BESS Plant Setup – Part 3

Equipment Requirement

This article is a follow-up to BESS Plant Setup – Part 1 and BESS Plant Setup – Part 2, published in June 2025 and July 2025 issues. Part 1 focused on understanding customers’ requirements and points to consider for C&I applications, and Part 2 focused on understanding requirements for utility scale grid-connected projects. Part 3 focuses on equipment requirement for BESS manufacturing.

Equipment Requirement for BESS Manufacturing

Like solar and wind projects, there is a race in BESS projects to achieve the same capacity installation in a smaller footprint. Hence, we can see regular updates in the cell capacity and the size of a 20-foot High Cube ISO container (L6058*W2438*H2896mm).

Increasing the battery capacity within the container reduces the price for the balance of system (BOS) per kWh and makes the overall price for BESS more affordable. Additionally, the individual cell capacity is increasing, which in turn lowers the cell price per kWh.

Liquid cooling-based energy storage systems can achieve high capacity in a smaller footprint. On the other hand, air-cooling systems require more containers, take up more space, and connect with a larger number of cables, PCS, etc. Most of the time, Commercial and Industrial (C&I) applications prefer to use air cooling systems since they require a smaller system. Air cooling solutions use smaller capacity battery packs and they are easy to install and service.

If considering procuring equipment for both air cooling and liquid cooling systems, it is important to understand that liquid cooling packs are larger, and the manufacturing equipment has to be compatible with the following:

• Cell-to-module manufacturing equipment compatible with 13S configuration.

• Compression equipment accommodates 13S configuration module.

• The laser welding area is to be compatible with the area required for the 13S module.

• It is important to note that the 13S module dimensions would change as the cells get bigger. For example, 587Ah cells launched by a few companies after 314Ah have a different dimension.

• Cranes are utilised in various manufacturing locations that require lifting capacity to handle the weight. It changes as the cells’ capacity increases.

• As the pack and cluster ratings are getting higher due to higher capacity cells, the current rating of the pack and cluster ageing machine needs to be increased accordingly. It is important that they can charge and discharge the packs and clusters at least at a 0.5C rate. So, the procurement of equipment must be made with upcoming cell trends in mind.

• Similarly, the cell capacity grading equipment rating must be adequate to accommodate the 0.5C rate of the cell capacity.

Equipment Requirement for BESS Manufacturing

• Large capacity cells exhibit very high cycle life, showing minimal capacity degradation. Although little capacity would change, it is recommended to plan procurement in batches that align with the production plan. Cell capacity grading will be required if the cells have reached a certain point beyond the manufacturing date.

• A cell sorting machine to group the cells as per their OCV and IR values to ensure the same group of cells go to the module and pack.

• Compression equipment to apply pressure on the prismatic cells, ensuring maximum life.

• Laser welding machine (adequate power to be procured to accommodate the thickness of the busbar and type of busbar).

• End-of-line testing after module.

• Module to pack lines to assemble modules as a pack.

• BMS tester machine to support minimum 52S configuration.

• Pack ageing machine (charger-discharger) and cluster ageing machine as per pack and cluster specifications, respectively. It is important to note that C&I clusters are up to 1000V, and utility-scale projects’ battery clusters are 1500V. The current rating is determined by the cell capacity to be used.

• The ageing process releases a lot of heat, so it is important to ensure the heat is vented out of the production area.

• Material movement equipment – to move various components.

• Cranes of various lifting capacities, depending on their place in the manufacturing process.

• Testing tools at various stages to ensure that the production meets the required output.

• Temperature-controlled rooms are required, if storing cells for the long term.

• Tools for system debugging and communication protocols testing.

• Power supply connection large enough to support container-level testing when it is connected to PCS and when PCS is connected to the AC load.

• If considering manufacturing both 2-hour and 4-hour energy storage systems, equipment compatible with 2-hour systems can support 4-hour systems.

Speculation for 2000V DC battery systems in future will require the cluster ageing machine to be upgraded. This could also mean a change in the number of cells in the module or battery pack.

In part 4 of this series, I will write about understanding the technology for BESS manufacturing.

About the author:

Rahul Bollini is an R&D expert in Lithium-ion cells with 10 years of experience. He founded Bollini Energy to assist in deep understanding of the characteristics of Lithium-ion cells to EV, BESS, BMS and battery data analytics companies across the globe. Contact | +91-7204957389; bollinienergy@gmail.com.

Also read: Understanding battery energy storage system (BESS) | Part 7 – Project implementation planning