A battery management system may include a plurality of balancing resistors respectively forming balancing discharging paths of cells connected in series to each other, a plurality of balancing switches respectively connected between the cells and the balancing resistors, and configured to control cell-balancing of each of the cells, a voltage-detecting circuit for detecting respective cell voltages of the cells, and a battery controller for acquiring respective balancing capacities of the cells based on the cell voltages, for obtaining duty cycles of the balancing switches according to the balancing capacities, and for scaling the duty cycles of the balancing switches according to a sum of duty cycles of two adjacent cells from among the cells.

A method and apparatus are disclosed for a Battery Management System (BMS) for the controlling of the charging and discharging of a plurality of battery cells (12). Each battery cell has an associated plurality of control circuits (32, 36) which monitor and control the charging of individual battery cells. These units are controlled by a central microcontroller (14) which shunts current around the battery cell if fully charged and stops discharge if a battery cell is fully discharged in order to prevent damage to the other cells.

Disclosed is an electronic device comprising: a housing; a seating portion formed inside the housing such that a first external electronic device and a second external electronic device are seated thereon; at least one interface that is electrically connected to the first external electronic device and to the second external electronic device and can transmit/receive power to/from the same; and a processor electrically connected to the at least one interface, wherein the processor acquires a first remaining time to use a first battery included in the first external electronic device connected through the at least one interface; the processor acquires a second remaining time to use a second battery included in the second external electronic device connected through the at least one interface; and the processor manages power of at least one of the first battery and the second battery such that the first remaining time to use the first battery and the second remaining time to use the second battery become substantially identical. Besides, various embodiments inferable from the specification are possible.

A method is provided for controlling an energy storage system, the energy storage system including at least two battery modules electrically coupled in parallel to each other. The method includes receiving a signal indicative of a maximum power capability of each of the respective battery modules; assigning a power threshold limit for the at least two battery modules of the energy storage system corresponding to the lowest maximum power capability received from the battery modules; and providing a charge current to the at least two battery modules, the charge current having a current level being proportional to the power threshold limit.

A battery management system is described that includes a controller configured to control electrical charging and discharging of a plurality of blocks of a battery. The battery management system also includes an inter-block communication network including a master node and a plurality of slave nodes arranged in a ring-type daisy-chain configuration with the master node. The master node is coupled to the controller and configured to initiate all command messages sent through the inter-block communication network and terminate all reply messages sent through the inter-block communication network. The plurality of slave nodes is bounded by an initial node coupled to the master node and a last node coupled to the master node.

Provided is a power storage apparatus, including: series circuits, the series circuits being formed of first coils and first switching elements, the first coils and the first switching elements being connected to a plurality of battery units in parallel; second coils electromagnetically coupled to the first coils; second switching elements connected to the second coils in series; a capacitor inserted between two common power source lines for commonly supplying voltage to both ends of the series circuits of the second coils and the second switching element related to the plurality of battery units; and a control unit that supplies a control pulse signal to the first switching element and the second switching element for equalizing voltage of each of the plurality of battery units, in which an amount of charge obtained by dividing an amount of transferred charge necessary for eliminating a voltage difference between the first battery unit and the second battery unit into 10 or more is transferred by switching operations of the first and second switching elements.

The invention relates to a method for balancing a battery pack (5) comprising a plurality of battery cells (5a, 5b, 5c) for an electric vehicle. The method comprises: determining the state of charge (SOC) for each of said battery cells (5a, 5b, 5c); receiving information related to the expected use of the electric vehicle to a prediction horizon; and determining a state of balance value (SOB.sub.c) at the current time and an expected state of balance value (SOB.sub.p) at the end of the prediction horizon. Furthermore, the method comprises balancing the battery cells (5a, 5b, 5c) based on the state of balance value (SOB.sub.c) at the current time and the expected state of balance value (SOB.sub.p) at the end of said prediction horizon, such that the state of balance (SOB) and the use of the cell balancing process is optimized so as to minimize the energy usage of the battery pack (5). The invention also relates to an arrangement for balancing a battery pack (5).

A method manages an electrical energy storage battery comprising first and second branches in parallel and each having N storage elements in series. The method includes providing a non-dissipative balancing device for balancing electrical voltages at terminals of the storage elements. The device includes N+1 switching elements of a first type to electrically connect, in parallel, two storage elements belonging to first and second branches at a same stage, and 2N switching elements of a second type to electrically connect, in parallel, two storage elements belonging to first and second branches at adjacent stages. The method also includes choosing only a portion of the storage elements of the first branch, choosing only a portion of the storage elements of the second branch, and controlling the switching elements so as to electrically connect to one another, in parallel, the selected storage elements of the first and second branches.

A battery protection circuit protects a rechargeable battery from overdischarge, by turning off a transistor inserted in series in a current path between a negative electrode of the battery and a negative terminal coupled to ground of a load or a charger. A detection circuit detects a power source voltage between power source and ground terminals, and a control circuit pulls down a monitor terminal potential to a ground terminal potential by turning off the transistor and stopping battery discharge when the power source voltage lower than an overdischarge detection voltage is detected. The control circuit cancels pull-down of the monitor terminal potential to the ground terminal potential when the power source voltage higher than an overdischarge reset voltage is not detected until a predetermined time elapses in a state in which the battery discharge is stopped and the monitor terminal potential is pulled down to the ground terminal potential.

An energy storage system for supporting dual electrical functions of a vehicle includes an energy storage unit having a plurality of energy storage modules connected in series, a plurality of sensing units for sensing state of charges of the plurality of energy storage modules, and a pair of primary voltage terminals. The series connected plurality of energy storage modules is connectable across the pair of primary voltage terminals during a key-on state of the vehicle to supply energy storage power at a first voltage level to support primary electrical functions of the vehicle. The energy storage system is further configured to select a subset of the plurality of energy storage modules during a key-off state of the vehicle to connect across a pair of secondary voltage terminals using a switch network to supply energy storage power at a second voltage level.