Review of battery cell balancing techniques

A highly reliable and efficient battery management system (BMS) is crucial for applications that are powered by electrochemical power. Cell balancing is one of the most important features of a BMS. Cell balancing techniques help to distribute energy evenly among battery cells. Without cell balancing, a portion of the capacity or energy in the battery bank will be wasted, especially for long battery string which operates in frequent recycling condition. In this paper, some popular cell balancing techniques are described and categorized according to the way of processing redundant energy in battery cells.