Hyperstrong joins new venture offering solar batteries to business for zero up front cost

Australian newcomer Tesseract ESS and Chinese energy storage solutions provider Hyperstrong announced a partnership to develop opportunities for modular battery storage solutions for commercial and industrial (C&I) applications.

A week after launching, Tesseract ESS, a subsidiary of Tesseract Energy – which formed in 2018 as a pioneer of residential power purchase agreements – announced its partnership with Hyperstrong at All Energy Australia in Melbourne on Wednesday where Tesseract ESS had previously unveiled its solar and battery energy-storage-as-a-service offering to the industry for the first time.

The partnership is the first that Hyperstrong has signed with an Australian company since the opening of its Asia Pacific headquarters in Sydney on Monday.

The partnership results in the Tesseract ESS Unity Node, a range of modular, integrated, all-in-one solar and battery energy storage solutions (ESS) that will be manufactured by Hyperstrong and which will combine tier one batteries with a battery management system, energy management system, fire suppression, and thermal management system.

Tesseract ESS will utilise these Unity Nodes in two- to three-hour storage duration AC and DC coupled configurations and will offer them via a power purchase agreement (PPA) through Tesseract ESS’s Unity Energy Plan.

The Unity Node will be available with $0 up-front CAPEX which leaves customers only having to pay for the energy that they use and includes all cost for most eligible C&I customers. The Unity Node will be available through a 10-year or more agreement, while the Unity Energy Plan tariff will typically be 20 percent lower than the customer’s existing tariff.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Hyperstrong, one of the world’s largest tier one energy storage solution providers to deliver a winning value proposition to C&I customers in Australia,” said Dr Andrew Mears, CEO and executive director of Tesseract ESS.

The Tesseract ESS Unity Energy Plan is targeted at C&I customers in a range of heavy energy usage yet underserved sectors such as manufacturing, agrifood including dairy farms and food processing, cold storage and warehousing, local councils and community buildings.

“For far too long, the C&I market in Australia has been underserved and manufacturers, especially those in regional areas such as dairy farmers and other agri-food businesses, have suffered under high electricity prices that impact profitability,” added Chong Tong, co-founder and chairman of the Tesseract Group.

“Unless we accelerate clean energy for these behind-the-meter sectors we will struggle to meet our renewable energy targets. 

“Under the current economic climate, many businesses don’t have the capabilities to invest in energy storage. Our Unity Energy Plan will package the Unity Node ESS and Solar and optimise the value with Unity Ops, our orchestration and energy market trading platform, thereby reducing energy costs and enabling decarbonisation to meet ESG requirements.”

Tesseract ESS’s Unity Ops will be capable of orchestrating rooftop solar and the Unity Node ESS to optimise and connect to energy markets and networks by utilising virtual power plant (VPP) technology from SwitchDin, the company Andrew Mears previously fronted as CEO.

Using Unity Ops, Tesseract ESS assets will be able to participate in frequency control ancillary services (FCAS), wholesale energy arbitrage, wholesale demand response, and network services, further optimising the value of the assets.