In many areas, electricity bills for large businesses include charges for the total amount of electricity used, as well as demand charges based on peak usage. High demand for just 15 minutes can account for half the total charges on a monthly electricity bill. Stem’s distributed storage technology reduces peak loads by predicting usage patterns and deploying stored energy when needed. Recharged during off-peak hours, the batteries in Stem’s locker-sized PowerStore tower can provide up to 18 kilowatts of power on demand.
Stem designed and developed the PowerStore energy system in just 13 months using Model-Based Design with MATLAB®and Simulink®.
“We thought we were taking a development timeline risk, but hindsight has shown that Model-Based Design actually reduced risk because we could develop and debug the control system before hardware was available,” says David Erhart, VP of Engineering at Stem. “In fact, our simulations with Simulink and Simscape Electrical enabled us to make hardware design decisions. As a result, we shortened the product development cycle, completing it with just one board respin.”