There is a strong interest in second life applications for the growing number of used electric vehicle (EV) batteries, but capacity variations amongst these used cells present a problem. Even when these cells are matched for capacity, some imbalance is bound to remain, and a few lower capacity cells are also likely to develop after the pack begins its second life. Conventional cell voltage equalizers (EQU) do not address this problem, and they only provide a battery discharge capacity that is exactly equal to that of the weakest cell in the pack. This can easily result in a capacity loss of perhaps 20% to 25%, or more. This indicates the need for a new class of EQUs that can provide a discharge capacity that is close to the average of the cells, instead of the weakest cell. It is proposed to call these “capacity EQUs”, and the properties they must have are described. One such EQU is the bilevel equalizer (BEQ), described previously. This present paper provides an enhanced analysis of the BEQ and improved modelling methods. It also presents more details that are necessary to implement the microcontroller algorithm for the BEQ hardware.

Due to variations among the cells, large lithium ion batteries (LIB) such as those in battery energy storage stations (BESS) and electric vehicles (EVs) must have an equalizer (EQU) circuit to balance the cell voltages. In spite of their significant losses and other limitations, passive equalizers (PEQ) are used in most applications because they are relatively simple and low cost. Active equalizers (AEQ) reduce these PEQ problems, but are not as widely used due to their much higher cost and complexity. A new hybrid circuit called the Bilevel EQU (BEQ) combines the PEQ and AEQ to provide much higher performance than a pure PEQ but at a much lower cost than a pure AEQ.

No abstract

Once lithium-ion batteries degrade to below about 80% of their original capacity, they are no longer considered satisfactory for electric vehicles (EVs), but they are still adequate for second-life energy storage applications. However, once this level is reached, capacity fade increases at a much faster rate, and the spread between the cell capacities becomes much wider. If the passive equalizer (PEQ) from the EV is still used, battery capacity remains equal to that of the worst cell in the stack, just like it was in the EV. Unfortunately, the worst cell eventually becomes much weaker than the cell average, and the other cells are not fully utilized. If operated while the battery is in use, an active equalizer (AEQ) can increase the battery capacity to a much higher value close to the cell average, but AEQs are much more expensive and are not considered cost effective. However, it can be shown that the bilevel equalizer (BEQ), a PEQ/AEQ hybrid, also can provide a capacity very close to the cell average and at a much lower cost than an AEQ.

There is a strong interest in second life applications for the growing number of used electric vehicle (EV) batteries, but Capacity variations amongst these used cells present a problem. Even when these cells are matched for capacity, some imbalance is bound to remain, and a few lower capacity cells are also likely to develop after the pack begins its second life. Conventional cell voltage equalizers (EQU) do not address this problem, and they only provide a battery discharge capacity that is exactly equal to that of the weakest cell in the pack. This can easily result in a capacity loss of perhaps 20% to 25%, or more. This indicates the need for a new class of EQUs that can provide a discharge capacity that is close to the average of the cells, instead of the weakest cell. It is proposed to call these "capacity EQUs", and the properties they must have are described. One such EQU is the bilevel equalizer (BEQ), described previously. This keynote provides an enhanced analysis of the BEQ and improved modelling methods.