Sentineo and Octave collaborate on smart energy solution with second-life electric vehicle batteries

Sentineo - Octave cooperation

Jointly developed battery management system (BMS) controls the performance and safety of battery racks containing second-life battery modules from electric vehicles

Octave provides businesses with modular and sustainable solutions for behind-the-meter energy storage. Seeking specialized BMS electronics expertise for a smart energy solution, Octave found an ideal partner in Sentineo. The collaboration focused on co-developing the Master BMS for individual 121 kWh racks of second-life battery modules coming out of the electric vehicle industry. Sentineo’s proficiency in custom electronics hardware design combined with Octave’s sustainable energy storage knowledge resulted in a robust custom PCB solution. It effectively manages the operation of individual energy storage racks, aligning with market trends promoting circular economy and intelligent decentralized energy management. The developed Master BMS allows the reuse of the slave BMSs of the battery modules as employed in the electric vehicles. Thanks to this custom solution, Octave now has a safer and more affordable and sustainable solution to operate used EV battery modules for stationary energy storage in an optimal way. As a next step, Sentineo and Octave are happy to be collaborating in a follow-on project.

Octave and Sentineo co-developed a flexible Master BMS solution for a smart energy solution.
Octave’s innovative repurposing of electric vehicle battery modules effectively eliminates the necessity for producing new Li-ion batteries, avoiding around 100 tons of carbon emissions per MWh of batteries produced.

Custom electronics for advanced Master BMS

Octave specializes in intelligent modular solutions which provide sustainable, efficient, and secure energy storage for businesses. Octave uses premium batteries previously employed in electric vehicles. When repurposing these batteries for stationary energy storage, they can easily last another 10 years thanks to the accompanying capacity guarantee made possible with Octave’s module swapping technology. When seeking expertise in developing a Master BMS for individual 121 kWh energy storage racks, Octave turned to Sentineo for its specialized knowledge in BMS electronics.

Together, Sentineo and Octave engineered an advanced Master BMS. This custom and flexible system enables battery management for larger-scale applications, incorporates innovative technologies and safety measures to ensure optimal performance and reliability. Using pluggable transceiver boards, the system can easily be adjusted to communicate with different Slave BMSs, ASICs and protocols. This flexibility makes it perfect for reusing electric vehicle batteries, as a Master BMS can work with batteries from different car models and brands.

Several advanced communication protocols enable external connectivity and seamless data exchange between the Master BMS and the BMS controller of each battery unit. These ensure accurate monitoring, control and synchronization of battery parameters. The solution’s interlock and redundant power supply enhance the safety and reliability of the system. The Master BMS is designed to be SIL (safety integrity level) certification ready and incorporates isolated components that mitigate risks and enhance safety. When connected as part of an energy management system (EMS) overlooking the entire Octave solution, the Master BMS supports data aggregation, remote access, and smart control capabilities.

The advanced Master BMS, engineered by Octave and Sentineo, enables flexible battery management for larger-scale applications, incorporating innovative technologies and safety measures to ensure optimal performance and reliability.

Collaborating on intelligent energy storage

Jonas Engels, Co-founder & CTO of Octave:

Sentineo’s specialized BMS electronics expertise was of particular interest to us in co-developing our flexible Master BMS solution, enabling the economical reuse of batteries from electric vehicles. It was an inspiring and fruitful collaboration that matched our expectations. In addition, the final custom electronics solution came in 30% under the projected budget. Given the critical importance of quality, performance, and safety in our behind-the-meter energy storage solutions, we signed up with Sentineo for a follow-on project. For Octave, it is great to partner with Sentineo since we are scaling our activities to fulfill businesses’ rising demand for energy storage.

Piet Callemeyn, owner of Sentineo:

Our collaboration with Octave was truly interactive, as we regularly discussed technical specifications and held joint sessions for debugging and testing. This fits with Sentineo’s mission to enable customers to further expand their own expertise while developing solutions together. We are happy to contribute to a sustainable energy storage solution that contributes to the energy transition that is taking place in a more global context. In our experience, such collaborations tend to last in the long term and often intensify towards a partnership in which we share the passion for custom electronics development in light of dedicated applications.

When repurposing electric vehicle batteries for stationary energy storage, they can easily last another 10 years thanks to the accompanying capacity guarantee made possible with Octave’s module swapping technology. In this regard the Master BMS, engineered by Octave and Sentineo, supports data aggregation, remote access, and smart control capabilities.

Building sustainable solutions in high demand

Octave’s solution allows energy storage at the clients’ sites to be monitored and controlled remotely. Intelligent and sustainable battery applications are interesting for all kinds of companies, including energy suppliers such as Yuso. As they also focus on solar and wind energy, they need to forecast how much energy is needed and flexibly deal with shortages and surpluses. Octave’s sustainable battery solutions for SMEs and industry are helpful in this regard, because these are useful for demand response and other applications to support the power grid. Through the innovative repurposing of electric vehicle battery modules, Octave effectively eliminates the necessity for producing new Li-ion batteries. Through their ingenious second-life battery approach, around 100 tons of carbon emissions per MWh of batteries produced are avoided.

About Octave

As leaders in second-life battery energy storage systems, Octave is committed to developing sustainable solutions for the energy transition. Their innovative approach is modeled on a circular economy to reduce waste and mitigate climate change. This way Octave is empowering a cleaner and brighter future for all.

About Sentineo

Sentineo has a proven track record of 50+ customer projects based on qualitative custom electronics design and production. For startups and enterprises, Sentineo jointly develops challenging custom electronics based solutions. Sentineo is a one-stop shop, equipped with an advanced electronics laboratory, housing decades of accumulated experience in electronics hardware, including analog design, custom power conversion, wearable design and embedded control.

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