Shane Duryea, Syed Islam, and William Lawrance
I
t is estimated that about 80% of all photovol-
taic (PV) modules are used in stand-alone ap-
plications [1]. Continuous power is obtained
from PV systems by using a storage buffer,
typically in the form of a lead acid battery.
Batteries used in PV applications have different
performance characteristics compared with batter-
ies used in more traditional applications. In PV ap-
plications, lead acid batteries do not reach the cycle
of lead acid batteries used in other applications
such as uninterruptible power supplies or electric
vehicles. The shortened battery life contributes
significantly to the costs of a PV system. In some
PV systems the battery accounts for more than
40% of the life cycle costs [2]. An increase in the
lifetime of the battery will result in improved reli-
ability of the system and a significant reduction in
operating costs [3]. The life of a lead acid battery
can be extended by avoiding critical operating con-
ditions such as overcharge and deep discharge. Fig.
1 shows a typical stand-alone PV-diesel-battery
hybrid system.
Background
The most widely used battery in renewable energy
systems is the gel type, maintenance free, lead acid
battery. Other types of batteries are also available
such as nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hy-
dride. Both of these batteries are considerably more
expensive and not as readily available.
Batteries are electrochemical energy storage de-
vices and can be classified into several broad groups:
automotive, standby, traction, and solar batteries.
Shane Duryea is with Western Power Corporation, Jandakot, Western Australia. Syed Islam and William Lawrance
are with the Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. This article appeared in its original form at the 1999
IEEE Industrial & Commercial Power Systems Conference.
1077-2618/01/$10.00©2001 IEEE
Automotive batteries provide the high peak current
necessary for cranking internal combustion engines.
Standby batteries are typically used in unin-
terruptible power supplies where they are main-
tained at a high state of charge for many years, and
traction batteries provide the power for electric ve-
hicles. Solar batteries typically experience frequent
deep cycles and irregular charging patterns.
Battery Cycling
Solar batteries provide energy storage in renewable
energy systems and are cycled, on a daily basis as
shown in Fig. 2. Fig 2 shows the energy cycling of a
battery in a stand-alone battery-PV system. Bat-
tery state of charge (SOC) is the cumulative sum of
the daily charge/discharge energy transfers. It can
be seen that the daily energy demand is approxi-
mately constant. When the weather is overcast, less
energy is supplied by the PV array. This causes the
battery SOC to reduce accordingly.
Diesel
PV Array
dc Bus ac Bus Generator
=
=
Solar
Controller =
~
Bidirectional
Inverter
Battery Bank ac Load
Fig. 1. Typical hybrid system layout.
IEEE Industry Applications Magazine ■ May/June 2001 67
 SOC
Excess Energy
100%
Overcast
Weather
Min
Month (30 days)
Fig. 2. Typical battery cycling pattern in a PV system.
t incomplete charging is concerned, Ah balancing
Iin(t ) SOC Iout(t )
Loss Current
Igas(t )
Fig. 3. Variables used in battery SOC measurement.
In this simple example, when the battery SOC
is low the system will still attempt to supply the
electrical load demand. This causes daily cycles
around the deep discharge threshold. A more intel-
ligent management system would monitor the
SOC and gradually reduce the energy taken from
the battery (i.e., reduce the load) to help prevent
continuous operation at a low state of charge [4].
Presently, the operation of many stand-alone
PV systems is controlled by predetermined fixed
set points. This can lead to the system being sub-
jected to extended periods of low SOC due to unfa-
vorable climatic conditions. The minimum SOC or
deep discharge protection (DDP) is often imple-
mented by measuring the battery voltage, which is
not a true measure of the SOC.
In the winter months the battery may experience
a low SOC for extended periods due to the seasonal
variation in solar irradiation. A low SOC for ex-
tended periods will cause increased sulphation,
which severely reduces the life of the battery. In-
creasing the battery capacity cannot provide suffi-
cient storage capacity for the worst season of lowest
solar irradiation [5] because the battery self-dis-
charge starts to play an important role in long-term
energy storage. One of the objectives of the proposed
battery management system is to measure the SOC
and use it to minimize extended periods of low SOC.
Battery State of Charge
Accurately determining the SOC of a battery over
time is crucial for the implementation of intelligent
68 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine ■ May/June 2001
battery management strategies. There are several
methods to determine the SOC, including: mea-
surement of the specific gravity, terminal voltage,
and methods based on ampere-hour (Ah) balancing.
For dynamic systems, the most common
method to determine the battery SOC is Ah bal-
ancing since specific gravity and terminal voltage
measurements require stabilization periods. Ah
balancing measures the current flowing in and out
of the battery to determine the net Ah remaining in
the battery. Ah balancing is often used to measure
battery discharge over shorter time periods such as
in electric vehicle applications.
For longer time periods and operation where
can result in high errors due to the accumulation
of errors [6]. The losses in a battery vary with SOC
and depend upon the specific operating condi-
tions such as battery temperature and voltage. For
this reason Ah balancing alone or Ah balancing
with constant loss terms give poor results in PV
applications [2].
Ah Balancing with Variable Losses
An improvement in accuracy can be achieved if
battery SOC measurement is based on Ah balanc-
ing that includes a variable loss term I gas . The
model used was developed at the German Fraun-
hofer Institute and gives reliable results for lead
acid batteries [2], [7]. Gassing has been identified
as the main loss factor in a lead acid battery and the
algorithm uses a voltage- and temperature-de-
pendent loss current I gas [2].
A block diagram of the SOC calculation is
shown in Fig. 3, where I in and I out represent the
current flowing in and out of the battery and I gas
represents the battery losses.
Equation (1) is used to calculate the SOC
SOC t + 1 = SOC t +
∑ (It bat (t ) − I gas ) × ∆t (1)
C 10
where:
SOCt is the SOC at a defined starting point;
SOCt+1 is the SOC after the first calculation;
I bat is the battery current; and
∆t is the time interval between calculations.
The sign of I bat (t ) in (1) is positive or negative
depending on whether net current is flowing in or
out of the battery. Parameters for the Sonnenschein
SB 12/60 Dryfit battery are shown in Table I.
The loss factor I gas is defined as
  Vbat  
 C v  − 2 .23 V  + C t ( Tbat − 20 ° C ) 
C 10 
I gas = × I go × e  cell 
100Ah
(2)
 Table I. Battery Parameters Prototype BMS

Parameter Value SW2 SW1

-1
Cv 10.0 V
Current
-1
Ct 0.06 K Voltage Load

C 10 52.0 Ah + −

Temperature
I go 0.036 Ah PV
Sensor
100 Ah 100 Ah
Battery

Fig. 5. A small stand-alone PV energy system.

LCD Display Connection

Terminals
Igas
[A]
1.6
1.4
1.2 LM 355
1.0 Temperature
Sensor
0.8
2.5
0.6
2.4
Fig. 6. Prototype battery management system (BMS).
0.4 2.3
0.2 2.2
lates the SOC to determine the available capacity of
2.1 Cell Voltage
the battery. This enables intelligent control schemes
0.0
2.0 to be implemented. The BMS also functions as a ba-
0
6

[V]
12
18
24
30
36
42

sic datalogger to record variables during testing via

48

Temperature the RS232 serial port and features a liquid crystal

[Deg. C]
Fig. 4. Igas as a function of voltage and temperature.
where:
I go is the normalized gassing current in Ah;
C v is the voltage coefficient, C t is the tempera-
ture coefficient;
Vbat/cell is the battery voltage per cell;
Tbat is the battery temperature;
100 Ah is the nominal battery capacity; and
C 10 is the battery’s capacity at the nominal 10h
discharge rate.
A graph of I gas as a function of the battery cell
voltage and temperature is shown in Fig. 4. I gas in-
creases exponentially with increasing battery volt-
age and temperature.
Hardware Development
Fig. 5 shows the schematic of a small PV-bat-
tery-load system including the proposed battery
management system (BMS). A prototype BMS
hardware is developed as shown in Fig 6. The proto-
type includes temperature compensated charge reg-
ulation to avoid increased gassing at higher
temperatures (SW2) as well as deep discharge pro-
tection (SW1) [8]. The regulator uses low loss
MOSFET switches SW1 and SW2. The BMS calcu-
display (LCD) to provide information for the user.
Fig. 6 shows the completed battery management
system mounted in an enclosure.
A BL1500 microcontroller from Z-World [9] is
used to control the BMS. The BL1500 was pro-
grammed in C. This avoids implementation de-
pendent assembly language and reduces
development time.
Measuring Battery Variables
The three battery variables of interest are voltage,
temperature, and current. A simple voltage divider
and filter circuit was used to measure the battery
voltage, and a LM355 temperature sensor from
National Semiconductor was used to measure the
temperature.
A Hall effect sensor (HES) was used to mea-
sure the battery current (RS 650-548). The Hall
effect sensor produces an output that is propor-
tional to the intensity of the magnetic field to
which it is exposed. The main advantage of using
a Hall effect sensor over resistive shunts is mini-
mum power loss (I2R) and simplified instrumen-
tation. Losses in PV systems should be avoided
wherever possible due to the high cost of PV
power per watt.
Fig. 7 shows the schematic of the test set up for
the battery measurement system.

IEEE Industry Applications Magazine ■ May/June 2001 69

 BMS
Test Results for Prototype System
I bat Tests were performed on the completed BMS to de-
V bat Prototype RS232 termine the accuracy of the measured battery volt-
Controller age, temperature, and current. The voltage
Temp.
IBM PC 2 measurement error was less than 1% over a range
from 10 V to 16 V (assuming six cells) while the
SW2 SW1 temperature measurement error was less than ±1
I load
(HES) °C from 0 °C to 65 °C.
Vbat
An undesirable feature of the Hall effect sensor
+ −
was saturation at high currents. To avoid this
PV PV Temp. I bat
Battery nonlinearity the maximum current should be lim-
Sensor Electronic Load
SB 12/60 ited. Over the complete range of ±6A the maxi-
(HP 6060B 0-60A)
mum current error was approximately 2.5% and
I PV
for currents in the range of ±4A the measured error
Shunt1 Shunt2 was less than 0.5%.

RS232
Datalogger (Datataker 605)
Fig. 7. System test schematic.
System Testing
Two system tests were conducted to verify the opera-
tion of the BMS using the set up shown in Fig 7. The
IBM PC 1 battery was charged from the PV source and dis-
charged by the electronic load. The electronic load
provided a variable duty cycle over a 24-hour period.

Voltage Temperature Current Test Arrangement

Each system test lasted seven days and at the end of
25 8
the test period the results from the BMS and a
7
Temperature (Deg. C) Voltage (V)

datalogger (Datataker 605) were compared. The

20 6 electronic load was controlled by the datalogger to
5 vary the current demand according to the load pro-
Current (A)

15 4 file shown in Fig. 8.

3
In order to begin testing, the battery SOC needs
to be known as accurately as possible. A battery has
10 2
two states that are easily determined, fully
1 charged, and completely discharged.
5 0 Since empty (SOC=0%) is precisely the condi-
−1 tion the BMS is intended to avoid, the battery was
0 −2 fully charged according to the manufacturer’s spec-
2-Sep-98 3-Sep-98 4-Sep-98 5-Sep-98 6-Sep-98 7-Sep-98 8-Sep-98 9-Sep-98 ifications at the start of each test.
Date

Fig. 8. Load profile. Test Results

The test results for the battery voltage, tempera-
ture, and current are shown in Fig. 9, where the
Datalogger BMS daily cycles are clearly visible. A set of typical SOC
140%
test results are shown in Fig. 10 for both the
datalogger and the BMS.
120% The SOC starts at 100% and varies as the bat-
tery is charged and discharged. Both the
100% datalogger and the BMS are approximations to the
actual battery SOC. The accumulation of measure-
SOC (%)

80% ment errors causes the curves of Fig. 10 to drift

` apart over the course of the test.
60%
At the end of the test period a battery capacity test
40% was performed to determine the remaining Ah in the
battery. A summary of the end of test battery capaci-
20% ties for the test shown in Fig. 10 is shown in Table II.
From Table II, the datalogger appeared to pro-
0% vide reliable results while the BMS was overesti-
2-Sep-98 3-Sep-98 4-Sep-98 5-Sep-98 6-Sep-98 7-Sep-98 8-Sep-98 9-Sep-98
Date mating the SOC.
The accuracy of the datalogger measurements
Fig. 9. Typical results for the battery voltage, temperature, and current. was determined to be comparable to that of the

70 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine ■ May/June 2001

BMS. There was a net difference in the current 2
measurements of the two systems of approximately
1.8
50 mA, however.
In view of these results a sensitivity analysis was 1.6
performed to investigate the effect of measurement 1.4
errors on the battery SOC.

Current (A)
1.2
1
Sensitivity Analysis
The test data was used to investigate how measure- 0.8
ment errors in the battery current, voltage, or tem- 0.6
perature affects the SOC. The test data was taken as 0.4
reference and Microsoft Excel was used to recalcu- 0.2
late the SOC for different types of errors.
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Voltage and Temperature Errors Time (Hours)
With all other readings unchanged, the SOC was
recalculated for voltage offsets of ±0.5 V and ±1 V Fig. 10. Test results for the SOC.
as well as temperature offsets. The results are sum-
marized in Table III. The battery voltage and tem-
Reference (-) 10mA (-) 0.1A (+) 0.1A
perature only affect the losses, as expressed through 140%
the equation for I gas , (2). A voltage increase results
in the loss factor increasing exponentially and cor- 120%
respondingly the SOC decreases. A voltage de-
100%
crease results in the loss factor decreasing
SOC (%)

exponentially and correspondingly the SOC in- 80%

creases. A ±1 V offset represents a significant error
that would not normally occur in practice. 60%
For the data used, large temperature measure- 40%
ment errors had little effect on the SOC since all the
temperatures for the test were in the range of 17-25 20%
°C, which results in very moderate gassing of the 0%
battery due to temperature. 2-Sep-98 3-Sep-98 4-Sep-98 5-Sep-98 6-Sep-98 7-Sep-98 8-Sep-98 9-Sep-98
Date
Current Measurement Errors
The effect of two different types of current mea- Fig. 11. SOC with current measurement offsets.
surement errors were investigated, fixed, and linear
offsets. Fixed offsets of ±10 mA, ±50 mA, and Fig. 11 demonstrates the accumulation of error
±100 mA were added to the current measurements over time. The relationship is linear, however, an
of the previous test and the SOC was recalculated as offset error approaching the quantization error of
shown in Fig. 11. the analog-to-digital converter (5 mA) would
cause a SOC error of 2.5%.
A fixed offset can represent large errors as dur-
ing the course of the day the minimum current in
Table II. End of Test Capacity
the test results was 250 mA and an offset of 100
SOC Capacity mA represents an error of 40%. Instead of a fixed
offset, linear offsets of ±1%, ±5%, and 10% were
Actual 51%
used to recalculate the SOC. The results for both
BMS 70% types of error are summarized in Table IV.
The good results for a simple linear offset can be
Datalogger 49% misleading as practical systems have combinations
of both types of errors. For the BMS prototype the
resolution of the current measurement is 10 mA,
Table III. Voltage Errors therefore it is not surprising that the SOC varied by
Voltage Offset SOC Error
more than 5% due to an offset. Also the Hall effect
current sensor was subject to temperature offsets.
+1.0 V -17%

+0.5 V -5%
Current Sensitivity Analysis
Unlike voltage and temperature, the battery cur-
-0.5 V +2% rent measurement is critical and requires the high-
est accuracy. Referring to Fig. 10, for a linear offset
-1.0 V +3%
of ±1%, after one week the error was approxi-

IEEE Industry Applications Magazine ■ May/June 2001 71


Table IV. Current Measurement Errors
Error Type Error SOC Error after Test
Fixed Offset ±10 mA ±5%
±50 mA ±20%
±100 mA ±40%
Linear Offset ±1% ±3%
±5% ±11%
±10% ±30%
mately ±5%, extrapolating to four weeks would
yield a SOC error of approximately ±20%.
For a SOC accuracy of ±5% after four weeks, the
required current measurement error would need to
be less than ±0.2%. A measurement error of 0.2%
is difficult to achieve. In a practical application, ad-
ditional methods would need to be implemented
to periodically recalibrate the SOC.
A ±1% current measurement error is a realistic
value for practical systems where the measurements
system may be exposed to high temperatures. As the
sensitivity analysis demonstrated, however, small
measurement errors accumulate quickly. The SOC
is particularly sensitive to offset errors that integrate
over time; these should be avoided.
Recalibration of BMS
A feasible solution to accurately measure the
SOC for long periods is periodic recalibration.
Bopp et al. outlined a recalibration routine
where a recalibration (SOC=100%) would occur
if the following three conditions were all true:
1) The voltage is above 2.23 V/cell for several
hours;
2) The current is in the range of I go ; and
3) The battery current does not decrease further.
For stand-alone PV systems without a backup
(diesel) generator it could be several weeks or
months before recalibration is possible due to cli-
matic conditions. The main difficulty then is to
shorten the periods between recalibration.
The BMS could control the battery SOC by con-
trolling the minimum SOC or the load demand.
This would increase the annual average SOC and
allow more frequent recalibration. Alternatively
the BMS could force a recalibration if necessary by
disconnecting the load.
Conclusions
A complete integrated BMS prototype was devel-
oped that controls the charging and discharging of
a lead acid battery from a PV generator. The BMS
incorporates a series solar regulator and performs
temperature compensated charging. The BMS cal-
culates the SOC to determine the available capacity
72 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine ■ May/June 2001
of the battery. This enables intelligent control
schemes to be implemented. The BMS also func-
tioned as a basic datalogger to record variables dur-
ing testing and featured an LCD to provide
information to the user.
System tests were conducted that verified the
operation of the BMS. The calculated SOC drifted
from the true SOC due to current measurement er-
rors, however. Taking these errors into account the
BMS results were very close to the true SOC of the
battery for the test conducted.
A sensitivity analysis investigated the effect of
different types of error when calculating the SOC.
Small errors in the voltage and temperature mea-
surements do not significantly affect the calculated
SOC. An accuracy of ±1% for the voltage and ±1
°C for the temperature would give satisfactory re-
sults. The battery current measurement is critical
and requires the highest accuracy and offset errors
should be minimized.
Based on the sensitivity analysis for the battery
current, a ±1% linear offset will cause a SOC error
of approximately ±5% after one week and 20% af-
ter four weeks.
Modifications to the implemented SOC algorithm
are needed to enable accurate, long-term battery SOC
prediction. The BMS would be able to determine the
SOC more accurately and for longer periods if periodic
recalibration of the SOC was implemented.
The BMS would be valuable in a stand-alone PV
system where it enables the implementation of in-
telligent control strategies and has the potential to
increase the battery life and thereby reduce the
costs of stand-alone PV energy systems.
References
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[2] G. Bopp, H. Gabler, D. Sauer, A. Jossen, W. Hohe, J.
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