Battery storage (BESS) integration
Smappee BESS: every container steered as one battery
Smappee, based in Harelbeke since 2012, builds battery storage for commercial sites: from a liquid-cooled cabinet of 100 kW and 233 kWh to a 20 ft container of 500 kW and 1075 kWh. The Genius Flex aggregates every container of an installation into one system. Voltmasters EMS steers that whole over the local MQTT interface of the gateway and keeps the condition of each container in view.
Supported devices
- BESS
The storage system behind a Smappee Genius Flex: one device per installation, whatever the number of containers behind the gateway. The battery is created automatically as a child device; you set its capacity and the minimum and maximum state of charge of the installation.
What the EMS gets out of your Smappee installation
- Trade on the imbalance market and dynamic prices, quarter hour by quarter hour
- Peak shaving: keep peak power and capacity tariff under control
- Maximise self-consumption together with PV and EV chargers
- Fluvius telecontrol and grid compliance, certification included
- Real-time monitoring with automatic incident detection
Why installers connect a Smappee battery to Voltmasters
A battery only really pays off when it plays along with the rest of the site. The EMS steers the storage system on an active power setpoint and uses it for self-consumption, peak shaving and capacity management on the grid connection, and for trading on imbalance and prices. Per container you see the DC voltage and current, the state of health and the temperature, so a weak container stands out. If the controller or the connection drops, the Genius Flex takes back control after about a minute and the battery does not stay latched on the last setpoint.
The technical bit, in short
- Connection over the local MQTT interface of the Genius Flex, on port 443
- Credentials of the Generic MQTT battery integration in the Smappee app; metering and charging stations have their own pair
- New measurements about once per second
- Switch off peak shaving in the Smappee environment, otherwise the gateway corrects the setpoint of the EMS
- No reactive power: this interface gives no measurement and accepts no setpoint
How it works
How your Smappee connects to the EMS
Voltmaster Controller in the cabinet
The industrial DIN-rail controller sits next to the installation and runs the optimisation locally, even without internet.
Connect over the local network
You connect the device following the step-by-step guide in our documentation. We assist with commissioning on your first project.
Configure and go live
The installation appears in the platform: dashboards, control and monitoring are active right away.
FAQ
Questions about the Smappee integration
How does the EMS steer a Smappee battery with several containers?
As a whole. The Genius Flex aggregates every container into one system, so the EMS steers the power of the whole installation and reads the aggregated measurements. The condition of each container stays visible for diagnostics: DC voltage and current, state of health and battery temperature.
What happens if the connection to the controller drops?
The Genius Flex takes back control about a minute after the last setpoint, and the installation resumes the behaviour configured in the Smappee environment. The local interface cannot restore self-consumption or peak shaving, so whatever is configured there is the fallback after a handover.
Does this work together with hardware from another brand?
Yes, the EMS is brand-independent. A battery, PV inverter, EV chargers and meters from different manufacturers are controlled together as one optimised system.
How do I connect a Smappee BESS to the EMS?
The Voltmaster Controller connects to the device over the local network. The step-by-step instructions are in our documentation, and as a certified partner we guide your first commissioning from start to finish.
Sources
Manufacturer documentation
This page links to the manufacturer's own documentation for this device. Always check the most recent version at the manufacturer.
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