See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/239588771

Design and Construction of a Test Bench to Characterize the Charging and

Discharging Behaviour of Batteries in High Voltage Storage Systems

Article · March 2014

CITATIONS READS

0 358

4 authors, including:

Christoph Roggendorf Tobias Blank

RWTH Aachen University E.ON
7 PUBLICATIONS   33 CITATIONS    12 PUBLICATIONS   41 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Ionut Trintis
Vestas Wind Systems A/S
34 PUBLICATIONS   256 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

SEMPEL(SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS FOR POWER ELECTRONICS) View project

HERMES View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Tobias Blank on 08 January 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 P1.23

Design and Construction of a Test Bench

to Characterize Efficiency and Reliability of
High Voltage Battery Energy Storage Systems
Tobias Blank1, Stephan Thomas2, Christoph Roggendorf3, Thomas Pollok3, Ionut Trintis4, Dirk Uwe Sauer1
1
Chair for Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage Systems, Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives
(ISEA), RWTH Aachen University, Jägerstraße 17-19, 52066 Aachen, Germany
2
Institute for Power Generation and Storage Systems (PGS), E.ON Energy Research Center,
Mathieustraße 6, 52074 Aachen, Germany
3
Institute for High Voltage Technology (IFHT), RWTH Aachen University
Schinkelstrasse 2, 52056 Aachen, Germany
4
Department of Energy Technology (IET), Aalborg University
Pontoppidanstraede 101, 9220 Aalborg East, Denmark

Abstract - Stationary battery energy storage systems are
widely used for uninterruptible power supply systems.
Furthermore, they are able to provide grid services. This yields
in rising installed power and capacity. One possibility uses high
voltage batteries. This results in an improvement of the overall
system efficiency. High voltage batteries may be advantageous
for future medium voltage DC-grids as well. In all cases, high
availability and reliability is indispensable. Investigations on the
operating behavior of such systems are needed. For this
purpose, a test bench for high voltage storage systems was built
to analyze these processes for different battery technologies. A
special safety infrastructure for the test bench was developed
due to the high voltage and the storable energy of approximately
120 kWh. This paper presents the layout of the test bench for
analyzing high voltage batteries with about 4,300 volts including
all components, the safety requirements with the resultant safety
circuit and the aim of the investigations to be performed with
the test bench.
I. INTRODUCTION
Today, the main application for stationary battery energy
storage systems (BESS) is the utilization in uninterruptible
power supply systems for communication and emergency
systems. Due to increasing usage of volatile energy sources
such as wind and photovoltaic, the demand for storage and
grid services rises additionally. Here, BESS or
electrochemical energy storage systems in general may offer
unique and scalable solutions for high power and long term
energy demands. Common BESS operate with battery strings
with several hundred volts, which could be connected in
parallel to increase the overall capacity [1]. Centralized
power supply systems have been adopted for lower cost and
the need for less maintenance costs. This brings the
disadvantages of low efficiency due to high currents in the
DC bus and expensive cable installations. To overcome this
disadvantage, one possibility is the usage of decentralized
power supply systems [2]. To reach high efficiency in
systems in the range of several 100 kW to MW in MWh scale
with the advantages of centralized systems, an obvious
possibility is to use high voltage storage systems. To include
stationary BESS in medium voltage grids, high voltage
batteries may be advantageous as well. Large BESS show
high reliability and robustness. Thus, the usage in high
voltage applications is feasible in general [3]. The
constructed test bench is used for different purposes:
• The utilization of high voltage battery systems in medium
voltage grids makes it feasible to connect the BESS
directly to an inverter with the grid without a transformer,
what becomes very efficient. However, the series
connection of batteries up to several kV leads to
nontrivial charging and discharging characteristics of
such a storage system. This requires investigations on
high voltage system topologies and their operating
behavior to get knowledge about the battery reliability
itself [4]. Additionally security issues become important.
• To use common battery systems with several hundred
volts in medium voltage grids, it is possible to use a
common inverter in this voltage range and a transformer
for the grid connection. This has the advantage of a
galvanic isolation of the BESS but brings the
disadvantage of reduced efficiency. Another possibility is
the usage of a DC/DC converter with a high
transformation ratio with galvanic isolation. The
connection to the grid is realized with an inverter
operating with a constant input voltage which can be
connected directly to the grid. Such a system can become
very efficient. Additionally, in future medium voltage
DC-grids, a direct connection of the DC/DC converter
without an inverter is feasible. This increases the
efficiency, too.
• High installed load in the range of several 100 kW to MW
allows the possibility to provide grid services like load-
balancing, peak-shaving as well as power quality. For this
purpose different control systems for the inverter have to
be tested.

978-1-4244-3384-1/10/$25.00 ©2010 IEEE

P1.23
A test bench for high voltage storage systems is built for
all this purposes; to analyze different battery technologies, a
DC/DC converter with high transformation ratio and the
inverter. The concept of the test bench is shown in Figure 1.
DC / DC DC / AC
+2.16kV converter converter
Battery
-2.16kV
750V 400V
Figure 1: High voltage battery test bench
The test bench consists of an isolation transformer with
connection to the low voltage grid for security issues, an
inverter, a DC/DC converter as charge/discharge unit and the
high voltage battery storage system. The power capacity of
the power electronics and the grid connection is in the range
of 100 kVA. In the basic configuration the storage system
consists of 360 VRLA batteries (12 V / block) in series
connection. Thereby a nominal voltage of 4,320 V, arranged
in ± 2.16 kV and a storable energy of around 120 kWh is
reached.
The paper presents the detailed construction and the mode
of operation of the different components of the test bench
including the developed safety infrastructure. The main focus
of investigations lies on the charging/discharging behavior of
batteries in high voltage systems.
II. COMPONENTS OF TEST BENCH
An optimized DC/DC converter topology with high
transformation ratio together with the grid inverter realizes
the charging and discharging of the storage system. Thus, it
will be possible to investigate the cycles of charging and
discharging necessary. A battery monitoring system which
includes the measurement of voltage and temperature will be
installed to analyze the behavior of single battery blocks. The
charging/discharging process of the battery blocks, as well as
the temperature development under high stress, can be
accessed in detail, too.
A. Grid Inverter
The classical two-level hard-switched converter is state-of-
the-art for low voltage applications, being the most used
topology in industry. For grid connection of such a converter
it is necessary to have a higher dc-link voltage than it is
usually used for drives, in order to be able to inject power in
the grid.
The converter is connected to the 50 Hz low voltage grid.
Converter switching frequency is 3 kHz. In order to comply
with grid codes, an LCL output filter is used together with a
current control which is able to compensate low order
harmonics [5]. The leakage inductance of the 1:1 isolation
transformer (neglecting the core loss and magnetizing
inductance) acts as the filter inductance on the grid side. The
scheme is shown in Figure 2.
Grid
Figure 2: Structure of the grid converter
The resonance frequency of the filter must be chosen to be
lower than half of the converter switching frequency, in this
case 1.3 kHz. The delta connection of the filter capacitors
leads to a smaller installed capacity for the same resonance
frequency.
Limiting inrush resistors are used to reduce the dc-link
capacitors charging current as well as transformer
magnetizing current. A brake chopper and brake resistor are
installed for dc-link overvoltage protection. Since the input
power delivered by the DC/DC converter can be controlled
much faster than the DC/AC converter, the brake chopper
will avoid the system shutdown. Thus, the dc-link voltage
transients will be limited to a predefined value in case of
undelivered power to the grid. Monitoring the resistor
temperature, the control boundaries can be established.
Nominal operation is at 100 kW with unity power factor.
On demand the inverter can generate or consume 10%
reactive power, therefore the nominal installed power is
110 kVA.
The applied control structure is a triple closed-loop with a
decoupled operation: current control loop, dc-link voltage
control loop and power control loop. The power references
are given by the test bench control and the power flow is
bidirectional. The current injected into the grid is
synchronized using a structure which is able to operate
during unbalanced and distorted grid also. The Space Vector
Modulation technique is chosen in order to have good dc-link
utilization and to optimize the switching states transitions.
B. DC/DC Converter with High Transformation Ratio
The DC/DC converter acts as a charging/discharging unit
for the high voltage battery. In the test bench, there is a wide
range of operating conditions. Depending on the charging
status of the batteries the voltage varies between 3.3 kV and
6 kV. Power transfer varies from 4 kW to 100 kW. The
converter is optimized for the whole operation range. The
output voltage is controlled by the grid coupling inverter to
be 750 V constant. Hence, a high voltage transformation ratio
from output to input is necessary. Therefore, a galvanic
 P1.23

isolated topology was chosen to benefit from the winding depicts the transferred power as a function of the phase-shift
ratio of the included transformer. The topology, a dual-active angle with the battery voltage as a parameter.
bridge [6], [7], can be seen in Figure 3.
U = 6000
1 bat

0.5 U = 3300

P / Vi /(ω L)
6.5 kV
bat
Output Bridge
0 ↓ Soft-Switching Boundary

2
DC
100nF...1µF
Filter

AC

Inverter 50Hz, 1:1 Circuit Grid -0.5

Transformer Breaker 0,4kV
← Input Bridge
Soft-Switching Boundary
-1
Medium Voltage Battery, Dc / dc Converter
max. 6 kV
-90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90
Figure 3: Topology of the dual active bridge in the high voltage test bench φ /deg

A half-bridge configuration on the battery’s side is chosen
(Figure 3). With this configuration, the input voltage is
divided by two compared to the H-bridge on the output side
and the current is doubled. Therefore, the number of
expensive HV-IGBTs is reduced. This is a major advantage
for the power electronic switches. A series connection of
6.5 kV IGBTs with a current rating of 200 A has to be used
for blocking voltage capabilities. Due to the maximum power
of 100 kW and the high input voltage, the current flowing is
small. The IGBTs switch small currents very fast and may
become snappy, leading to ringing problems. Therefore,
doubling the RMS current is advantageous. The input and
output bridges generate square-wave voltages on the
transformer terminals. Depending on the phase-shift angle
between these two square-wave voltages, power is transferred
via the leakage inductance of the transformer, which can be
increased by an additional inductor for low load operation.
Typical voltage and current waveforms on the terminals of
the transformer can be seen in Figure 4.
Tranformer Voltages and Currents: f = 1000 Hz,
sw
P = 50 kW, V = 4.00 kV V = 0.75 kV
in
4000
2000
0
Figure 5: Normalized output power vs. phase shift of the input and output
square-wave voltages with various input voltages as parameter (winding
ratio of transformer: 3)
C. High Voltage Storage System
The high voltage battery storage system consists of a large
number of cells in series, thus the optimum topology and
reliability are major issues. Lead-acid batteries are robust and
competitively priced in comparison to other battery
technologies. For evaluation of reliability issues VRLA
batteries are advantageous. They Weibull distribution fits
such distributions as strength against electro-mechanical
destruction, strength of break-down point, and reliability of
electronic equipment. They show a random dysfunction like
common electronic components [4]. This simplifies statistical
analysis. The test bench battery is constructed of 360 12 V
VRLA blocks, with a capacity of 27 Ah each. It can store
approximately 120 kWh of electrical energy.
1. Battery Rack
The test bench mainly consists of six battery building
out blocks with 720 V each organized in two racks. Figure 6
vtra_prim(t) / V shows the scheme of a battery building block with its cable
vtra_sec(t) / V connections. Each battery building block consists of ten
v 'tra_sec(t) / V
substrings of 72 V.

-2000

-4000
0 200 400 600 800 1000
t in μs
200
itra_prim(t) / A
itra_sec(t) / A
0

-200
0 200 400 600 800 1000

t in μs

Figure 4: Transformer voltages and currents (v’ is the secondary voltage

referred to the primary side)

With this phase-shift angle the amount of power and the

direction of the power flow can be controlled. Figure 5 Figure 6: Battery building block scheme with a nominal voltage of 720 V
P1.23

The batteries in the test bench are stored in two separate
battery racks, each containing 3 of the 720 V building blocks.
This design was chosen to reduce connection length in order
to decrease the internal resistance of the storage system. The
basic topology with the voltage levels in the lowest of five
layers in battery rack is shown in Figure 7.
D. Safety Infrastructure
Due to the high voltage and the significant amount of
stored energy, elaborate safety requirements for a high
voltage battery test bench are necessary. Therefore a special
safety infrastructure was developed and is integrated into the
system.

1. Safety System
-2160 V -2088 V -1440 V -1368 V -720 V -648 V
- + - + - + In the laboratory operation regular maintenance and
+ - + - + - adaptation of the system is indispensable. In the special case
-1440 V -1512 V -720 V -792 V 0V -72 V
of the high voltage storage system it is not possible to switch
off or to ground the high voltage. The maximum DC touch
voltage is 120 V [8]. Therefore, within the safety
1440 V
-
1512 V
+
720 V
-
792 V
+
0V
-
72 V
+
infrastructure the high voltage storage system can be
+ - + - + -
separated into battery stacks of 72 V. To avoid long wiring
2160 V 2088 V 1440 V 1368 V 720 V 648 V distances a special disconnector system was developed,
which is directly constructed into the battery racks. Figure 9
shows the principle of these disconnectors for the first two
Figure 7: Voltage levels in the lowest of five layers in the test bench: 2 racks, levels of the battery rack. In summary 60 disconnectors are
each with 3 building blocks
employed in this way.
Thus, the nominal string voltage is ±2160 V. The
maximum voltage for the charging process including the
voltage drops over the cables, fuses and disconnectors is
about 6 kV.

2. Monitoring System
The battery monitoring system for the test bench consists
of 360 “LEM Sentinel” sensors. They measure the voltage,
temperature and impedance of each battery block
independently. The sensors will be connected in six
substrings, each with 60 sensors. This is necessary because
the data bus of the monitoring system cannot withstand the
voltage otherwise. The data bus is connected via fiber optics
to a “National Instruments CompactRio” real time controller
via RS 232 bus for the evaluation of the measured data. The
complete rack is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 9: Disconnector system in the battery rack

Figure 8: Three lowest layers of one of two racks each with 3 battery
building blocks including the “LEM Sentinel” sensors and main part of
monitoring cabling
2. Control System
The control of power electronics, the battery monitoring,
as well as the door of the safety cage, emergency switches
and smoke detectors are integrated into the safety circuit.
Hence monitoring all critical conditions is possible. In case of
emergency the test bench can be switched into a secured
status. Figure 10 shows the principle structure of the safety
circuit.

Figure 10: Structure of the safety circuit
Depending on the nature of the failure the safety circuit
and the super ordinate test bench control react in different
ways. The measures can be distinguished into three
categories:
• Monitored values (voltage and temperature) of the
batteries reach critical values. Æ In this case the test
bench control reduces the power transfer
• Monitored values exceed the critical values. So the test
bench control triggers the power electronics to interrupt
the power transfer. After that the circuit breaker
disconnects the test bench from the grid. Æ Then the
contactor separates the storage system from the power
electronics. Finally all disconnectors switch the system
into a secured state.
• In all other cases of emergency such as:
- Open door contact
- Actuation of an emergency switch
- Signal from the smoke detector
- Failure signal from the power electronics
- Power loss at the control unit
- Warning/error signal from the battery monitoring
Æ The circuit breaker and the contactor interrupt the test
bench immediately and subsequently the disconnectors
switch the system into a secured state.
III. INTENDED INVESTIGATIONS
In the presented test bench it is possible to investigate the
behavior of different battery technologies in high voltage
systems. Different system topologies are feasible and will be
taken into account. Efficiency and reliability of such a system
are of special interest and can be investigated with the
described set-up. Further safety issues will be investigated. In
the end a life cycle assessment will be done.
P1.23
A. Battery System
The modular construction of the high voltage battery and
the wide operation range of the power electronics in the test
bench allow to find the optimal topology for a variation of
different parameters, such as limits of the state-of-charge
(SOC) or current limits in different operation modes. The
high amount of batteries leads to a wide homogenous
variance. According to an identical current through the cells
and constant ambient conditions, a large sample can be
reached in a short time span without a lot of test cycles,
which results in the disadvantage of differing start conditions
of the batteries. This can be done for many parameters and
different battery technologies.
Feasibility of several hundred volts in battery is common.
High voltage battery systems in the range of about 5 kV are
in operation today, too. However it is estimated that the
optimum voltage level for high voltage battery systems
depends on its application and is in the range between 1 kV
and 10 kV. To get useful data, a test bench voltage of about
5 kV was chosen. This is a unique level at university domain.
1. Reliability
The usage of battery storage systems in medium voltage
grids requires a high reliability of the system. Reliability of
such a system is of special interest and can be investigated
with the described set-up. Therefore, with the monitoring
systems for each 12 V block a detailed examination of
possible failures within high voltage storage systems can be
performed. Due to wide voltage range of the DC/DC
converter between 3.3 kV and 6 kV and the modular
construction of the high voltage battery it is feasible to test
topologies with partly parallel strings, too. So reliability of
redundant topologies can be analyzed.
2. Failure modes
In principal most of failure and ageing modes of battery
systems are well known. However in high voltage battery
systems additional failure modes are expected:
• One essential problem of BESS are common mode
currents due to the parasitic capacitance between the
battery and the metal frame of the grounded rack.
Depending on the topology of the converter, big common
mode currents may occur. This can lead to an accelerated
ageing of the batteries especially on the high voltage
levels. This matter will be investigated on the test bench.
• The large amount of cells in serial leads to a higher
probability of overcharge or overdischarge of one cell in
the string. Without a monitoring system for each block, it
is only possible to control the charging/discharging
current by the system voltage. Furthermore, the
occurrence of cell voltage reversals becomes most likely.
A protection is feasible with the installed monitoring
system. However a solution to reduce complexity and cost
of the monitoring system would be more practical.
Analyses for viable operation modes and improved
P1.23
diagnostics on system-side high voltage level are
necessary.
To get reliable data for further research a practical
operation of a test bench is indispensible.
The focus lies on batteries based on lead-acid, lithium ion
and high temperature batteries such as sodium-sulphur or
sodium-nickel-chloride (ZEBRA). Important parameters of
the batteries are the efficiency rate and the lifetime, which is
dependent on ageing mechanisms. Additional failure modes
of the different technologies will be taken into account.
Different system topologies consist of different types and
quantities of auxiliary equipment, which brings additional
failure modes, too.
B. DC/DC converter
1. Low voltage series connected DC/DC converters
One possibility is building up a system with low-voltage
DC/DC converters on every battery cell for a constant
voltage output. These converters can be connected in series
directly to the inverter. This makes a battery management
system dispensable because every cell can be operated in its
optimum operating point. It is possible to switch off bad or
defect cells very easily by bypassing them through the
DC/DC converter. However, a lot of converters with a lot of
drivers and switches are needed. The system gets very
complex to control. The high number of very small building
blocks results in a very low efficiency.
2. High voltage series connection
Another possibility is to connect all cells in series to a high
voltage battery system. The batteries can be directly
connected to the inverter without the need of an additional
DC/DC converter. A disadvantage of this solution is the
varying battery voltage, thus the inverter must be
overdimensioned for high voltages and high currents which
doesn’t occur at the same time. An efficiency increase of the
inverter can be achieved by adding a bi-directional 2-
quadrant DC/DC converter which levels out the voltage
variation. This results in a higher economic and technical
utilization of the inverter. However, the overall efficiency is
reduced by the additional losses in DC/DC converter. In
general the high voltage results in a low current and thus in
lower ohmic losses.
C. Assessment of BESS
It is intended to identify the most suitable storage
technology for different application fields, which are
currently in focus of different investigations. Therefore, a
cost benefit analysis will identify the technical suitability as
well as economic viability of different battery technologies.
Besides aspects mentioned above, ecological considerations
such as severity to the environment serve a base for
comparison of most suitable technology to integrate
renewable resources.
Depending on the application of the high voltage storage
system different specifications are necessary to operate the
inverter and the DC/DC converter adapting the status of the
battery to the status of the application. The design of an
adequate battery system takes into account listed parameters
which also serve as a base for further life cycle assessment
and costing:
• Gradient in charge/discharge (kW/s)
• Capacity
• Rated power
• Specific cost (€\kWh)
• Depth of discharge
• Business case
Hence, the objective lies on the adequate design of a
storage system to minimize the overall cost and determine the
design specific environmental burden and benefit whilst
substituting conventional generation with battery storage.
The following chapter therefore introduces the methodology
as well as intended investigations.
1. Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an objective process to
evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a
product, process, or activity by identifying energy and
materials used and wastes released to the environment, and to
evaluate and implement opportunities to affect environmental
improvements. LCA also provides a comprehensive view of
the environmental aspects of the product or process and a
more accurate picture of the true environmental trade-offs in
product and process selection.
Different business cases as well as technical battery
characteristics directly affect the potential of emissions that
can be saved. This capability is being evaluated with respect
to different mixture in energy provision taking into account
various countries.
2. Life Cycle Costing
LCC are summations of cost estimates from inception to
disposal for both equipment and projects. The objective of
LCC analysis is to choose the most cost effective approach
from a series of alternatives to achieve the lowest long-term
cost of ownership. LCC is an economic model over the
project life span. The best balance among cost elements is
achieved when the total LCC is minimized. This leads to the
highest possible revenues of business models.
It can be noted that a deep discharge of all technologies
results in high specific energy costing. However, a false
interpretation of oversizing batteries to obtain low throughput
cost must be avoided through considering non linear
coherencies betweeen battery sizing and number of batteries
to be put together to achive the same result. The next step is
to consider other relevant aspects in order to achieve an
overall cost assessment.
For this purpose converters, necessary auxiliaries as well
as maintenance exenses are considered. A fixed life time of
 P1.23

20 years for auxiliaries and power electronics has been
assumed at the same time varying life time parameters of the
battery in order ot achieve a flexible result representing an
optimal discharge depth.
Results are needed for assessment investigations to design
storage systems with optimal battery technology, system
topology, system voltage and capacity.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project this report is based on was funded by E.ON
AG as part of the E.ON Research Initiative. Responsibility
for the content of this publication lies with the author.

REFERENCES

1 Ciang, S.J.; Liaw, C.M.; Chang, W.C.; Chang, W.Y., “Multi-module

Figure 11: Comparison of technologies with respect to parameters which has
been deemed as crucial for cost comparison.
Figure 11 illustrates another comparison of technologies
with respect to parameters which has been deemed as crucial
for cost comparison. It can be noted that sodium-sulphur
batteries do have a very high self discharge resulting in an
exclusion of utilization in reserve power markets as cycling
only occurs, dependant on the market, daily or even less
frequently (tertiary reserve power). Hence, it is important to
determine the demand frequency of these services in order to
identify the most suitable alternative.
parallel small battery energy storage system”, Energy Conversion,
IEEE Transactions on , vol.11, no.1, pp.146-154, Mar 1996
2 Yotsumoto K., Muroyama S., Matsumura S. and Watanbe H., “Design
for a Highly Efficient Distributed Power Supply System Based On
Reliability Analysis”, INTELEC 1988, pp. 545-550
3 P. A. Taylor, ”Update on the Puerto Rico electric power authority's
spinning reserve battery system”, Battery Conference on Applications
and Advances, 11th Annual , pp.249-252, 1996
4 Koizumi, Y.; Yotsumoto, K., “Power supply system reliability taking
battery failure into account“, Telecommunications Energy Conference,
1995. INTELEC '95., 17th International , vol., no., pp.53-58, 29 Oct-1
Nov 1995
5 F. Blaabjerg, R. Teodorescu, M. Liserre and A. V. Timbus, “Overview
of control and grid synchronization for distributed power generation
systems“, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, pp. 1398-1409, 2006.
6 R.W. De Doncker, D. M. Divan, and M. H. Kheraluwala,, “A Three-
phase Soft-Switched High-Power-Density DC/DC Converter for High-
Power Applications”, IEEE Trans. Ind. App., vol. 27, 1991, No. 1
7 M. H. Kheraluwala, “High-Power High-Frequency DC/DC
Converter”, PhD Thesis, University of Wisconsin Madison, 1991.
8 IEC 60364-4-41, International standard, “Protection for safety –
Protection against electric shock“, 2007

IV. CONCLUSION
High voltage battery systems are an interesting solution for
efficient power supply systems. However, until today there is
less knowledge about such systems in detail, about high
voltage specific failure modes and the reliability and lifetime
of such systems. A test bench for high voltage battery
systems is suitable for necessary investigations. A design
purpose of a test bench including all components for
analyzing high voltage batteries was shown.
To get reliable data the usage of VRLA batteries is
advantageous, because they show known failure modes like
common electronic components. It’s easier to analyze special
failure modes, which are expected due to high voltages.
In high voltage systems the charging/discharging unit
becomes a complex unit. To provide low currents on high
voltage operation for full-charge it needs a special power
electronic design.
To find configurations for the battery building block
design, which are compact, low-cost, safe and easy to
maintain, investigations on high-voltage issues are
indispensible. This includes mechanical design as well as
isolation materials.

View publication stats