A battery management system for electric buses

Under a contract funded by the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC), the author was given the task of developing an advanced monitoring and control technology (MACT) to manage lead acid batteries used in electric vehicles. Using the latest semiconductor technology, his goal is to develop a battery management system that focuses on maximizing the discharge and recharge efficiency of an operating battery by monitoring and controlling individual cell performance at minimum cost. MACT is a real time microprocessor based system and will continuously scan individual cells and the whole battery during discharging and charging at 20 scans per second. The MACT system will predict battery energy balance by estimating deliverable service capacity at each cycle and it will also estimate capacity returned during regenerative braking in an operating battery.<>