Why Battery Energy Storage Is the Next Frontier for Electronics Design Consultancies
The global energy landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. As renewable generation capacity continues to expand, the bottleneck is no longer generation — it's storage. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are at the heart of this transformation, and for electronics design consultancies, the opportunity is enormous and largely untapped.
Having led the delivery of ground-breaking battery controllers at Ignys, I've seen first-hand how the demands of BESS projects push electronics design teams into new territory. This isn't simply about designing a battery management system — it's about rethinking energy architecture from first principles.
Beyond battery management
Most conversations about BESS electronics focus on the Battery Management System (BMS) itself — cell balancing, state-of-charge estimation, thermal management. These are critical, of course, but they represent only one layer of a complex electronics challenge.
A complete BESS solution demands expertise across power electronics, communication protocols, safety systems, and grid interface design. The controller needs to manage bidirectional power flow, respond to grid frequency signals in milliseconds, and maintain safe operation across extreme temperature ranges and thousands of charge-discharge cycles.
The real value isn't in monitoring batteries — it's in orchestrating energy flow intelligently across an entire system.
This is where electronics design consultancies can differentiate themselves. The companies winning BESS contracts aren't just battery experts — they're systems thinkers who understand how power electronics, embedded firmware, communications, and cloud analytics interconnect.
The convergence of IoT and energy
One of the most exciting aspects of modern BESS design is the convergence with IoT. Every installation generates vast amounts of telemetry data — cell voltages, temperatures, current flows, inverter efficiency, grid demand signals. The ability to capture, transmit, and analyse this data in real time is what separates a basic storage system from an intelligent energy asset.
At Ignys, we brought our IoT expertise directly into BESS projects. The same skills we'd developed connecting industrial sensors over MQTT and designing low-power gateways translated directly into building connected energy systems that could be monitored, optimised, and maintained remotely.
For consultancies already operating in the IoT space, BESS represents a natural adjacency — one with significantly higher contract values and longer-term engagement models.
Safety and certification: the barrier that protects specialists
BESS installations carry inherent safety risks. Thermal runaway, high-voltage hazards, and grid compliance requirements mean that the certification and safety regime is rigorous. Electronics designs must comply with standards covering functional safety, electromagnetic compatibility, and grid connection codes.
For consultancies with experience in regulated industries — aviation, oil and gas, medical devices, payments — this is familiar territory. The discipline of designing to safety standards, maintaining traceability, and navigating certification processes is a transferable skill that many BESS entrants from the pure-energy world don't possess.
This regulatory complexity is actually an advantage for established electronics consultancies. It creates a barrier to entry that rewards teams with mature design processes and a track record of certified product delivery.
What this means for consultancy leaders
If you're leading an electronics design consultancy and haven't yet explored the BESS market, now is the time. The growth forecasts are compelling, the technical challenges are genuinely interesting, and the sector rewards exactly the kind of deep, cross-disciplinary electronics expertise that good consultancies possess.
Invest in power electronics capability. Most embedded-focused consultancies are light on power electronics expertise. BESS projects demand both, and the combination is rare and valuable.
Leverage your IoT and connectivity skills. Connected, data-driven energy storage is where the market is heading. If you can design the electronics and the data pipeline, you become an end-to-end partner rather than a component supplier.
Lean into your regulated-industry experience. Safety and certification expertise is your competitive moat. Don't underestimate how much value this brings to energy companies navigating complex compliance landscapes for the first time.
The energy storage revolution needs more than battery chemists and power engineers. It needs electronics product development expertise — the ability to take a concept through schematic, layout, prototype, certification, and into volume production. That's exactly what great electronics consultancies do.