A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati has developed an advanced technique which can precisely estimate one of the most important battery internal states known as state of charge (SOC).
The research team is currently also working on various other important battery issues such as cell balancing, monitoring state of health, state of power, etc.
State of Charge (SOC) reflects the remaining capacity of the battery, i.e., how much more charge can be withdrawn from the battery before it gets fully discharged. The knowledge of remaining capacity helps to optimise battery’s capacity utilisation, prevent overcharging and undercharging of the battery, increases its lifespan, reduces cost, and ensures safety of the battery and its surroundings.
The lithium ion batteries are widely recognised in various applications due to their low carbon emission, high energy density, low self-discharge rate, and low maintenance cost. Apart from the various day-to-day usage on small devices such as cell phones, laptops, they have also been widely used in electric vehicles, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) integrated smart grids and micro grids.
Compared to the existing techniques, the new technique not only increases the accuracy, it reduces the computational time, and needs a cost-effective microcontroller chip for its implementation/ commercialisation.