Predictive-Maintenance Practices

Changes in the demand profile and a growing role for renewable and distributed generation are leading to rapid evolution in the electric grid. This article advocates the use of predictive maintenance of operational battery energy storage systems (BESSs) as the next step in safely managing ESSs. Predictive maintenance involves monitoring the components of a system for changes in operating parameters, which may be indicative of a pending fault. These changes signal the need for maintenance while the fault is still recoverable. Many industries, including utilities, use this maintenance approach for assets such as power plants, wind turbines, oil pipelines, and photovoltaic (PV) systems. Predictive monitoring is complementary to and should not replace safer system designs, which are essential for the real-time mitigation of catastrophic failures.