Grid Storage Pilot Call
Open call · Hosted by NovaLabs. The analytics are settled — we can say which racks to cycle harder — and what is missing is a site willing to run it live.
About this open call
What this event is about
Our cycle recommendations only earn anything once they reach the controller running the battery, and every site we read runs a different one. We want the integration layer that carries a plan in and the cell data back out, without an engineer on site.
What we are looking for
Controls and industrial-integration teams with software that already talks to third-party battery and energy management systems in the field rather than on a bench.
Problem statements
A different controller at every site
One site exposes Modbus registers, the next runs IEC 61850, the third is a vendor stack that will not take an external setpoint at all. A dispatch path that works at one site is not yet a product, and rewriting it per site is the cost we are trying to stop paying.
The data comes back thin
Cell voltages drop out during exactly the grid events we most want to read, meter data arrives as fifteen-minute averages, and timestamps come in local time with nothing to mark the change of hour. Say what your integration does when a field is late, missing or plainly wrong.
Warranty limits are not ours to move
A deeper cycle plan has to stay inside the manufacturer's warranty envelope and the operator's own safety limits, and it has to prove afterwards that it did. Without that record the operator cannot sign, whatever the extra cycles are worth.
Evaluation criteria
100% weighted total
Timeline
- Jun 22, 2026
Call opens
First entries accepted, with the register maps we are able to share.
- Sep 12, 2026
Entries close
Entries are read as they arrive, and sending one is final.
- Sep 26, 2026
Technical review and shortlist
Shortlisted teams walk their integration through with our controls engineers.
- Oct 16, 2026
Pilot decision
One team takes the paid pilot and starts on the operator's own hardware.
Sponsors & partners
NovaLabs
Host
ETH Zürich
Technical partner
FAQs
Do we get access to a real battery before we enter?
No. You get sample battery-management exports and the register maps for the two controller stacks in scope; the live sites open at the pilot, not during entries.
We only speak Modbus TCP. Is that enough to enter?
It covers one of the two stacks, so yes. Tell us which protocols you already run in production and what adding IEC 61850 would cost you, rather than claiming both.
Who owns the integration once the pilot ends?
You do. The pilot pays for a deployment and the right to run it on those sites; nothing here assigns your code or your models to us.
Take part
Submit your entry before the deadline. Every entry is scored against the criteria above.