Nowadays, the construction industry heavily depends on technological solutions, which are critical to delivering projects on time and cost-effectively. Construction cranes and hoists are some of the key enablers for achieving these goals, but their presence on a building site requires reliable and capable power sources that can meet high power demands. Typical hoists and cranes are capable of lifting weights of thousands of kilograms to heights of up to 200meters.
This results in very high-power required from the sources, reaching peaks of over 200kW. The availability of the local grid to meet these demands is often limited, which results in the employment of high-power diesel generators in the range of 350+ kVA, often oversized.
Due to the nature of crane and hoist operations, the utilization of the segenerators over a single-day shift can be as low as 10%–30%. This translates to poor fuel efficiency, high emissions, and faster engine wear due to the low load factor, which introduces substantial challenges in meeting sustainability goals and environmental regulations.
The graph below shows example of generator load factor when powering typical construction hoist over one week of operation. It can be observed that the generator was loaded with a maximum power of 35% of its rating on one occasion, with an average load of around 10%–20%.Running a generator at such a low load factor results in uneconomical utilization.
The answer to these challenges is the employment of a BESS (Battery Energy Storage System), which dramatically improves generator operation by reducing the generator size and optimizing the load cycle. In some cases, a BESS also allows the use of a local grid supply as an alternative to generators.
In such scenario, the battery energy storage system will operate as a power and energy buffer, taking on the task of supplying high quality power to the crane or hoist. The generator or grid, now decoupled from the load, will operate as a basic battery charger.
Omni Grid Energy specializes in BESS technology, and our product – OmniQube – is designed to perfectly fit into crane and hoist applications. We understand the challenges of powering these loads, and we know how to optimize the BESS design to achieve optimal performance for both the cranes and hoists and the power sources that supply them.
