BESS section configurations
The arrangements the solver can place, and how Auto chooses between them.
A BESS section is one DC cluster — one, two or four DC blocks — plus the PCS & MV skid or skids that serve it. Every block is served by exactly one skid, and no block is placed without one.
How many skids a cluster needs is electrical, not geometric. A skid must convert the power its blocks deliver (MW = MWh ÷ hours), so duration sets the default pairing — the rule for each family is given below. Either skid format fits any configuration; see Supported equipment for dimensions and ratings, or force one for every section with the PCS config card.
Solo
One DC block per skid, and a 20 ft skid carries it at either duration. The fallback tier: solos fill thin strips and leftover corners nothing larger fits.
The skid sits off the block's cable end, in line with the block.
The skid sits alongside the block's blind long side instead — a narrower footprint that fits strips the S2S solo cannot.
Twin
Two DC blocks per skid: a 40 ft skid at 2h, a 20 ft at 4h. The mirror and compact arrangements pair two twins around a shared aisle — each pair keeps its own skid.
Two blocks joined on their blind long sides, doors facing outward both ways, skid beside the cable ends.
The same L2L pair with the skid alongside the doors instead of off the cable ends — a narrower footprint for tight sections.
Two blocks joined end-to-end on their blind short sides; cable ends face outward, skid along the long side.
Two L2L pairs mirrored around a central skid spine, sharing one aisle.
Two S2S pairs mirrored around central skids. Only the aisle is shared, never the skid.
The sandwich: a DC row, the skid row, a DC row. The tightest twin arrangement on shallow sites.
Quad
Four DC blocks on one 40 ft skid — but only at 4h. At 2h those four blocks draw more power than a single skid can convert, so a Quad builds as Quad Split, with a skid on each DC row. The footprint stays available at both durations; only the skid count changes.
Four blocks on a single skid — one service perimeter, the densest single section.
A skid on each DC row, two blocks per skid — the 2h-capable Quad.
Two quads paired with their skids between them, sharing the central aisle.
Repeating quads whose skids sit in the mandatory gaps between DC bands, so the fire separation does double duty. Usually what Auto builds on open rectangular ground.
Two quads mirrored around a central skid spine, sharing the aisle.
Auto vs. forcing a configuration
On Auto the solver keeps the densest valid section per zone, which is why an irregular site shows a mix: quads in the open field, twins in a narrower arm, a solo in a corner. Forcing a configuration pins every zone to one arrangement — the right call when your project standardizes on a section design, and a quick way to see what that standard costs in capacity.
Your DC block configuration filters the list — forcing Twin hides the quad family, forcing Solo leaves only single blocks — and duration gates the one-skid quads, as noted above. Diagrams are drawn at 4h.
Reading a layout
The pale grey end on each DC block is its cooling and cable end; it always faces the skid or the outside of the cluster, never another blind side. Doors sit on the long sides facing an aisle. If every block traces to a skid and every door to open space, you are reading the layout the way the solver built it.