Chemical manufacturers and other industrial customers have seen increased business risk from power outages, even in the U.S., where the grid is considered one of the most reliable globally, according to Ron Beck, senior solutions marketing director for Emerson’s AspenTech business, in a 2024 webinar on power reliability.

At the same time, global electricity demand is rising, and the growing share of renewable electricity is shifting the grid from one-way to two-way flow — subject to more fluctuation in supply and demand and adding complexity to power management, Beck said.

“Even brief outages can result in significant production losses, safety risks and extended restart times,” said Sarang Gadre, global head, Energy Control & Management, Honeywell Process Automation, which includes Honeywell’s power automation solutions and battery energy storage systems (BESS).

Brief voltage or frequency deviations can trip compressors, pumps or reactors, causing costly and hazardous upsets, added Tessy Tuschen, business development manager for Grid Technologies at Siemens Energy.

The cost of outages, along with the opportunity to optimize energy cost and track renewable energy use, is driving adoption of microgrids at chemical manufacturing and other industrial facilities. The rapid construction of data centers is compounding the problem: it's straining utility grids, limiting available capacity for industrial expansion and accelerating demand for onsite generation, renewables and distributed microgrid systems, said Robert Link, vice president of Automation Systems at M.C. Dean, a systems integrator. Today’s microgrid controllers from several vendors allow control of diverse energy sources, but implementation is still developing and is not a simple task, he said.

Integrated Microgrid Solutions

Microgrids — which typically include localized energy generation, storage and control — operate either connected to the electrical grid or disconnected from it in “island mode,” according to a US Department of Energy fact-sheet.

An integrated microgrid approach that combines BESS, uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS) and backup generation can mitigate outage risk, Gadre said. The UPS provides instantaneous back-up power within milliseconds; that power is short-lived but bridges the gap until longer-duration backup, such as BESS, comes online. Software to coordinate and control all the components is equally critical to maintaining process continuity.

AspenTech Microgrid Management System is being used by energy-intensive industrial facilities, including chemical manufacturers, where uninterrupted operations require more reliable power and better coordination of on-site generation, storage and load, said TJ Surbella, Power IBU Director, AspenTech Digital Grid Management at Emerson, in an email to Chemical Processing. Energy management systems can help facilities monitor and optimize power assets, he said.

Optimizing Renewable Energy Use

Beyond resiliency, energy management systems combined with storage can help manufacturers optimize their energy costs and use of intermittent renewables like solar and wind. As Chemical Processing has reported previously, chemical manufacturers are seeking greater use of renewable energy for their facilities, and storage is one way to make these sources compatible with continuous production.

Continuous chemical processes require stable, uninterrupted power. Microgrids allow real-time balancing of energy from multiple sources, including intermittent renewables and BESS, according to Tuschen.

Honeywell’s new BESS automation platform combines battery energy storage with the company’s control and energy management system and uses an integrated microgrid controller that manages charge and discharge cycles. Facilities that generate renewable energy on-site can use it to maintain consistent power even from intermittent sources. “Surplus solar energy produced during the day can be stored in the battery and discharged during peak demand periods or when solar generation is unavailable,” Gadre said.

To optimize cost, batteries can be charged when power is cheap and discharged when rates are high. That lets manufacturers with microgrids minimize time-of-use charges during high-demand periods and apply "peak shaving" to reduce costs tied to large draw periods. Demand-response programs run by utilities or other organizations offer another cost-savings opportunity, letting facilities run on their own power instead of pulling from the grid during high-demand periods. As grid pressure and electricity costs keep climbing, this kind of cost optimization will only become more important.

Honeywell has deployed roughly 50 BESS systems globally, including several heavy-power-demand industrial manufacturing sites, Gadre said. At the company's own plant in Lugoj, Romania, a microgrid integrates a 1.7-MW solar photovoltaic system, a 1.6-MWh BESS, backup generators and intelligent controls. The system solved the plant's frequent grid outages and delivered added benefits: "This configuration has enabled the site to become nearly energy self-sufficient, delivering approximately 30% reduction in annual utility costs while ensuring protection against grid outages," Gadre reported.

Preventing System Design Problems

A microgrid must be carefully integrated with a facility's existing power management and control system. “Proper system design and integration are key to preventing issues such as voltage fluctuations, surges or nuisance trips, while maximizing both reliability and operational efficiency,” Gadre said. Honeywell’s system runs on the same Experion platform used at many facilities, but also integrates with any other power automation systems.

Validating site-specific configurations up-front, prior to commissioning, is another key to smooth implementation, Gadre said. That typically means a site walk to assess space constraints, the grid tie-in and connections to diesel, solar or other distributed energy resources — with the goal of seamless switching across all options through a single microgrid control.

Robust cybersecurity and connectivity for secure remote monitoring, diagnostics and performance analytics are also important. Once set up, the system can function autonomously with minimal operator intervention, Gadre said.

Careful integration, including adequate buffering, is necessary to avoid process upsets, said Tuschen. Transient voltage or frequency events can be a problem, but BESS with grid-forming inverter capability can compensate instantaneously. Updating ride-through settings on variable-frequency drives also reduces nuisance trips from short-duration events. Inverter-based resources generate harmonics that can overheat motors or interfere with instrumentation, but harmonic filters and careful system design can mitigate this risk.

Electrical Safety in a Bidirectional Grid

New generation sources and bidirectional power flows can change hazard levels facility-wide, according to Tuschen. Arc-flash potential must be reassessed. Personal protective equipment requirements and lock-out/tag-out protocols should be updated so that every source — utility, BESS, generators and any others — is isolated before electrical work begins.

Reconnection procedures are critical for avoiding equipment damage. Operators must understand the differences between grid-connected and islanded modes and follow proper load-shedding protocols.

Battery Fire and Thermal-Runaway Safety

Lithium-ion BESS carries a separate risk: fire and toxic gases from thermal runaway, in which a trigger — overcharging, or a defect or damage in the battery — causes a cell to overheat, setting off exothermic chemical decomposition and further heating.

Operators need training to recognize warning signs, know emergency response procedures and understand that conventional fire suppression has limitations. Battery areas should have gas detection, ventilation and appropriate suppression.

Honeywell’s BESS automation platform incorporates off-gas detection to identify early signs of thermal runaway before temperatures become extreme, giving operators time to intervene. “In the event of a thermal incident, the system can isolate and shut down affected battery modules to prevent escalation,” Gadre said. Operator training should focus on understanding system alerts and emergency response procedures, as well as routine monitoring of system health indicators.

A Thermal Alternative: Heat Batteries

Microgrids address electrical resiliency, but many chemical processes also run on purchased energy for heat — steam generation, for example — which a different technology can address. Rondo Energy has developed a "heat battery" (also called a thermal battery or electric thermal energy storage) based on the old technique of storing heat in bricks. It's an efficient, cost-effective option for any manufacturer buying energy to generate process heat, said Rondo CIO John O'Donnell.

With the growing availability of intermittent electricity sources such as solar and wind, electricity costs are increasingly variable. The heat battery can charge during low-cost periods of electricity and release energy as needed. 

According to Rondo, converting electrical energy into heat is highly efficient, and the energy can be stored in the bricks for hours or days with low loss. The system is often used alongside or as a drop-in for a boiler, though other designs are possible, and it can tie into a plant's energy management system on either the input or output side, O'Donnell said.

A Rondo Heat Battery installed in California receives energy from an on-site, off-grid solar array, and then delivers continuous high-pressure industrial heat and steam to a fuel production facility, the company announced in October 2025.

Covestro is installing a Rondo heat battery at its Brunsbüttel, Germany, site, which is expected to go into operation by the end of 2026, the company announced in January. It will store surplus low-price renewable grid energy and use the heat to continuously generate high-temperature steam for on-site production, with Covestro targeting 10% of the site’s steam from the battery.

Energy Monitoring and Emissions Tracking

Asset optimization, energy monitoring and emissions tracking deliver the most value when integrated as a digital layer and connected with maintenance, control, data acquisition and enterprise resource planning systems, said Tuschen. Adding sub-meters at the process unit level provides the granularity needed to act on the data.

Operators should be trained to review and approve automated energy decisions before execution, especially for any action that could affect a running process. Data from integrated systems can inform energy-consumption decisions across assets — and metered data can also automate logs of Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions for third-party verification and corporate ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting.

What’s Next?

As electricity supply and demand keep shifting, microgrids are on the path to becoming a standard tool rather than a niche one. Siemens Energy points to AI-driven microgrid controllers that pre-position assets based on generation and load forecasts as the next step — letting chemical manufacturers get ahead of power interruptions instead of just reacting to them.

Return on investment of industrial behind-the-meter BESS has improved in recent years, driven by declining battery costs and rising electricity prices, said Gadre. ROI can be maximized by considering multiple benefits, including both increased resilience and reduced electricity cost. Federal tax incentives, state subsidies and local utility programs can create additional revenue streams. 

“ROI can vary significantly by site. Key factors include local power costs, load profiles, time-of-use pricing, available incentives and the value assigned to avoiding production losses. We have tools that account for these variables to help evaluate project-specific ROI,” explained Gadre.

A free tool from the US National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR, formerly NREL) called the System Advisor Model (SAM) provides a techno-economic analysis for power generation systems of various types. SAM can be used to calculate ROI for stand-alone, behind-the-meter BESS, said Brian Mirletz, a researcher in the Accelerated Deployment and Decision Support Center at NLR. He said that the default costs in SAM come from a 2024 NLR report, but battery costs have continued to decline since then. Users can update costs in the model using their own data or more recent reports.

For plant engineers evaluating a first microgrid project, the near-term questions are less about whether the technology works and more about which combination of BESS, UPS, backup generation and controls fits their site's specific risk and cost profile.