Product Spotlight - June 2025
Our June Product Spotlight introduces enhancements to our Central and Local EMS solutions.
From deeper VPP integration to smarter BESS management, here's what’s new with Unity EMS:
Extended Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Integration: From Market Participation to Real-Time Control
The need to coordinate distributed large-scale assets is no longer a future challenge – it’s an urgent reality. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are transforming energy systems by aggregating decentralized assets into a single, optimized entity. Unity EMS brings VPPs to life by unifying BESS, renewables, and hybrid sites into a single dispatchable system – enabling coordinated, optimized market participation and real-time grid services that operators require.
Power Factors’ VPP Controller introduces Real-Time Dispatch across entire portfolios, offering dynamic, precise control and unlocking new levels of flexibility by factoring in actual plant conditions, real-time renewable generation capability, performance, and availability.
VPP operators now benefit from enhanced control and monitoring interfaces, granting real-time visibility, fast and informed decision-making, and coordinated response across distributed assets. Live asset data, control logs, alerts, and schedule execution views help boost operational resilience, flexibility, and responsiveness – addressing long-standing challenges around visibility and slow manual coordination.
Key enhancements include:
-
Integration of renewables, BESS, and hybrid assets in a single VPP framework
-
Unified control and monitoring interface with live telemetry, alerts, and execution tracking
-
Real-Time Dispatch across entire portfolios
-
Grid-aware flexibility based on real-world asset availability
This marks a major milestone in Power Factors’ journey toward autonomous and scalable VPP operations, enabling operators to deliver advanced grid services with greater speed and confidence.
Advanced Dispatch Optimization for VPPs
Our Dispatch Optimization capabilities have been extended with advanced algorithms to support ancillary services for VPPs. By considering physical asset constraints, grid and PPA compliance, and real-time economic and market data, the Optimizer helps maximize revenues across any portfolio of renewable and storage assets – including standalone BESS, co-located, or hybrid sites.
This new capability directly addresses operator pain points related to revenue loss, non-compliance penalties, and reactive dispatch planning. By incorporating asset longevity and dynamic reprioritization, our solution ensures dispatch strategies remain both profitable and sustainable over time.
EMS Dispatch Optimization stands out by delivering a tightly integrated solution that bridges asset-level intelligence with portfolio-wide optimization. EMS leverages deep operational data – forecast fusion, availability declarations, and real-time telemetry – to generate accurate, executable dispatch strategies. It supports multi-market participation (day-ahead and intraday stacked with ancillary services), dynamic re-optimization, and hybrid asset coordination (BESS + RES), giving operators a clear edge in revenue stacking and grid compliance. Combined with live schedule monitoring, EMS offers a future-ready solution.
EMS Dispatch Optimization delivers a tightly integrated approach that bridges asset-level intelligence with fleet-wide coordination. It leverages deep operational data like forecast fusion, availability declarations, and real-time telemetry to generate highly accurate, executable dispatch plans. It also supports day-ahead and intraday participation stacked with ancillary services, enabling full-spectrum market optimization.
Key enhancements include:
-
Support for ancillary services within optimization workflows
-
Constraints-aware revenue maximization across mixed asset types
-
Dynamic reprioritization based on asset performance and market shifts
-
Integration with Unity EMS for live monitoring and strategy execution
Real-Time Hybrid & BESS Control
The Power Control view for hybrid systems is a powerful real-time interface designed to monitor and control hybrid or co-located energy systems. This advanced, multi-tab view allows users to adjust power setpoints dynamically – either at the system level or per individual asset. Users can also program dispatch schedules and modify key control setpoints or operating modes, enabling greater operational flexibility and responsiveness.
Power Factors’ Storage Power Plant Controller (S-PPC) also supports Dynamic Controllable Asset Allocation across multi-master BESS architectures. This real-time control layer enables optimized performance, more flexible operations, and superior resilience at scale.
Inverter groups can now be dynamically isolated and operated as independent “virtual sub-assets,” enabling targeted control services – like capacity testing – without disrupting the broader system. This is particularly beneficial for BESS sites commissioned in stages or operating under complex control schemes.
Battery Monitoring & Analytics: Smarter BESS Management Begins with Deeper Insights
Lack of consistent, actionable data has long held back BESS operation and optimization. The enhanced Performance Overview page for BESS assets puts critical KPIs front and center – so you can monitor system health, verify warranty alignment, and reduce manual reporting and interpretation.
Operators can now view key performance indicators like Round-Trip Efficiency, Energy Flows, Equivalent Full Cycles, and various types of Availability, supporting better planning, warranty tracking, and long-term performance assurance.
Key enhancements include:
-
Standardized views across BESS sites for consistent reporting
-
Metrics such as Round-Trip Efficiency, Energy Flows, and Cycle Counts
-
Availability breakdown by planned, forced, and operational factors
-
Improved alignment with warranty and performance KPIs
Advanced BESS analytics ensure that users remain well-informed about system behavior and long-term reliability, enabling smarter asset management and better-informed decision-making.
Not yet a UNity EMS customer? Request a demo to see how these solutions can help you optimize your renewable energy operations.
Optimize assets, maximize revenue, and grow your portfolio with Unity
