear life cycle.
What we build
Four modules of the digital layer
BMS
Multi-chemistry BMS
A battery management system that is not tied to a single chemistry.
- One platform for LFP, NMC, LTO and Na-ion — the chemistry profile is configuration, not a different board
- Active balancing that moves charge between cells instead of burning it off
- Per-cell voltage and temperature monitoring, event log kept on board
- Domestic component base, functional-safety and critical-infrastructure requirements
EMS
Storage EMS controller
The logic that decides when the system charges and when it carries the site.
- Scenarios: peak shaving, dip ride-through, surge compensation, load sharing across generation
- Island mode and grid-parallel operation, synchronisation with diesel and gas engines
- Load priorities and battery-life limits inside one decision loop
- Open API and on-premise execution — no mandatory cloud
DIAG
State-of-health and remaining-life diagnostics
Not “percent charged” but “how many years are left and where the weak cell is”.
- State of health estimated from internal impedance, not from a cycle counter
- Remaining-life forecast for the string and detection of lagging cells
- Early thermal-runaway detection by gas signature and pressure — before temperature rises
- Retrofit mode: diagnostics on existing lead strings without replacing the equipment
SCADA
Fleet monitoring and digital logbook
Hundreds of battery strings on a map instead of in a paper inspection log.
- Digital product logbook: from acceptance and commissioning through to decommissioning
- Direct integration into your SCADA over IEC 61850 and Modbus TCP
- Replacement planning by actual condition rather than by a regulated interval
- Fleet ownership economics in the interface: what to replace and when, so you do not pay twice
Honest boundaries
What we do not call development — and what we do
A customer’s engineer needs to understand the boundaries more than to hear the words “innovative solution”. So we state them plainly.
Not our development
- Cell manufacturing — that is a market component and we buy it
- Assembling a cabinet from ready modules, on its own
- “AI diagnostics” without a real operating dataset behind it
- Mandatory cloud monitoring for critical-infrastructure sites
Our development
- Module architecture and the multi-chemistry control platform
- State-of-health estimation from impedance and remaining-life forecasting
- Early thermal-runaway detection by gas signature and pressure
- Digital product logbook and direct SCADA integration over IEC 61850
Stage and test bench
How we verify it
Development runs on our own bench: a battery platform with per-cell data acquisition, failure-scenario testing, cycling and climatic regimes. The goal of this stage is not a presentation but a working prototype that holds up in conditions close to the real ones.
The project is being prepared for an industry competition for innovation in the power sector (2026 season) and is working through participant status at an innovation centre for the research part.
| Readiness stage | Prototype, operable in conditions close to real ones |
| Component base | Focus on domestic components, functional-safety and critical-infrastructure requirements |
| Protocols | IEC 61850, Modbus TCP/RTU, CAN |
| Chemistries on the platform | LFP · NMC · LTO · Na-ion |
| Testing | Bench cycling, climatic tests, failure-scenario runs |
| Intellectual property | Patent applications for the key solutions are in preparation |
Roadmap
From prototype to series
2026 · Q3
Prototype and test bench
A working module prototype with our own BMS and diagnostic loop, bench testing.
2026 · Q4
Review and pilot site
Submission for industry review, selection of a pilot site with a grid customer.
2027 · H1
Trial operation
Pilot deployment on a live site, collecting data to calibrate the life models.
2027 · H2
Series and registry
Preparation for series production, listing in procurement registries.
Pilot invitation
We are looking for sites for trial operation
We need real operating data: substations, data centres, industrial sites with a fleet of battery strings. In return — diagnostics of your existing strings and a say in the requirements for the product.
- Retrofit diagnostics with no equipment replacement — a fast start
- Data stays with the customer, on-premise execution without a cloud
- Joint definition of target metrics and the test programme