The herein described technology provides a system with multiple batteries connected in parallel and having disparate charge and/or discharge characteristics. When a voltage source is coupled to a shared charging node, the multiple batteries are simultaneously charged through the shared charging node.

The inspection device includes a charging unit (2) and an inspection unit (3), and detects the connection anomaly by retrieving a first cell voltage (V1) at the early stage of start of the constant-current charging and a second cell voltage (V2) at a stage where the charging has progressed to determine deviations (DV1, DV2) from the average value of all the cell groups (C). A cell group (C) in which the deviation (DV1) of the first cell voltage (V1) is small and the deviation (DV2) of the second cell voltage (V2) is large is judged to have a parallel connection anomaly (step 13). If the deviations (DV1, DV2) are both large and equal to each other, it is judged as a cell group having a series connection anomaly (step 21).

A vehicle includes: a battery pack including a plurality of battery cells connected in parallel; and a controller configured to distribute a current load having a magnitude proportional to a state of health (SOH) of each of the plurality of battery cells to each of the plurality of battery cells, and to control the charging and discharging of each of the plurality of battery cells according to the magnitude of the distributed current load.

Methods and systems are provided for optimizing usage of a large number of battery cells, some, most or all of which are fast charging cells, and possibly arranged in battery modulese.g., for operating an electric vehicle power train. Methods comprise deriving an operation profile for the battery cells/modules for a specified operation scenario and specified optimization parameters, operating the battery cells/modules according to the derived operation profile, and monitoring the operation of the battery cells/modules and adjusting the operation profile correspondingly. Systems may be configured to balance cell/module parameters among modules, to have parallel supplemental modules and/or serial supplementary cells in the modules, and/or have supplemental modules and circuits configured to store excessive charging energy for cells groups and/or modulesto increase the cycling lifetime and possibly the efficiency of the systems. Disclosed redundancy management improves battery performance and lifetime.

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.

A method tests a balancing circuit for a battery having a plurality of battery cells. The method detects first voltage states of the battery cells by way of a control unit; activates the balancing circuit with the aim of achieving a voltage equalization of at least two of the battery cells; detects second voltage states of the battery cells by way of the control unit; and determines a functional capability of the balancing circuit based on the first voltage states and the second voltage states of the battery cells by way of the control unit.

An intelligent rechargeable battery pack having a battery management system for monitoring and controlling the charging and discharging of the battery pack is described. The battery management system includes a memory for storing data related to the operation of the battery, and the battery management system is also configured to communicate the data related to the operation of the battery to other processors for analysis.

A battery includes: a first terminal; a second terminal; a plurality of individually housed batteries; a plurality of switches configured to connect ones of the individually housed batteries to and from ones of the first and second terminals; and a switch control module configured to: at a frequency, vary a voltage applied to a gate of one of the switches, the one of the switches configured to connect at least one of the individually housed batteries to one of the first and second terminals; and diagnose whether a fault is present in the one of the switches based on a voltage across the one of the switches.

An energy storage system includes a power conversion system configured to produce a control signal for regulating a frequency of power flowing from a power generation system to an electric-power system, and a battery system including a first battery rack, a second battery rack, a charger/discharger configured to perform a charging/discharging operation of the second battery rack, and a rack BMS configured to control the charging/discharging operation of the first and second battery racks using the control signal, and to control the charger/discharger, thus controlling a state of charge (SOC) of the second battery rack.

A system for monitoring battery cells of a battery includes a capacitor, a processor, and a controller. The controller is configured to connect the capacitor with a first battery cell to charge the capacitor to a voltage of the first battery cell and then (i) connect the capacitor with a second battery cell to form a circuit having an output that is a voltage difference of the capacitor and the second battery cell and (ii) connect the output to the processor for the processor to measure the voltage difference. The voltage difference is the voltage difference between the first battery cell and the second battery cell.