Forsee Power and EDF Store & Forecast announced the signing of a partnership for the development of mobile and intelligent electricity storage systems, using second-life batteries. By combining their skills, the two companies set themselves the objective of reducing the environmental footprint and optimizing the economic value of batteries from heavy vehicles, by integrating them into innovative storage systems allowing:the replacement of thermal generators with a zero-emission solution in terms of CO2, particles and noise, the temporary reinforcement of the supply of charging points for light and heavy electric vehicles, supplying micro-grids with complex accessibility. Forsee Power will supply battery packs – first or second life packs – from heavy vehicles such as buses for which the Group is the leading supplier of battery systems in Europe.

EDF Store & Forecast will integrate the battery packs into its stationary storage solutions controlled by its energy management system (EMS) and will market them. Forsee Power also plans to use these mobile stationary storages on its own industrial sites, in particular on congested network points or associated with the production of solar energy. The battery energy storage system and its energy management system make it possible to optimize an electrical ecosystem according to the customer's needs: management of variability and transfer of renewable energies, services to the electrical system, economic optimization of the supply/demand balance of an isolated system, minimization of the power subscribed to the network or even maximization of photovoltaic self-consumption.

A first mobile battery will be deployed in 2022 for a network operator. It will serve customers by replacing thermal generators running on diesel with a zero-emission solution. They will then be supplied with electricity during cuts for work on the electricity distribution network or in the event of climatic hazards, by charging and restoring the solar production produced locally.

Eco-design is at the heart of Forsee Power's R&D policy. Battery packs designed for transport incorporate the possibility of a second life. Indeed, electric mobility applications require a minimum level of energy in order to be always functional.

However, once this level of energy has been exceeded at the end of the first life on board the vehicles (5 to 10 years), the batteries still have a very substantial level of energy (75 to 80% of the initial capacity). Thus, rather than sending these battery packs directly for recycling, second life use in a stationary application not only extends the life cycle of the battery packs but also improves their economic value. The battery packs are then used until their end of life, thus extending the operating time before recycling.