Abstract
In this communication, the measured behaviour of a lead-acid battery bank within a stand-alone residential solar photovoltaic (PV)-genset-battery hybrid power system in Canada is presented and discussed. In order to capture rare field-based battery performance data, a newly commissioned lead-acid battery bank was equipped with a battery monitoring device capable of logging voltage, current, temperature and amp-hours every 30 s for the life of the battery. The measured data captures a severe loss of battery capacity due to a combination of short-term deep discharge and extended partial state of charge operation—conditions not unusual during winter season PV-genset-battery hybrid power system operation. Subsequent manual override of the system control set points to encourage gradual battery overcharge are shown to recover the lead-acid battery bank’s performance over the following three months. Limitations of the power conversion system’s battery management approach are discussed and a novel closed loop control system for improving lead-acid based PV-genset-battery hybrid system performance is rationalized and proposed for further research.
Highlights
Lead-acid batteries remain the most common batteries found in off-grid PV-genset-battery hybrid power supply systems around the world today
Lithium batteries are higher in initial expense, require complex battery management systems (BMS) at the cell voltage level, are more limited in their allowable operating temperature range and have increased safety considerations [1]
Many battery performance studies focus on simulation models and/or limited laboratory testing, e.g., [9,10,11], where it may not be pragmatic to accurately capture the practical dynamic aspects of lead-acid batteries operating under arbitrary and perhaps sub-optimal field conditions
Summary
Lead-acid batteries remain the most common batteries found in off-grid PV-genset-battery hybrid power supply systems around the world today. The main symptom of which has been unusually frequent automatic genset operation which is indicative of a reduced battery capacity and reduced solar energy utilization. For this reason, newly deployed hybrid systems in the community feature detailed battery data logging capability in order to monitor and analyze long-term battery performance and to ensure optimal system economics and reliability. Detailed studies of lead-acid battery field behaviour in PV hybrid systems are rare; presumably due to the logistics and relatively long timelines involved. Attempts have been made in [12]
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