Project Contact: Matthieu Dubarry
Sponsor: Office of Naval Research (APRISES)
The increasing penetration levels of renewable energy sources on power grids poses a number of challenges for grid operations including increased frequency variability, voltage transients, power quality reduction, and loss of reliability. Such effects are magnified on small island grids such as the Hawaiian Islands. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) show promise in mitigating many of the effects of a high penetration of non-dispatchable renewable generation (e.g. wind and solar). Despite the large number of BESS projects already in place, and to the best of our knowledge, most of the published studies so far are modeling studies and very few are actual field studies of a grid-scale BESS operating under real-world conditions. The Hawaii Natural Energy Institute has initiated an integrated research, testing, and evaluation program to assess the benefits of grid-scale BESS for various ancillary service applications conditions to forecast their durability.
Funded under ONR/APRISES, the purpose of this still ongoing project is to understand and accelerate aging of commercial cells used in large scale BESS based on single cell laboratory testing. Overall, this project has two objectives: First to test individual single cells in a laboratory setting to understand the cell aging patterns, reproduce the aging observed in real life and accelerate this degradation to enable the end of life prognosis of the installed BESS. Second, to monitor, quantify and analyze the battery degradation observed in the installed BESS systems. Research conducted for this project is completed in the PakaLi Battery Laboratory.

Schematic test plan of the laboratory testing for the BESS single cells.
Publications
- 2021, M. Dubarry, M. Tun, G. Baure, M. Matsuura, R.E. Rocheleau, Battery Durability and Reliability under Electric Utility Grid Operations: Analysis of On-Site Reference Tests, Electronics, Vol. 10, Issue 13, Paper 1593. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2019, G. Baure, A. Devie, M. Dubarry, Battery Durability and Reliability under Electric Utility Grid Operations: Path Dependence of Battery Degradation, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 166, Issue 10, pp. A1991-A2001. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2019, M. Dubarry, C. Pastor-Fernández, G. Baure, T.F. Yu, W.D. Widanage, J. Marco, Battery energy storage system modeling: Investigation of intrinsic cell-to-cell variations, Journal of Energy Storage, Vol. 23, pp. 19-28. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2019, M. Dubarry, G. Baure, C. Pastor-Fernández, T.F. Yu, W.D. Widanage, J. Marco, Battery energy storage system modeling: A combined comprehensive approach, Journal of Energy Storage, Vol. 21, pp. 172-185. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2018, K. Stein, M. Tun, K. Musser, R. Rocheleau, Evaluation of a 1 MW, 250 kW-hr Battery Energy Storage System for Grid Services for the Island of Hawaii, Energies, Vol. 11, Issue 12, Paper 3367. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2018, K. Stein, M. Tun, M. Matsuura, R. Rocheleau, Characterization of a Fast Battery Energy Storage System for Primary Frequency Response, Energies, Vol. 11, Issue 12, Paper 3358. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2018, M. Dubarry, A. Devie, Battery durability and reliability under electric utility grid operations: Representative usage aging and calendar aging, Journal of Energy Storage, Vol. 18, pp. 185-195.
- 2017, M. Dubarry, A. Devie, K. Stein, M. Tun, M. Matsuura, R. Rocheleau, Battery Energy Storage System battery durability and reliability under electric utility grid operations: Analysis of 3 years of real usage, Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 338, pp. 65-73.
- 2016, A. Devie, M. Dubarry, H-P. Wu, T-H. Wu, B.Y. Liaw, Overcharge Study in Li4Ti5O12 Based Lithium-Ion Pouch Cell, II. Experimental Investigation of the Degradation Mechanism, Journal of Electrochemical Society, Vol. 163, Issue 13, pp. A2611-A2617. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2015, A. Devie, M. Dubarry, B.Y. Liaw, Overcharge study in Li4Ti5O12-based Lithium-ion pouch cell. Part I: Quantitative diagnosis of degradation modes, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 162, Issue 6, pp. A1033-A1040. (Open Access: PDF)