N-Ice Clean specializes in CO₂ dry ice cleaning, a highly efficient, eco-friendly industrial cleaning solution. To better support their energy needs, they implemented a battery system. While operational, it was not yet able to meet the company’s needs. In order to maximize their existing system, N-Ice Clean looked for a solution that could fix their on-site battery performance.

To manage this problem, Belgian energy optimizer Gridual and Withthegrid joined forces. By installing the Teleport Gateway, N-Ice Clean’s hardware was directly integrated with Gridual’s optimization algorithms, helping them reach their needs.

Untapped value

Because N-Ice’s specialized processes use a high volume of electricity, the company installed an EP Energy Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on-site to help manage their consumption and energy costs.

However, they encountered problems common among many industrial commercial asset owners:

• Underperformance: The battery was on-site, but its charging and discharging were not being continuously optimized around both the site’s local energy needs and opportunities in the energy market. This meant that much of the flexibility value was missed.
• No transparency: Without a clear breakdown of the battery’s performance and the value generated across different revenue streams and cost components of the energy bill, N-Ice Clean had limited visibility into how much net value the asset was actually delivering.
• Continuous flexibility: The need to securely hand over control set points to an energy trader of their choosing to continuously generate revenue from the energy market.

Overcoming the challenges of missed flexibility

To receive a higher performance from their existing BESS, N-Ice clean needed both a software and hardware solution. Gridual provided the software solution with their optimization algorithms. However, in order to connect their trading algorithms to N-Ice Clean’s physical battery, they needed to implement the Teleport Gateway. The benefits that this provided were the following:

• Single API: No complex multi-vendor communication through a unified integration. The Teleport translates diverse hardware protocols into a streamlined single API, allowing Gridual to effortlessly stream telemetry and deploy dispatch instructions to the assets.
• A secure connection: With ISO 27001 and NIS2 compliance, the Teleport removes potential security violations and ensures that all remote control over physical assets remains fully encrypted around the clock.
• Integrating multiple set points: The Teleport serves as a smart local controller, coordinating market-based trading commands with on-site safety parameters. By validating external dispatches against limits that are predetermined by you, it protects the local grid connection while capturing revenue opportunities.
• Ability to choose vendors: For N-Ice Clean, it was important that they could choose who they would want to work with. Because the Teleport is a brand-independent local controller, it gives the asset owner full control over who they want to work with.