June 21, 2024: Saft, the French battery firm, announced at the ees Europe exposition in Munich this month, that it is planning another increase in its BESS energy density — its containers are to move from 3.3MWh to more than 5MWh in 2026.

Saft, a subsidiary of French petrochemical giant, TotalEnergies, installed its first containerized systems in 2012. Since then it says there has been a “six-fold increase in the energy storage capacity of its Intensium 20-foot containers from 0.5MWh to 3.3MWh”. 

Saft says it has also filed more than 35 patents since 2017, culminating in the development of I-Shift+, a modular system in a standard 20-foot shipping container. This is assembled in Saft factories and delivered for plug-and-play installation. 

Before this new product is shipped, Saft will start deliveries of BESS produced in its US plant in Jacksonville, Florida

Saft also announced at the ees show the launch in 2025 of an improved I-Sight cloud-based platform — with a new artificial intelligence algorithm — for remote, real-time monitoring of ESS fleets. 

“Customers now have access to a first-of-its-kind predictive maintenance service, which detects and analyzes weak signals indicating technical issues before they can have an operational impact. This minimizes the risk of unplanned downtime or safety events and prolongs the life of the system,” says Saft.