Battery cells and other types of energy cells are not produced identically, and the performance and degradation of the cells vary over time. This makes it challenging to balance and manage stacks of cells arranged in series. A battery circuit is provided that includes each cell having an inline switch that is in series with the respective cell, and an outline switch that is parallel to the respective cell and the inline switch. When the inline switch is open and the corresponding outline switch is closed, the respective cell is electrically isolated from the stack. Specific cells within a stack can be electrically isolated to vary power, balance the circuit, remove damaged cells, and provide rest to the cells to extend the lifetime usage of the cells.

Autonomous battery charging and discharging is accomplished using a load shaping signal, e.g., an optimized load shaping (OLS) signal, as specified in American National Standard ANSI/SCTE 267 2021. A battery charge controller connected to the power grid, microgrid, or nano grid autonomously interprets the load shaping signal and takes local action to charge/discharge without requiring two-way communications, signing-up, or opting-in to a network or cloud-provided service. The system makes it possible for the same load shaping signal to be used not only by all types of electric loads but also by all types of batteries

An apparatus including a monitoring unit including a voltage detection circuit which detects a voltage of the plurality of battery cells, a balancing unit including a first common resistor element and a switching module, the first common resistor element connected between a first common node and a second common node, and a control unit operably coupled to the monitoring unit and the switching module, the control unit determining a balancing target including at least one of the plurality of battery cells based on the voltage of each of the plurality of battery cells, controlling the switching module to form a current channel between the first common resistor element and the balancing target and determining a maximum number of battery cells that can be included in the balancing target based on resistance of the first common resistor element and the voltage of each of the plurality of battery cells.

A battery system with a large-format Li-ion battery powers attached equipment by discharging battery cells distributed among a plurality of battery packs. The discharging of the battery cells is controlled in an efficient manner while preserving the expected life of the Li-ion battery cells. Each battery pack internally supports a battery management system and may have identical components, thus supporting an architecture that easily scales to higher power/energy. Battery packs may be added or removed without intervention with a user, where one of battery packs serves as a master battery pack and the remaining battery packs serve as slave battery packs. When the master battery pack is removed, one of the slave battery packs becomes the master battery pack. Charging and discharging of the battery cells is coordinated by the master battery pack with the slave battery packs over a communication channel such as a controller area network (CAN) bus.

A power management system includes a plurality of power storages and a server. The server includes a selector that selects at least one of the plurality of power storages, a scheduler that makes a schedule for the selected power storage, and a request processor that requests a user of the selected power storage to promote external charging, suppress external charging, or carry out external power feed in accordance with the made schedule. The server obtains power run-out information that indicates power run-out risk for each power storage and carries out at least one of selection of the power storage and making of the schedule in accordance with a type of a request based on the obtained power run-out information.

A battery control system and method selectively connect battery strings to one or more conductive buses by plural electrically controllable switches. The switches are controlled to one or more of (a) connect the strings with one or more of the load or the power source via the one or more conductive buses in a first sequence and/or (b) disconnect the strings from one or more of the load or the power source via the one or more conductive buses in a second sequence. The first sequence and the second sequence are based on one or more of states of charge between the strings, different charge capacities between the strings, different electric currents conducted through the strings, different polarities of the electric currents conducted through the strings, and/or a speed of a vehicle that is powered by the one or more loads.

A method of estimating a battery current limit for operation of a battery cell over the course of a specified prediction time. The method includes generating a plurality of current limit estimations by means of a plurality of current limit estimation sub-methods, wherein at least one current limit estimation sub-method generates its current limit estimation based on an RC equivalent circuit model of the battery cell, and determining the charge current limit by finding the lowest magnitude current limit estimation in the plurality of current limit estimations. At least one parameter of the RC equivalent circuit model is set based on the specified prediction time and at least one variable from the set of: a state of charge (SOC) of the battery cell, a temperature of the battery cell, a state of health (SOH) of the battery cell, a capacity of the battery cell, and a current of the battery cell.

Described methods and systems provide in-situ leakage current testing of battery cells in battery packs even while these packs operate. Specifically, an external electrical current is discontinued through a tested battery cell using a node controller, to which the tested battery cell is independently connected. Changes in the open circuit voltage (OCV) are then detected by the node controller for a set period time. Any voltage change, associated with taking the tested cell offline, is compensated by one or more other cells in the battery pack. The overall pack current and voltage remains substantially unchanged (based on the application demands), while the in-situ leakage current testing is initiated, performed, and/or completed. The OCV changes are then used to determine the leakage current of the tested cell and, in some examples, to determine the state of health of this cell and/or adjust the operating parameters of this cell.

A battery management system of a vehicle includes a first controller configured to control a power-on (IG ON) state and a power-off (IG OFF) state of the plurality of controllers, and a second controller including a real time clock (RTC) and configured to be woken up by directly receiving power from the secondary battery in every preset time period during a preset time calculated based on a count value provided from the RTC when a power-off state is started by the first controller and to monitor states of the main battery and the secondary battery.

A method for raising a temperature of a battery module for a vehicle. The method including generating heat in one or more resistors of the battery module by supplying one or more voltages from at least a part of cells of the battery module. The battery module includes the cells coupled in series, and the one or more resistors configured to generate heat after being energized and cause temperature of the cells to be raised. Voltages of the cells are subjected to monitoring and controlling by a cell monitoring unit of the battery module.