Trime and ANA reach European sales agreement

European lighting tower and genset manufacturer Trime has reached an exclusive European sales agreement with US-based ANA Inc to sell ANA’s power modules.

The two companies co-exhibited one of the units – the EBOSS 70kVA – at the recent supplier event held by Sunbelt Rentals UK in Liverpool.

The EBOSS units are not pure battery energy storage systems (BESS) but rather designed to be used only in conjunction with a diesel generator.

Paul Hay, CEO, Trime UK (left) with David Dickert, executive VP of sales for ANA Inc, pictured at a Sunbelt Rentals event in Liverpool, UK. (Image: KHL Group)

The power module’s batteries are charged by the genset, which then shuts down while the EBOSS powers the load. When the module is depleted to 15% of charge, the genset powers up and recharges the module.

David Dickert, ANA’s executive vice president of sales, told IRN that the system reduces both diesel consumption and emissions by 80%, while genset maintenance costs are also significantly lower because the genset operates less often.

Launch at IRE show

Trime will launch the products for the European market at the upcoming International Rental Exhibition (IRE) in Maastricht on 2 to 4 June.

The modules use Lithium Titanate Oxide (LTO) batteries, manufactured by Toshiba, which are designed to be quick to charge – around 30 minutes said Dickert – and come with a 60,000 cycle life.

Dickert, who had a 30-year career with Aggreko before joining ANA, said another benefit of the LTO batteries is a lower risk of fire compared to Lithium-based batteries, with no thermal runaway.

ANA produces the modules in Henderson, near Las Vegas in Nevada. The EBOSS range comes with outputs ranging from 25kVA to 625kVA. The unit on show in Liverpool was the 70kVA EBOSS.

ANA Inc’s 70kVA EBOSS power module. (Image: KHL Group)

“In the US, major national operators are using the units with very high utilization,” said Dickert.

“The product has reached adoption phase in the US, it’s flying off the shelf.”

There are around 2,500 modules in service in North America and the company is adding 300 to the market every month.

Working in parallel

The units can be linked in parallel to work with larger gensets and Dickert said there was one customer site in the US operating 150 EBOSS modules.

He added that data centre construction and operation was also a good market for the modules because they can cope with very high transient loads and can respond extremely quickly when power is required.