Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics CSP
Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics CSP
© pexels-giantasparagus

© pexels-giantasparagus

Optimized Operating Strategies for PV-Battery Energy Storage Systems to Extend Service Life and Reduce Resource Consumption

Forschungsprojekt PVStorAGE

Operating PV-BESS Systems More Smartly and with a Longer Service Life

What’s it all about?

  • The Fraunhofer CSP is launching the “PVStorAGE” project to optimize operating strategies for PV-battery energy storage systems (PV-BESS). The state of Saxony-Anhalt is providing funding for this project from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in accordance with the STEP funding guidelines.
  • Specific goals include reducing the MTTR (mean time to repair) by up to 5%, increasing availability by up to 2%, and achieving lower overall degradation.
  • As a first step, we are building a robust database based on real-world systems - and for this, we need your operational data.

Who can contribute?

  • Operators, municipal utilities, EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) firms, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) providers, Energy Management System (EMS)/SCADA manufacturers, aggregators (service providers that bundle the capacities of individual plants for trading on the electricity market)
  • Plants preferably located in Saxony-Anhalt, but contributions from across Germany are welcome
  • Use Cases: Self-consumption, peak shaving, primary/secondary control power, grid services, arbitrage, EV fast charging; BTM (Behind-the-Meter) and FTM (Front-of-the-Meter); rooftop PV systems and ground-mounted PV systems


Your benefit?

  • Invitation to workshops
  • Visibility as a data partner
  • Opportunity for further research collaborations on the topic (in-depth scientific analysis)
  • Benchmark comparison (anonymized) with similar systems
Expand all Close all

  • Category Examples
    Basic data

    System Type (roof/ground-mounted, BTM/FTM), PV-kWp, Battery-kWh & Capacity, Manufacturer/Model (inverter/Battery Management System (BMS)), Commissioning, Location (longitude and latitude), Use Case, Operating Instructions
    PV operational data

    PV power/output, DC/AC power, current, voltage, inverter data, inverter temperature, module temperature, strings (optional), status information, error codes
    Battery operational data

    Charge/discharge power, SoC, SoH, voltage/current, temperature—at various levels (cell, module, string, rack, cabinet) (if available), cycle count, Battery Management System (BMS) KPIs, status information, error codes
    EMS/Grid

    Load/Grid Offtake/Feed-in, Setpoints, Limits, Tariff/Exchange Signals (if available)
    Events/O&M

    Alarms, error codes, shutdowns, maintenance/service logs 
    Weather/Forecast

    Radiation intensity, ambient temperature, wind speed, humidity, forecast data (if used)

    • Time period: ideally ≥12 months (shorter periods are possible) with typical operating conditions
    • Resolution: 1–15 minutes (higher resolution is possible; daily values are insufficient)
    • Formats: CSV/XLSX/JSON, or API access; metadata as CSV/XLSX
    • Quality: Include timestamps with time zone; specify units/scales; include a brief list of variables

    • Execution of a mutual non-disclosure agreement
    • Restriction of data use to the PVStorAGE research project
    • Restriction of data access to the project team
    • Publication of aggregated results only, without any reference to specific companies