VRLA battery conductance monitoring. V. Strategies for VRLA battery testing and monitoring in telecom operating environments

Using actual VLRA battery field data from a telecom transmission office, this paper examines the accuracy and cost effectiveness of midpoint voltage (MPV) monitoring techniques vs. conductance measuring techniques based on both single and multicell units. Results indicate the inability of several midpoint voltage techniques to identify low capacity cells, contrasted with the high accuracy of the several conductance techniques, including a new midpoint conductance concept. The paper demonstrates how these conductance results may be utilized to optimize cell replacement for maximum capacity improvement within fixed budgetary constraints.