Glossary
The vocabulary of energy storage.
Plain-language definitions of the terms you'll meet in datasheets, proposals, and tariff discussions — from C-rate to curtailment.
- ANEEL
- Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica — Brazil's electricity regulator. Its rules (including REN 1.000 for distributed generation) govern how storage systems connect to the Brazilian grid.
- APM (Asset Performance Management)
- Software that turns a battery into an operated asset: live monitoring, alarms, health analytics, warranty data, and remote diagnostics. Navvion APM is the platform layer shipped with every Navvion product.
- Arbitrage
- Charging the battery when energy is cheap and discharging when it is expensive, earning the price spread. One of the core value streams of storage under time-of-use tariffs.
- Augmentation
- Adding battery capacity to an operating system later in its life to offset degradation or grow with the load — planned into serious projects from day one.
- Behind-the-meter (BTM)
- A system installed on the customer's side of the utility meter, reducing the customer's own bill. Contrast with front-of-the-meter.
- BESS
- Battery Energy Storage System; a complete system of cells, BMS, power conversion, thermal management, and controls. Navvion is BESS-first and vertically integrated.View products
- Black start
- The ability to energize a de-energized site or grid section from the battery, without an external power source — a key capability for microgrids and backup architectures.
- BMS (Battery Management System)
- The electronics that protect the cells: monitoring voltage, current, and temperature, balancing cells, and disconnecting the battery when limits are exceeded.
- C-rate
- Charge or discharge rate relative to capacity. 1C empties (or fills) the battery in one hour; 0.5C in two hours. Higher C-rates stress cells more.
- C&I (Commercial & Industrial)
- Building- or site-scale storage sized between residential and utility projects — for example the Navvion Alpha (257 kWh) and Beta (261 kWh) cabinets.View solutions
- Commissioning
- The structured acceptance protocol — inspection, protection settings, charge/discharge and safety tests — that validates a system and opens the warranty file.View services
- Containerized BESS
- 20-ft integrated storage units — such as Navvion Epsilon (2.6 MWh) and Zeta (2 MWh) — for MW-scale projects; the largest models are liquid-cooled.View products
- Curtailment
- Reducing renewable generation output because the grid can't absorb it. Storage converts curtailed energy into stored, usable energy.
- Cycle life
- How many full charge/discharge cycles a battery delivers before its capacity falls to a defined threshold (typically 70–80%). Navvion LFP products are rated from 3000+ to over 6000 cycles.
- Degradation
- Gradual capacity loss over a battery's cycles and calendar life, tracked as State of Health by APM.
- Demand charge
- The part of a commercial bill priced on your highest power draw (kW) in the period, not energy consumed. Often a third of a C&I bill — and the charge storage clips via peak shaving.
- Demand response
- Dispatching load or storage in response to grid signals or programs, often in exchange for payment.
- DoD (Depth of Discharge)
- How much of the battery's capacity is used in a cycle — 80% DoD means 80% of rated energy was drawn. Cycle-life ratings are always quoted at a specific DoD.
- Edge Controller
- The on-site controller that coordinates the BMS, PCS, meters, and site assets in real time.
- EMS (Energy Management System)
- The control layer that decides when the battery charges and discharges — optimizing against tariffs, solar production, and site load. Sits above the BMS and PCS.
- Energy Trading Platform
- The dispatch and optimization layer that turns tariffs and market signals into charge/discharge schedules.
- Firmware / OTA update
- Controller and BMS software delivered remotely — over the air — and managed through fleet management.
- Front-of-the-meter (FTM)
- A system connected on the grid side of the meter — utility-scale storage earning revenue from wholesale markets or grid services rather than reducing a retail bill.
- Grid services / ancillary services
- Frequency regulation, reserves, and similar products a front-of-the-meter battery can sell to the grid.
- INMETRO
- Brazil's national conformity-assessment framework. Products entering the Brazilian market follow an INMETRO certification pathway.
- Interconnection
- The formal process of connecting a system to the utility grid — studies, approvals, and hardware requirements. The most common source of schedule risk on storage projects.
- Island mode
- Operating a site disconnected from the grid, with the battery (and often solar or a generator) holding voltage and frequency locally. See microgrid.
- kW vs. kWh
- kW (kilowatt) is power — how fast energy flows. kWh (kilowatt-hour) is energy — how much is stored or consumed. A 250 kW / 500 kWh battery can deliver 250 kW for two hours.
- LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate)
- The battery chemistry used across the Navvion portfolio — thermally stable, long cycle life, and cobalt-free. Trades some energy density for safety and longevity.
- Liquid cooling
- Pumped-coolant thermal management that enables higher density and tighter cell-temperature control on large systems.
- Microgrid
- A local energy system — storage, generation, and loads — that can operate connected to the grid or islanded from it, switching automatically when the grid fails.
- NavvionOS
- Navvion's software layer — BMS, EMS, Edge Controller, and the Energy Trading Platform — feeding the APM cloud.View software
- Net metering
- A billing arrangement crediting exported energy against consumption. In Brazil, the SCEE compensation framework (Law 14.300) plays this role for distributed generation.
- PCS (Power Conversion System)
- The bidirectional inverter between the DC battery and the AC grid — converting power in both directions and enforcing grid-code behavior.
- Peak shaving
- Discharging the battery during your highest-demand moments to cap the site's peak draw — directly reducing demand charges.
- Round-trip efficiency
- The share of energy put into the battery that comes back out, after conversion and battery losses. Modern LFP systems typically achieve high-80s to low-90s percent AC-to-AC.
- SoC (State of Charge)
- How full the battery is right now, as a percentage of usable capacity. The EMS manages SoC windows to balance value capture against battery life.
- SoH (State of Health)
- The battery's current capacity relative to its rated capacity when new — the headline metric for degradation, tracked continuously by the monitoring platform.
- UL 9540
- The North American safety standard for complete energy storage systems (with UL 9540A covering fire-propagation testing). A common permitting requirement in the U.S.
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