Modular battery energy storage system design factors analysis to improve battery-pack reliability

Traditional battery energy storage systems (BESS) are based on the series/parallel connections of big amounts of cells. However, as the cell to cell imbalances tend to rise over time, the cycle life of the battery-pack is shorter than the life of individual cells. New design proposals focused on modular systems could help to overcome this problem, increasing the access to each cell measurements and management. During the design of a modular battery system many factors influence the lifespan calculation. This work is centred on carrying out a factor importance analysis to identify the most relevant variables and their interactions. The analysis models used to calculate the reliability of the batteries are the state of health (SoH) and the Multi-State System (MSS) analysis with the Universal Generating Function (UGF), while electronic devices reliability is approximated using con-stant failure rate achieved with FIDES guide. Thus, it is determined numerically that module redundancy, cell capacity, module voltage and their interactions are the most determinant design characteristics.

Automated summary

Traditional battery energy storage systems have limitations in terms of cell imbalances, but modular design can help to improve the cycle life and management. This research identifies module redundancy, cell capacity, and module voltage as the most important design characteristics through factor importance analysis.