Global battery monitoring going online

The managing director of PowerShield, Len Thomas, displays the system they are developing to monitor batteries remotely via the internet. Picture / Fotopress

Technology New Zealand is funding PowerShield, a battery monitoring systems company, to create an internet-based monitoring service for sale to companies worldwide.

Technology New Zealand has provided a $500,000 grant to match the $500,000 invested by the company to develop the online service.

An industry shift from using serviceable to sealed maintenance-free batteries has resulted in a loss of the specialist knowledge needed to translate complex battery management data.

That's a gap in the global battery monitoring market that PowerShield managing director Len Thomas plans to fill.

"We'll download all the data through the internet, draw down a report and email them [customers] reports on what their contractors should look at."

Back-up batteries are used in an increasingly wide range of industries, including telecommunications, power, transport and banking.

However, Thomas said the market for monitoring systems was 90 per cent untapped and could be worth US$1 billion ($1.4 billion).

PowerShield had already developed an automated battery monitoring system for safer, cheaper management of high-voltage industrial batteries.

But a contract with Singapore Telecom to monitor batteries across 450 locations raised the stakes.

A new management system required software to measure voltage, current and calculate capacity of each battery every two seconds, report data to one central site and send out alarm messages via email or cellphone.

"What people are after is, when do I have to replace my batteries and can I rely on them to last for the time I need them to."

Technology New Zealand invested $25,000 for initial research last year, followed by $260,000 from its Technology for Business Growth programme to fund development of the centralised on site automated system.

PowerShield will use the new funding to create an automated system capable of monitoring battery sites anywhere in the world from its Auckland base within the next 12 months.

Power supply problems in America and Europe in recent years highlighted the importance of back-up power.

Yet Thomas said too often back-up batteries were still an afterthought for many organisations.

"In the past a lot of people put in back-up batteries and then they get forgotten down a back room somewhere - until the power goes off.

"Unfortunately a lot of the time we end up selling our systems after people have had a failure - possibly the time they need it least."

Large data centres can hold up to 1200 industrial batteries giving out several hundred amps each, posing significant safety concerns for those required to monitor them.

Thomas said people still taking voltage readings by hand could be risking their lives.

"Uninterruptible power supply systems are high-voltage, high-current. You don't want someone running around with a voltmeter sticking their arms across batteries trying to take voltage readings."

Apart from safety concerns, monitoring batteries by hand is time-consuming and costly.

Thomas believes PowerShield's automated system can pay for itself in about three years.

But a new internet-based worldwide battery management service based in Auckland would see the company grow beyond selling hardware.

"It's the value added service side that holds the real interest. How can we grow that, rather than purely selling products."