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Power Onward is the podcast that unveils how power technology shapes your everyday life.
From the tech powering your daily life to the innovations driving industries forward, we talk about it all.
Brought to you by Cummins, each episode explores what’s fueling the future and why it matters for your mission, business, and community.
Show ID (00:04):
This is Power Onward, the podcast that unveils how power technology shapes your everyday life.
(00:16):
You are listening to Power Onward.
(00:20):
What is powering onward?
Kim (00:26):
This is Power Onward, the podcast that unveils how power technology shapes your everyday life.
(00:33):
We all have a vague familiarity with batteries, AA, AAA, phones. They're the things that power our remote controls, cell phones and electric toothbrushes. But what if I told you that batteries power more than our household needs? Across the globe, this technology is emerging as one of the leaders in power. I'm talking powering hospitals, data centers, commercial buildings, remote islands, universities and more, all while producing zero emissions. Hi, I'm Kim.
Aaron (01:01):
And I'm Aaron.
Kim (01:03):
Okay, Aaron, give us a scoop on how batteries are changing the world.
Aaron (01:07):
Well, with all of the demand on power and energy these days across the world, we're looking for new cleaner energy sources, new ways to manage power across the globe, and we're putting that manageability and that power back in the customer's hands somewhat by giving them these massive batteries that allow them to store and just charge power really whenever they want.
Kim (01:30):
That sounds really interesting, but tell me what makes these batteries or Battery Energy Storage Systems more different than your average household battery?
Aaron (01:38):
Sure. That's a great place to start. So when you think of a battery at home, you probably think of AA battery that goes in your remote control. So this is kind of the same thing, just way, way, way bigger. Way bigger.
Kim (01:49):
Larger scale.
Aaron (01:50):
Yeah, 20 to 40 feet. Big picture, not that much. They're giant batteries. Small picture or zoomed in, these are huge large-scale batteries that are not just storage devices for energy, but they're almost like the quarterback of your system. So it has the ability to tell the other assets in your power system what they should be doing. So it's body, energy, storage, but also brain.
Kim (02:19):
Very cool. Reminds me of the human cell. I go back to this analogy quite frequently, but it's nice to know that you've got the nucleus inside of the battery that can actually manage and determine what loads and what needs to happen, correct?
Aaron (02:29):
Yeah. And then the batteries are the mitochondria.
Kim (02:31):
Yes, the powerhouse.
Aaron (02:32):
Yeah.
Kim (02:33):
Because you've heard of the concept of explain like I'm five, so explain to me because I actually don't know the details of how it works, but from a high level, how does BESS work?
Aaron (02:43):
Let's use an analogy here. So think of BESS like a giant bucket and when it rains, that bucket collects water, and even when it's raining you can go outside and get water. It's available.
(02:55):
BESS is the bucket in this analogy obviously, but we're looking at energy. So BESS is not a power-creating device. It's a storage device, so it's always linked to something else that is creating energy, whether it's the grid, so like your utilities that you might use at home or a genset or solar or wind or anything else like that. A lot of times when you are looking at renewable energy, you don't have that energy readily available. For example, it's hard to have solar at midnight. So what BESS can do is it stores like the bucket does and it gives you the ability to go back at nighttime or when energy is expensive from the grid and discharge your energy now from this giant battery storage system and have it ready at your fingertips at any moment.
Kim (03:46):
That sounds really simple. Thank you for simplifying that because in my mind I've seen the Battle Card, I've read the website, I still don't know what's going on. So that was actually the perfect explanation.
Aaron (03:55):
Great.
Kim (03:56):
Earlier this year, Cummins launched a BESS product. What are some hallmarks of this product?
Aaron (04:01):
Cummins does a lot of innovation and we launch products all the time. There's all sorts of new engines coming out. It's pretty rare that you get to be part of an actual new product line. So this is a really exciting achievement for Cummins because we're now playing in a field that we haven't played before. We're known obviously for power generation, but not for batteries yet. So what we launched is a 50 hertz. The reason that's important is because it tells you which markets we're looking at. So this is an international product, 50 hertz all in one, which is also really important and I'll explain that a little bit in a minute too. All in one containerized solution. So it's fully integrated, it's built for global deployment, and it's engineered to solve real world problems. It's a really big step forward for Cummins, and it's also perfectly aligned with Cummins Destination Zero strategy.
Kim (04:58):
Aaron, tell me more about the all-in-one aspect.
Aaron (05:00):
This is an all-in-one AC integrated system, which means that it's everything inside the container, the batteries, we'll call it the PCS or inverter, even the fire suppression. So everything is inside the system, which allows it to just be plug and play. So customers can buy this, it's already designed. It's already built. They can plug it straight into their grid or their system and it makes it a lot more predictable for them to be able to manage and deal with it. It also really speeds up the installation, commissioning process.
Kim (05:31):
That's a very seamless integration if we're literally just plugging and playing. Very cool.
Aaron (05:35):
Yeah. One other thing that we really focused on, I think with this product was energy density and footprint. So we're looking specifically in the commercial and industrial space. So these are customers who have maybe a major warehouse or a large facility but not a power company. So for them they have limited space, and so we really wanted this product to be power dense. We really needed to be able to fit as much power within the given footprint as possible, but also it needed to fit all of those other components. So what we've created is really a tight footprint, high energy density, all in one safe, scalable solution.
Kim (06:15):
You've worked on a lot of BESS projects lately, but do you have a favorite that you've worked on?
Aaron (06:20):
I think probably my favorite, or at least the one that comes to mind immediately, is a recent project that we did in Dubai. So this was for a customer that had multiple use cases that we could address. That's like the first thing you're looking for when you're selling a product for the first few times is, oh, we get to emphasize all of the abilities of this product. So this customer needed a solution, obviously it's in Dubai that could handle extreme heat. It needed to be able to integrate with renewables in the future at least, and it also needed to be able to provide reliable backup power and integrate to the grid. So it's kind of multi-use case and in a harsh environment on top of that.
Kim (07:00):
What made the implementation of BESS so successful in that scenario?
Aaron (07:04):
So I think what's really unique about this scenario is that aside from renewables, which are pretty common, this has Cummins gensets, first of all. So that's exciting because we're tying in with our gensets, but also the grid connection piece is very interesting here, and this specific grid environment has a very low energy output. So basically the grid is only able to power some of this facilities critical function, like their lights and their systems, but not a lot of their big machinery, and they're not quite ready for solar yet. They are planning on it, but in the interim, they needed to be able to have more power during the day and the grid just can't do it. Right now. They're using gensets which have high emissions, high fuel costs, don't get me wrong, keep buying gensets, people. This is a partnership with gensets, right? So this works together with genset and the grid, and in this instance, it uses the grid, which is very, again, very low power, but that grid is not being used at all at night. So they charge the BESS during the night hours and they are able to reduce the load and the time that the gensets are running by huge amounts. So they end up having 90,000 kilograms of carbon emission reduction, something like that's massive over the lifetime.
(08:23):
And then they also have pretty large cost savings because they're not spinning on the fuel. They're getting this sort of cheaper energy from the grid, and there's also no wear and tear now on the gensets.
Kim (08:35):
I was just going to say, I suspect maintenance is much easier.
Aaron (08:38):
Yeah, there's really not very many moving parts in a BESS, so it's kind of just a stationary thing. There's some things like HVAC or something like that, but really minimal in terms of compared to a genset where everything's moving in.
Kim (08:50):
I feel like BESS is the Apple product that we have, like something that's cool and exciting, and I'm excited to see where this goes. When is 60 hertz going to be available? When can we start seeing this here where we live? But how do you see BESS shaping the way we power the world in the next five or even 10 years?
Aaron (09:07):
So it's kind of like the unsung hero, the first piece of this big energy transition that we're all pretty aware of, we want to go to clean energy, we want to get to Destination Zero. So in the next five years, I think it starts to become much more of part of the standard infrastructure that you see right now. It's more in utilities. That's where you would really go see them, but I think it's going to be really, really beneficial for commercial and industrial markets as well. It'll support renewables. It'll reduce peak demand charges, and it provides backup power in a really safe and efficient way. But I think what's really exciting is sort of the next five years after that, the 10 year windows where it gets really cool, so the grids just start to get more dynamic. There's this massive need for energy, especially with AI and all of these other things driving that need. So I think that BESS will sort of play a central role in how we deal with that demand real time, really across the world.
Kim (10:06):
Well, to say the least, I'm very energized after this conversation and I'm excited to see where BESS goes in the next five to 10 years. If you're interested in learning more about BESS, we'll have more details in the show notes. But Aaron, thank you so much for your time today.
Aaron (10:18):
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a blast.
Kim (10:20):
Alright, so what's the big idea for today's episode? Batteries aren't just for your remote or your phone. They're a force that's transforming industries and the planet, all without leaving a carbon footprint. They're powering the future from hospitals to data centers, to remote islands, making it possible to do more with less. In the same ways that batteries drive devices, the innovators behind this technology drive the world forward, not just through science, but through purpose. For the energy transition, yeah, technology is important, but each new development has to be rooted in making a difference, one powerful emission-free step at a time.
Show ID (10:57):
Power Onward. Thank you for listening to Power Onward. Your support means the world to us. If you enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to dig deeper on what we covered today, check out the show notes for additional links or go to cummins.com/podcast. Until next time, power onward. We are from Cummins, the company that's been innovating toward the future for more than a hundred years. We're no strangers to rapid change, global shifts and economic uncertainty. We want to be your constant during the energy transition, whenever, wherever, forever. Power onward.