E.K. Stefanakos, P. Wiley, and J. Wade (USA)
Energy management, hybrid systems, battery aging.
The selection of a reliable and technically attractive power source is of great importance to the telecommunications industry, especially where such equipment operates at unmanned sites. The utilization of a stand-alone hybrid PV power system is usually the solution in such cases. Most hybrid PV systems use batteries for energy storage. The batteries are the weakest link and affect the system’s reliability since battery strings often begin to deteriorate due to failure of a single battery or cell. Knowing the capacity of the batteries used in a string is of prime importance when determining the health of the batteries and, therefore, the health of the system. This paper describes a method for determining the capacity of lead-acid batteries used in the field without subjecting the batteries to harmful discharges that can further compromise the performance of the string. It has been found through multiple discharge tests, that a method can be derived to determine the capacity of lead acid batteries using minimal and easy to obtain information. The system under test, including various lead-acid batteries and a hybrid PV power system, is operating currently at the Clean Energy and Vehicle Research Center at the University of South Florida.
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