SOC and SOH characterisation of lead acid batteries

Lead acid batteries are an important part of most energy storage applications. Managing these applications is complicated by the inherent difficulty of following the evolution of important battery parameters; more specifically, the State of Charge (SOC), State of Health (SOH) and Ampere-hour capacity (AHC). This article shows that the Two-Pulse Load Test is a simple and reliable method to determine SOC and SOH of a Lead acid storage battery. The Two-Pulse Load Test is based upon the hypotheses that certain voltage readings are linear in regard to the SOC and SOH, The results presented in this article validate these hypotheses for a 180 ampere hour lead acid battery. Although the battery characterisation requires some time consuming preliminary testing, SOC and SOH can thereafter be determined in less than 5 minutes.