An electricity storage system is provided that includes a plurality of cartridges connected together in parallel, each cartridge comprising a plurality of cells connected together, where each of the plurality of cartridges independently maintains a voltage convertible to a commercial voltage. The electricity storage system is configured to, upon receipt of a cartridge withdrawal signal input by a user and indicating a user's intention to withdraw any cartridge of the plurality of cartridges regardless of the operational state of a selected cartridge, including whether the selected cartridge is charging or discharging, disallow conductions with respect to the cartridge to be withdrawn and output a signal indicating that the selected cartridge is ready to be withdrawn.

A battery system is described. The battery system includes a power controller having sensors monitoring the state of predetermined sections of battery modules within battery packs and sends signals to a switching network to connect a bi-directional DC/DC converter to a first predetermined group of battery modules of the plurality of predetermined groups of battery modules at a first instant of time responsive to a first measurement of a first predetermined section of battery modules, and a second predetermined section of battery modules of the plurality of predetermined groups of battery modules at a second instant of time responsive to a second measurement of a second predetermined group of battery modules.

A cell balancing system includes sensing circuitry configured to sense a cell voltage of each of a plurality of cells of a battery. Cell balancing circuitry is configured to balance each of the plurality of cells in response to a respective cell balancing command for each of the plurality of cells. A comparison circuit configured to compare the sensed cell voltages for each of the plurality of cells to an adaptive threshold voltage. The comparison circuit generates a respective cell state for each of the plurality of cells to indicate a state of the respective cell voltage for each of the plurality of cells relative to the adaptive threshold voltage. A controller is configured to set the respective cell balancing command for each of the plurality of cells and to adjust the adaptive threshold voltage based on an evaluation of the cell states for the plurality of cells.

Charging methods and systems are provided which charge multiple cells directly from an AC source, by adjusting, momentarily, the number of charged cells to the momentary voltage level provided by the AC source. Cells are rapidly switched in and out to correspond to the provided voltage level, and the charging level of each cell is regulated by the switching order of the cellsdetermined according to cell characteristics such as state of charge and state of health. Advantageously, charging losses are reduced significantly in the disclosed systems and methods, and an additional level of cell control is provided. The charged assembly of cells may be arranged and re-arranged in various configurations to optimize the charging scheme, e.g., to equalize the charging states of the cells to simplify the use and improve the efficiency of the cell stack.

An advanced mobile energy storage device includes an energy storage component for the storage of electrical energy and characterized by a state of charge representative of an amount of energy stored within the energy component and by an energy storage rate into and out of the energy storage component. At least one power input transfers electrical energy into the device for storage in the energy storage component. At least one power output transfers electrical energy out of the device from the energy storage component. A processor determines, for indication to a user, an estimate of time until the state of charge at least reaches one or more particular levels, the estimate determined at least from the state of charge in conjunction with the energy storage rate. The device can network with an external computing device and can generate solar adjustment information.

A device balances an energy storage module having multiple energy storage cells connected in series. The device includes: an interface for communication with a monitoring electronics system of the energy storage module; a charge determining device for determining a relative electrical charge quantity based on respective cell voltages and a respective resting voltage characteristic curve for each energy storage cell; a balancing requirement calculation unit for determining a respective relative balancing requirement by forming a difference between the relative electrical charge quantity of a respective energy storage cell and the relative electrical charge quantity of the energy storage cell for which the lowest relative electrical charge quantity was determined, for every energy storage cell with the exception of the energy storage cell for which the lowest relative electrical charge quantity was determined, and for determining an absolute balancing requirement for each energy storage cell; a discharging circuit which is configured to be connected to the energy storage module in such a way that a respective energy storage cell can be separately discharged by the discharging circuit; and a control device that can control the discharging circuit in such a way that the respective determined absolute balancing requirement can be removed from the respective energy storage cells.

A cell balancing system includes sensing circuitry configured to sense a cell voltage of each of a plurality of cells of a battery. Cell balancing circuitry is configured to balance each of the plurality of cells in response to a respective cell balancing command for each of the plurality of cells. A comparison circuit configured to compare the sensed cell voltages for each of the plurality of cells to an adaptive threshold voltage. The comparison circuit generates a respective cell state for each of the plurality of cells to indicate a state of the respective cell voltage for each of the plurality of cells relative to the adaptive threshold voltage. A controller is configured to set the respective cell balancing command for each of the plurality of cells and to adjust the adaptive threshold voltage based on an evaluation of the cell states for the plurality of cells.

A method of managing batteries for a power supply system is provided. The power supply system includes a plurality of battery units which are connected in series to form a battery path. The method of managing batteries includes sensing a battery voltage of each battery unit of the power system, and for each battery unit, controlling a switching unit corresponding to the each battery unit according to the battery voltage of the each battery unit, such that the battery unit is selectively serially connected to the battery path or bypasses the battery path.

Systems and methods for charging and discharging a plurality of batteries are described herein. In some embodiments, a system includes a battery module, an energy storage system electrically coupled to the battery module, a power source, and a controller. The energy storage system is operable in a first operating state in which energy is transferred from the energy storage system to the battery module to charge the battery module, and a second operating state in which energy is transferred from the battery module to the energy storage system to discharge the battery module. The power source electrically coupled to the energy storage system and is configured to transfer energy from the power source to the energy storage system based on an amount of stored energy in the energy storage system. The controller is operably coupled to the battery module and is configured to monitor and control a charging state of the battery module.

Provided is a battery management method and apparatus. The battery management method includes acquiring physical quantity data, for each of a plurality of batteries, of when corresponding physical quantities of the plurality of batteries, making up the physical quantity data, dynamically vary, calculating unbalance data based on physical quantity difference information derived from the physical quantity data, calculating feature data for the physical quantity data by projecting the unbalance data to a feature space, and determining a battery safety for one or more of the plurality of batteries based on determined distribution information of the feature data.