User needs and visualization in Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) aggregator portals

Sammanfattning

As battery energy storage systems (BESS) become increasingly central to maintaining grid stability in renewable-heavy energy markets, aggregator portals play a vital role in helping BESS owners monitor performance, understand costs, and build trust with third-party operators. This study investigates what information and metrics are most valuable to BESS owners using aggregator portals, how such data should be visualized, and how aggregator portals complement or overlap with integrator portals. Through seven semi-structured interviews with users of the aggregator Flower Portal, five key user needs were identified: cost and revenue tracking, evaluation of aggregator performance, algorithmic transparency, monitoring of battery degradation and warranties, and operational status of control systems. Three interactive prototypes were developed and evaluated in user testing sessions to explore how visualizations could address these needs. The findings highlight the importance of transparency, role-specific customization, and clearly defined system responsibilities in aggregator portal design. This work offers empirically grounded recommendations for improving aggregator portals and contributes new knowledge to a previously underexplored area in the energy technology domain.