Irem "Subsidiary XR-B signs commercialization agreement for vanadium battery-based ESS with domestic power public corporation"

Irem announced on the 29th that its affiliate XRB has signed an agreement with domestic power generation public enterprise H Company to promote demonstration and commercialization of ESS (Energy Storage System) related to renewable energy linkage.

XRB has completed discussions with H Company on the joint development and demonstration of a hybrid ESS combining vanadium battery-based long-duration ESS and stationary short-duration ESS, and plans to officially start the project from the 1st.

In this project, new operation modes will be developed and demonstrated through a 100kW/800kWh high-power XRB battery. After the demonstration, ESS-related business will be conducted together with the MSP division of the domestic power generation public enterprise.

MSP (Managed Service Provider) is a service recently highlighted due to the Microsoft (MS) system error incident. It is gaining attention along with data centers due to advanced generative AI (Artificial Intelligence). In the new energy industry sector, it refers to service providers for the expansion and dissemination of renewable energy and ESS.

The purpose of this project is to implement an optimal intelligent ESS by automatically switching between long-duration and short-duration hybrid modes. Through this, it aims to ▲solve the cost issues of transmission infrastructure construction by storing long-duration renewable energy ▲establish stable infrastructure for electricity storage and sales business ▲fundamentally block fire and explosion risks by replacing lithium batteries ▲lay the foundation for new energy businesses such as electric vehicle charging, data centers, and large building UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).

Additionally, with a sealed frame structure that prevents electrolyte leakage, the performance degradation rate after 1000 charge-discharge cycles is expected to improve up to twice the current world’s best level. Along with this, for the first time in the world, data-based AI/ML (Integrated Artificial Intelligence) technology will be linked and applied to VRFB BMS (Battery Management System), PMS (Power Management System), EMS (Energy Management System), and PCS (Power Conversion System) to operate the optimal XRB-ESS.

The VRFB (Vanadium Redox Flow Battery) by XRB, which forms the basis of the project, boasts high-power performance 2 to 4 times higher per unit cell compared to existing domestic and international RFB (Redox Flow Battery) manufacturers.

As a post-project utilization plan, H Company’s MSP division will carry out installation and operation businesses of UPS over 1MWh and indoor container-type ESS for renewable energy linkage and IDC centers/large buildings, and commercialize ESS to supply customized intelligent ESS solutions to customers. They will also actively target overseas markets using domestic references.

Through the second phase of joint research, they plan to discover demand sources for indoor container-type XRB stack short-duration SVRB (Stationary Vanadium Redox Battery)-ESS with UPS capacity over 1MWh for domestic and international data centers and large buildings. Subsequently, they plan to jointly cooperate on MSP business diversification technologies and business plans through indoor container-type SVRB ESS installation and operation.

Meanwhile, according to market research firm BNEF, the global ESS market size is expected to reach $262 billion (362.608 trillion KRW) by 2030. Also, in January last year, the government formed an ESS support task force and announced plans to foster the domestic ESS industry. According to this, up to 45 trillion KRW will be invested by 2036 to install ESS devices with a capacity of 26GWh.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.