How A Bilevel Equalizer for Large Li-ion Batteries Lowers Cost of Energy Storage for E/HV and Grid Applications
Bi-Level Equalizers Reduce Cost of Energy Storage Using Large Li-ion Batteries
SMIN Power Group CEO Ngalula Sandrine Mubenga, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Toledo, gave a technical presentation on a new Energy Storage Invention at the Advanced Design & Manufacturing Expo (ADM) on March 7, 2018 at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, Ohio
Lowering the Cost of Energy Storage for E/HV and Grid Applications Using a Bilevel Equalizer for Large Li-ion Batteries
Due to variations among the cells, large lithium ion batteries (LIB) such as those in battery energy storage stations (BESS) and electric vehicles (EVs) must have an equalizer (EQU) circuit to balance the cell voltages. In spite of their significant losses and other limitations, passive equalizers (PEQ) are used in most applications because they are relatively simple and low cost. Active equalizers (AEQ) reduce these PEQ problems, but are not as widely used due to their much higher cost and complexity. A new hybrid circuit called the Bilevel EQU (BEQ) combines the PEQ and AEQ to provide much higher performance than a pure PEQ but at a much lower cost than a pure AEQ.