Challenge
Changing the way we generate, transmit, distribute and consume electricity is critical to mitigating the economic and environmental impacts of climate change. In 2021, renewable energy installations hit record highs — a trend that is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future. Battery energy storage is one solution that’s making a positive impact on our world.
A national installer of battery energy storage solutions is growing exponentially, and the company needed to upgrade and scale its Microsoft Excel-based systems which help determine energy storage configurations, construction and pricing. While the company’s legacy system was quick and easy to update, the team asked Six Feet Up to build a Python-based solution that would improve accuracy and provide greater quality assurance measures.
The new, Python-based solution is comprised of a suite of five integrated applications — all featuring proprietary calculations — that optimize the company’s business operations. For example, the applications help the company determine the ideal configuration of a client’s energy storage system, generate site drawings and determine more accurate pricing for its clients.
In addition to being sustainable, battery energy storage is essential for adapting to varying weather and sunlight conditions and preventing the interruption of power delivery in general, including from utilities in case of power outages.
Due to the impressive, purposeful and transformative nature of the mission this technology supports, this project has been designated as one of Six Feet Up’s 10 IMPACTFUL Projects. Six Feet Up’s 10-year goal is to complete 10 IMPACTFUL Projects by 2025.
Implementation Details
The first of the five applications created by Six Feet Up’s expert developers is used to calculate the size of the energy storage solution required for individual clients. Prior to Six Feet Up’s involvement, company engineers entered information relevant to a battery system’s power performance guarantees and other characteristics into an Excel-based system that used a series of proprietary formulas to determine:
- the number of batteries needed for a given power output,
- the number and timing of new battery installs to make up for battery degradation; and
- power loss due to the addition of components such as cooling systems and converters.
Before building the application, Six Feet Up’s engineers needed to gain a solid understanding of the underlying formulas and how they interacted with each other to produce the desired output.
Understanding the Formulas
Six Feet Up first examined the proprietary formulas in Excel so that they could be converted to Python code. The sizing formulas were complex and interrelated, but Six Feet Up’s team took the time and worked with the client to obtain the needed level of understanding.
Creating the Application
The team determined that using Django (the go-to Python web application framework for rich applications) with a PostgreSQL database managed by AWS RDS (which provides scalability and reliability) would be the best solution for the application’s back end.
Docker and AWS App Runner were used to deploy the Django application, including the front end, which was implemented using the Next.js React framework. The resulting user interface is designed to be recognizable to engineers who have been using the spreadsheet tool for years, while removing visual clutter and streamlining its usability. The result is a modern application interface with a cleaner, easy-to-use design.
Six Feet Up deployed the application using Terraform, a widely-adopted tool for defining infrastructure as code, and recommended unit tests for 100% coverage of the application.
Results
Company engineers and staff have given favorable reviews of the new application. The Django back end and React front end allow for a clean and easy-to-use application.
Because the new application was created using modern software development practices — and its ongoing maintenance and feature development will be accomplished through managed software development life cycle processes — company staff can be confident that the application works correctly. Additionally, the superior numerical precision of Python means that calculations from the application are more accurate than they were when processed using Excel.
The optimized suite of applications will help the company install energy storage systems with a greater degree of quality, precision and cost control. In turn, these applications will benefit the renewable energy sector and help mitigate the economic and environmental impacts of climate change.
