How a sawmill doubled its capacity thanks to an innovative second life battery solution

Location: Husum, Germany
Industry: Sawmill
Timeline: 2020

BACKGROUND

A sawmill located in the remote area of Husum Germany was experiencing recurring difficulties when trying to run both of its saws at the same time. This was due to the limitations of the existing distribution lines that connect the sawmill to the main power grid. As a result, the sawmill’s production was negatively affected. To overcome this problem, the owner would have had to replace and expand the power lines in order to access more power. But this proved to be far too costly – a common dilemma for industries in remote areas.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, Comsys was looking into the possibilities of second life applications for batteries removed from electric vehicles. Thanks to the efforts of PQ Engineering Nosswitz, the sawmill agreed to be part of a project involving just such a solution.

CHALLENGE

A sawmill presents a difficult challenge due to the significant difference between high and low load during normal saw operation, where huge fluctuations create a volatile demand. The question was whether or not an onsite battery energy storage solution built with repurposed EV batteries would be able to supply the saws whenever load demand exceeded what the grid could supply.

Picture: The difference in load during a saw operation at the sawmill before the Battery Energy Storage was installed.

SOLUTION

A modular and scalable peak shaving onsite storage installation for industrial applications based on ADF battery ready technology and using EV batteries to supply power on demand, cycling it 60 kW in 60 seconds.

Picture: Comsys Battery Energy Storage solution, using second-life batteries from hybrid vehicles

RESULT

Following start up in early October 2020, the second life battery solution has proven to be 100% successful at supplying both of the saws during high load and charging during low load. This in turn has enabled the sawmill to double its production.

Dan Liljengren, Head of Research and Innovation at Comsys says, “This project has shown that industries can get the power and response they need without having to spend a fortune on buying new power lines to the network, and can also save money by avoiding initial higher cost tariffs for electricity at peak times.”

Picture: Our ADF technology makes it possible to connect the battery to the grid. 

Marine Sales Manager, Per Ewers is explaining how to secure your shipboard power quality.

More and more data emerge indicating that poor Power Quality of the electrical network onboard results in substantially increased electrical losses and consequent down-time and failures onboard! Per highlights the main points on this topic and three ways to make your ship more secure!

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2018 we managed to get ISO 9001 Quality approved, and in our continuous work to maintain high quality in everything we do, we are proud to announce that we now also are ISO 14001 Environment approved through the German certification institute TÜV Nord

With our ISO 14001 certification we are making sure that we are reducing our environmental footprint and that we continuously aim to improve our processes and reduce our impact in line with the global sustainability targets. 

As a part of this action and to reduce our CO2 emissions further for a more sustainable environment, we have started to exchange our company cars to electrical, which now can be seen on the roads with the icon below.

We will start 2020 by releasing part 1 of our new product design of the ADF products.
Starting 6th of January, all ADF's will be delivered with new labels as shown in the image below.

We will have a part 2 of the new product design realeased next year so keep your eyes open.