Freedom WON FW-EMS-001 Lithium Battery Installation Guide

Please contact your Freedom Won Distributor or Reseller Installer for technical and installation support. A directory of Distributors and Reseller Installers is available at www.freedomwon.co.za .

For advanced support please contact support@freedomwon.co.za .

Update Record

Revision Number	Update Summary	Updated By	Date of Issue
0	First Release of the Standard EMS Installation Manual	Mike Marquis Jarod Lesser	15/08/2024
1	Added Mains terminals, dimensions of the panel, minor spelling errors	Technical Training Team	12/09/2024
2	Included requirement to provide auxiliary power to the gen and load meters.	Technical Training Team	22/10/2024

Introduction

Purpose of the User Manual
This manual is intended to assist trained technicians and installers in installing and commissioning a Freedom Won EMS (Energy Management System). It is not intended to teach the inner workings of a Freedom Won EMS; its function is to assist the installer in completing a successful installation and integration with other equipment.

The manual will not cover the technical details required for the integration of third-party equipment. Should this document not cover the required integration or technical details, please contact Freedom Won at support@freedomwon.co.za

System Requirements

The computer-based requirements for the system to be installed and function are as follows:
Compatible web browser: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari

Mobile devices will need an Android or MacOS.
In order to setup the software portion of the EMS system one will have to have access to the internet, setup a valid account on the EMS Portal and have the relevant permissions on that account to add and conﬁgure the hardware installed on site.

Contents of the EMS Package
The following items are included with your EMS purchase

TABLE 1: PACKAGED CONTENTS

Item	Qty	Packaged	Received
EMS Panel 650x400x200mm	1
Wall Mount Brackets	4
GSM Antenna, 3m cable, SMA	1
Freedom Won 12v/7.5Ah LiFePo4 Battery	1
Installation Manual	1
Termination Resistors	5

Installation

Prerequisites
The correct tools and materials should be utilized to install the EMS Panel effectively and achieve a reliable and consistent outcome.
These prerequisites will serve as a guide for the items required alongside the EMS offering to correctly install the system.

Basic EMS installation
The following list will assist in having the right hardware to do a reliable installation.

EMS Panel
6A Circuit Breaker

PG9 and PG11 Glands
40x25mm Trunking

1mm2 ﬂat Twin and Earth
8mm Fischer plugs and screws or appropriate Rawl bolts

Belden Shielded twisted pair 0.22mm2, or Belden Shielded twisted pair 0.5mm2
Cat5 With Shield or CAT6 LAN cable
RJ45 Connectors
RJ45 Cable Rubber
Phone, Laptop or Tablet with the appropriate web browser
Stable Site internet connection

Controllers and Monitoring Requirements
The EMS panel can be connected to a wide variety of 3rd party supported hardware, or controllers. These controllers must be wired with the appropriate supported communications. The EMS System supports Modbus RS-485 and Modbus TCP connections and communication protocols to the EMS Panel. The Panel has several physical connection inputs on the side of the panel to plug in the various controllers.

This hardware includes connection to

Power Meter
Power analyzers
Solar Grid Tie Inverters
DC Coupled Solar Systems.
Freedom Won BESS
Generators

For a full list of the exact support hardware for the EMS system, please click here.

For optimal function of your EMS system, install Electricity Meters or Power Analyzers at each connection point through the power generation system. This will ensure that consistent, reliable data is fed to the EMS, which then processes the data and provides the best control to the system possible.
The mains and generator power meters used on the EMS site must have auxiliary power provided by the hybrid inverter’s output. If this cannot be done, another form of backup power

must be provided to the power meters. This ensures that the power meters stay on when there is a loss of power or loadshedding.
As soon as multiple power providers are being summed into the same input it is advisable to put a power meter down at that summation point to give the most accurate readings possible.
The rule of thumb is that a measured value will always be more accurate than a calculated one. Use electricity meters or power analysers to provide this measurement rather than attempting to summate multiple power producers or consumers.

As an example, let’s look at the singleline diagram below of a basic site with 2 generators and 2 grid tie solar systems. Take note of all the locations marked in blue as these would be sites where one would install additional power meters to get the most accurate and reliable data rather than adding up the data from each separate system.
It is vital that the appropriate cables are run between the various meters and the EMS panel, improper wire and communication wiring practices here will render the system unreliable and inconsistent.

EMS Panel Dimensions
The following panel dimensions are subject to change based on the panel version as the panels are continuously being developed and improved.

Terminal Layouts
There are terminals inside the panel to connect your digital inputs, digital outputs, and RS-485 connections.

Internal Terminals
The terminals are for wiring in Digital Inputs, Digital Outputs and RS-485 connections. Table 2 below highlights the various terminal numbers and their denominations in the EMS Panel.

TABLE 2: TERMINAL LAYOUT

Terminal Number	Digital Inputs	Terminal Number	Digital Outputs	Terminal Number	RS-485
4	GND	10	DO 2	16	A+
5	DI 2	11	GND	17	B-
6	GND	12	DO 3	18	GND
7	DI 3	13	GND	19	A+
8	GND	14	DO 4	20	B-
9	DI 4	15	GND	21	GND

Power Input
The system requires 230V AC power. There are three connections for the power: Earth, Neutral and Live

Digital Inputs
The digital inputs can be found in the 2nd bank of terminals from the left-hand side in the panel. There are three inputs in total. The odd pins (1,3,5) are wired directly to the PLC and the even terminals (2,4,6 etc.) are connected to ground. When the appropriate odd and even terminals are connected, it will show “On”.

Digital Outputs
Digital outputs are found in the 3rd bank of terminals in the EMS Panel. They function as dry contacts. The “Digital Outputs” on the odd terminals (7,9,11 etc.) are the positive terminals. The even terminals (8,10,12 etc.) are ground terminals to complete the circuit.

Installation Steps
This section will guide you through a step-by-step process for ﬁtting and installing the EMS Panel. It will be broken down into sub tasks.

Site Inspection
A site inspection will need to be conducted to determine the appropriate location to install the EMS Panel. inspect the site to see where it would be appropriate to install the EMS Panel. It is advisable to minimise the RS-485 Cable runs.

If there is no option but to run cables near high power lines, the following steps must be adhered to

Use shielded cables.

Run the cables at a minimum of 100mm away from the high-power lines when running in parallel.
It is acceptable to run the communications cables perpendicular to the high-power lines.

Mounting the EMS Panel
After the panel’s position has been determined, proceed to mount the EMS Panel.
The panel has four wall mounting brackets to attach to a wall. These brackets will need to be screwed onto the back of the panel before mounting it to the wall. It would be preferable to use bolts or screws of at least 5mm diameter. As the panel has a sizable mass.

Figure 6: Panel mounting holes

Connecting Power to the EMS Panel
The EMS Panel takes 230V AC to power the system.

Before connecting the EMS Panel to power, ensure that all breakers in the panel are in the down position and that power is disconnected from the working area.
The EMS panel is powered by a permanent source such as a Distribution Board (DB). This DB board should be on AC output load of the inverter being monitored. This assists in keeping the EMS panel powered as consistently as possible.
Install the 6A circuit breaker in the DB board and run the 1mm2 cable from this breaker to the EMS panel terminal inputs.

There are 3 power input terminals in the bottom left of the EMS Panel, named PE, N and L. The layout for these is as follows

TABLE 5: POWER TERMINALS

Terminal Name	Function
E	Earth
N	Neutral
L	Live

Connecting Communication Cables
Special care needs to be taken when connecting the communications cables to ensure the correct pins are used and that the cable runs are in the appropriate place.

When planning the cable runs, ensure that they are not near any high-power lines. If there is no other option, then adhere to the following guidelines

Use shielded cable.
Run the cables at minimum 100mm away from the high-power lines when running in parallel.

It is acceptable to run the communications cables perpendicular to the high-power lines.

RS-485 connections
For the RS-485 Connections it is advised to use a Belden Shielded twisted pair or a similar cable. A suitable alternative is a CAT6 Ethernet cable.
For the pairing of the Modbus A+ and B- it is then imperative that you use a speciﬁc twisted pair in the CAT6 ethernet cable, for example, Orange and Orange/white and to not cross or mix colours.
When connecting to the various Modbus RS-485 enabled controllers it is important to note the sign and type of pins on the device. Ensure that one wires the EMS A+ and B- of each Comm Port to the appropriate A+ and B- of the controller being connected.

Note: Some controllers denote their Comm Ports as A- and B+ in this case follow the sign denotation of the + and – rather than the A and B notation.

Conﬁguring 3rd party controllers
Each controller connected to the EMS panel needs to have its communication protocols set correctly for the EMS system to communicate with them successfully. It is imperative that the communication settings on the controllers, sensors and any systems connected to the EMS Panel are setup exactly as described below to have a successful connection.

The EMS Panel uses preconﬁgured RS-485 settings to streamline the installation and commissioning process.

Atess EMS Installation Wiki

SUNGROW EMS Install Wiki

Note: Ensure there is stable internet connectivity on site as some devices/inverters etc require a mobile App to change these settings and those App’s will require internet to function.

RS-485 Based controllers
For the RS-485 controllers, the communication settings, you will need to go into the menu/settings on the physical controller, either on its keypad or its appropriate software or connection.

The following settings need to be set for the communications to work with the EMS system.

TABLE 6: MODBUS RS-485 NETWORK CONFIGURATIONS

Description	Set
Modbus Slave ID	Unique per controller on the Modbus Network. Take note of what ID the controller was set to as this will be required when setting up the Cloud Portal
Baud Rate:	9600pbs
Data bits:	8
Parity:	None
Stop Bits:	1
Modbus Type	Modbus RTU

Modbus TCP Based Controllers
For the Modbus TCP controllers, the communication settings will need to be changed individually on the controller/device. You will need to go into the menu/settings on the physical controller/device, either on its keypad or its appropriate software and change the communication settings appropriately.
Special care needs to be taken when conﬁguring the Modbus TCP network. The IP addresses must be unique per device. The IP addresses must be setup identically on the Cloud Portal during conﬁguration as they are set on site.

TABLE 7: MODBUS TCP NETWORK CONFIGURATIONS

Modbus Slave ID	Unique per controller on the Modbus Network. Take note of what ID the controller was set to as this will be required when setting up the Cloud Portal
IP Address	192.168.35.XXX – (Unique to the device being connected)
Subnet Mark	255.255.255.0
Default Gateway	192.168.35.1

Connecting the Internet to the EMS Panel
Internet needs to be provided to the EMS panel from a source on the site. This is so the system can send its data to the cloud and be accessed remotely.
To do this, run an Ethernet cable to the LAN 1 port on the Glacier Edge PC in the EMS panel.

The EMS Panel internet (WAN) input is set to DHCP, so if there is an internet connection available, it will assign itself an appropriate IP address and connect.

Note: The system will still run locally if the internet connection fails for any reason. The data will be stored on the Glacier Edge directly, and once a connection is reestablished, it will upload its data and synchronise with the Cloud again. All logic and running of the site software will continue to run uninterrupted.

Connecting the GSM Antenna
The EMS Panel comes with a built in SIM card and GSM connectivity for Freedom Won Remote support. This connection will not upload or grant access to clients. It is used solely to provide emergency access to the site and the EMS Panel remotely. This service can only be accessed by contacting the Freedom Won support team directly.

For this emergency service to function the GSM Antenna will need to be installed correctly to enable the Glacier Gateway to connect to the available cellular networks.

As shown in the ﬁgure, the antenna provided will need to be connected to the Glacier PC’s antenna connector.

The antenna must be positioned in an open area and as high up as possible to get the best signal. The base of the antenna is magnetic and can be placed on top of the panel itself.
The best practice is to ensure the antenna is placed outside when possible.
Do not run the antenna cable or place it near any high-power cables or transformers as this will disrupt the signal strength.

Connecting the backup batteries
Once all the connections have been run and the site is ready to power up, it’s time to connect the backup battery.
In the EMS Panel there will be a set of battery terminal connectors coming out the trunking on the right-hand side. They will be colour coded. Red Cable – Positive, Black Cable – Negative.
Place the battery in the panel and connect the red cable to the positive terminal and the black cable to the negative terminal.
The EMS panel has a combined 7.5Ah of backup battery capacity which will run the EMS Panel and system without external power for a limited amount of time.

Getting Started

Power ON
Now that the system has been successfully installed based on the procedure above and the site is ready to receive power we can power on the system.

To do this, you need to follow this procedure

Switch on the 6A breaker in the DB board,
Switch on the 6A breaker in the EMS Panel
1. If there is power on the site, the system’s lights should come on.
2. If there is no power on the site proceed to the next step to run the EMS Panel on its backup batteries.
Switch on the 6A breaker for the battery
1. If there is no mains power the system will now power on and run off its backup battery.
2. If there is power from mains in 2.1 then the system will begin to charge the batteries.

Lights on the EMS Panel
There are two lights on the front face of the EMS Panel, they are denoted “Power” and “Error” The power light indicates that there is AC or battery power coming into the EMS Panel. The Error light indicates that there is an Error on the EMS system.

Commissioning of Devices

Commissioning the site means adding the various devices installed on site to the Cloud Portal. In this step we will take the Modbus RS-485 settings and the TCP settings and set the controllers/devices
on the Cloud with the same settings.

These devices will be commissioned online through the Polar Cloud. Follow the link below to set up an account and add devices.
For assistance on these units please contact Freedom Won support for the 1st time setup procedure.
Click here for basic instructions on how to use the Cloud Platform.
Note: An internet connection is required to ﬁnalise and test the setup of the EMS Panel

Each Polar Monitoring Glacier Edge EMS Panel has a unique serial number. Use this serial number to begin the setup procedure under the Gateways tab on the Cloud.

Troubleshooting

Power switch not working.
If the power light does not illuminate, it means that the EMS Panel is not getting power. This light will only illuminate if there is 230V AC power to the system.
Ensure that the DB supplying the EMS panel is on the output of the inverter and that the inverter is powered on and giving out 230V AC supply from each phase to neutral.

Error light staying illuminated.
The Error light illuminating on the front of the panel is an indication of one of two things

Option 1: The ﬁrst is that there is no internet connection to the EMS panel.

In this case check the internet connection on the site to ensure it is up. Alternatively, check the Ethernet cable providing the internet connection to the EMS Panel to ensure there is no damage to the cable and that it is secure into the Glacier LAN 1 port.

If there is internet connection to the panel and the ethernet cable is in working order, then there could be ﬁrewall issue on the network preventing the EMS Panel for gaining an internet connection. Contact your IT administrator to open the ﬁrewall for the EMS Panel.

Option 2: The second is if there are any communication failures between the EMS Panel and the controllers/ devices connected to it. This means that there is a device/ controller setup on the Cloud that is not sending its info back to the EMS Panel.

Firstly identify which controller/ device is having the issue by looking at the data on the Cloud and seeing which one is not sending its data through. Once identiﬁed,

Check all the communications cables going to this device/ controller

Double check the Comms settings to ensure that they are set correctly.
Ensure that the same Modbus Slave ID that is set on the Controller/ device is the same as the one set on the cloud.

Not getting communication to a controller on the site
Communication failures between the EMS Panel and the controllers, devices connected can have a number of causes. This will manifest itself as a controller/device setup on the Cloud is not sending any data upstream.

Firstly, identify which controller/ device is having the issue by looking at the data on the Cloud and seeing which one is not sending its data through. Once isolated,

Check all the communication cables going into the device/ controller. Search for any signs of damage, where they are plugged into the terminals, etc. Double check the Com Settings to ensure that they are set correctly.
Ensure that the same Modbus Slave ID that is set on the Controller/ device is the same as the one set on the cloud.

Upgrades

Upgrades to the system happen on a constant basis via the Cloud. There will be new software versions for updating on the physical Glacier Edge gateways in the EMS panels that can be downloaded.
The Cloud Portal will ever be evolving and automatically updating to bring you the best service possible, keep an eye on our Change Log here to view the latest changes and updates to the system as they get published.
Upgrades to the system, we can talk about additional upgrade panels.

Maintenance

The maintenance on the EMS panel is basic. Keep the panel clean and free from water ingress and the system will function for many years to come.
The Freedom Won batteries if cycled regularly will need to be changed every 5 years to ensure perfect redundancy on the power backup for the EMS Panel.
Do visual inspections of the EMS Panel and Cables at least once a year to ensure that there is no damage and that all connections are still secure.

Help and Support
For help and support please contact Freedom Won’s technical team.

Go to www.freedomwon.co.za
Click the “Contact” tab

At the bottom right of the page, follow Support Enquiries and Request Technical Support
Click on “New support ticket” to open a new support ticket, as shown in the image below