Immediate Power Solutions (IPS)

The Significance of
IPS as a Category  

The expansion in segmentation and applications is revolutionizing energy storage, moving beyond traditional long-duration storage (hours to days) to include short-duration storage (minutes to microseconds) through advanced mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, and electrochemical technologies. 

Long duration energy storage applications have traditionally been labeled ESS (Energy Storage Systems) and long duration electrochemical (battery) technologies logically evolved to be known as BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems).  In this electrified everywhere age, short duration energy storage segments and applications have expanded rapidly based on the surge in use cases and new enabling technologies.   

A fundamental difference between long and short duration energy storage is that storage capacity (i.e., energy density) is the highest value characteristic in long duration applications and discharge capacity (i.e., C rate or power density) is the highest value characteristic in short duration applications.  Short duration energy storage examples here include mission critical power backup systems, commercial and military pulse power applications, and short duration industrial and grid power stabilization support.  

The widening gap between long and short-duration energy storage segments and applications, along with the emergence of new technologies tailored to each, necessitates the creation of a new category aptly named Immediate Power Solutions (IPS). 

Under the umbrella of IPS, the short duration energy storage stakeholder community can now effectively identify and differentiate their requirements from the long duration labels used incorrectly due to lack of an alternative.  An example of the effect of this overlap is the ever-growing family of lithium-ion rechargeable battery technologies, which are inherently high energy density chemistries. These products work well in long duration energy storage applications such as renewables grid storage and EVs. Due to familiarity or cost, or both, they have also been applied to short duration applications where high energy density is a poor fit or even a disadvantage. In this new era, one-size-fits-all application of battery technologies has become obsolete in favor of optimizing products and technologies for the specific applications.  

The IPS category helps short duration users, technology providers and services suppliers self-identify and come together to optimize short duration energy storage implementations.