Technology group Wärtsilä has launched GEMS Pulse, a predictive analytics solution designed to increase the financial and performance output of energy storage facilities. Batteries generate thousands of data points every second, and GEMS Pulse takes complex and largely inaccessible battery and operational data and transforms them into actionable insights, enabling energy storage asset owners to make smarter asset usage decisions throughout the lifecycle of the system.
Batteries are a crucial component underpinning grid reliability — and their value is maximized when operated with precision. Even small inaccuracies can have a big impact: a 5% SoC error could result in annual revenue loss of approximately $10,000 per megawatt. For a 200-MWh energy storage system, that translates to up to $20 million of revenue loss over the project’s lifetime.
Many energy storage asset owners leave a significant portion of total capacity unused — often up to as much as 20% — as a buffer against uncertainty in cell health and available energy metrics. GEMS Pulse helps reclaim that margin by providing high-confidence measurements of available energy, cell imbalance and degradation. With clearer visibility into system health, asset owners can operate with greater precision and confidence.
By continuously monitoring for anomalies, GEMS Pulse identifies potential issues before they impact availability — reducing downtime, lowering operational costs and expanding capacity available for grid services.
GEMS Pulse also enhances operational flexibility by equipping operators with real-time data to simulate dispatch strategies and evaluate outcomes before deployment. Combined with flexible performance guarantees, operators can optimize battery usage for their strategic goals with intelligence around constraints like cycles per day, depth of discharge, CP rating (continuous power rating) and operating temperature.
“Our industry is experiencing changes in policy and global trade. GEMS Pulse reduces risk and strengthens the long-term economics of clean energy. It gives customers real-time visibility and predictive intelligence so they can run their assets with confidence and speed,” said Luke Witmer, Vice President of Energy Storage Software Engineering at Wärtsilä. “Batteries are fundamental to renewable energy integration and deliver real value, no matter how the market twists and turns or how policies evolve.”
GEMS Pulse is already in use by Wärtsilä’s own energy performance services team. To date, it has optimized over 9 GWh of battery capacity within Wärtsilä’s portfolio, helping customers improve performance, uptime and state-of-charge accuracy.
“We built GEMS Pulse to solve the problems of today’s asset owners: asset availability, maximised capacity to meet rising energy demands, and the bottom line,” said Ruchira Shah, General Manager of Software Product Management for Energy Storage at Wärtsilä. “We are empowering customers to access and understand their own data. This is a meaningful competitive edge in a fast-changing energy market.”
News item from Wärtsilä
