A new online state-of-charge estimation and monitoring system for sealed lead-acid batteries in Telecommunication power supplies

This paper presents a new, online, battery state-of-charge estimation and monitoring system for both the discharge and charge periods of sealed lead-acid batteries, commonly used in telecommunication power systems as backup power supplies. The proposed monitoring system is based on discharge time versus discharge rate data given in manufacturers´ data sheets, and coulometric measurements, without the need for any battery voltage measurement under open-circuit conditions. The corresponding battery management system can perform both the online monitoring and battery charging tasks by the use of the same low-cost 8-bit microcontroller. Battery state-of-charge monitoring tests have been carried out under both constant and dynamic load conditions and for alternate charge-discharge cycles of lead-acid batteries of different capacities, and for different operating temperatures. The test results have shown that a very good accuracy (better than 3%-4%) in the estimation of available capacity is obtained for various charge-discharge strategies corresponding to practical operating conditions. Changes in battery characteristics which occur due to aging are also taken into account by estimating the actual capacity of the battery and adopting the corresponding recharacterization of the aged cells automatically.