Battery & Charger Basics

Factors that will influence

their selection

When a battery is not just a

battery
And a charger is more than just
a source of DC
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 What are we talking about?
Loads:
•Meters
•Relays
•Lights
•Tripping coils
•Charging motors
•Lube pumps
•Inverter

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 Battery basics
History
3rd Century AD: The BAGHDAD Battery 1.1Vdc

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 Battery basics
History
1800: Alessandro Volta Zinc-Silver in salty mix 1.1Vdc

Volta demonstrates his

results to Napoleon

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 History

1859: Gaston Planté

The Lead-Acid
battery
Two lead foils
separated by a
rubber sheet in
sulphuric acid
(H2SO4)

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 Battery chemistry
Basic Lead Acid secondary cell (rechargeable)

Porous separator

Electrolyte: Sulphuric acid, H2SO4 25%- Water H2O 75%

- + - + -

Positive Plate
Negative Plate
PbO2
Pb

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 Battery chemistry

Voltage Capacity
Open Circuit Voltage is in Capacity is in direct
direct relationship with the relationship with the cell’s
concentration of sulphuric quantity of lead and the
acid present in the cell quantity of available
Specific Gravity + 0.845 sulphuric acid available to
=
react with it.
Open circuit voltage

1.24 S.Gr.+0.845=2.085 Vdc/Cell

X 60 Cells= 125.1Vdc
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 Battery chemistry
For the same quantity of lead

Higher specific gravity Lower specific gravity

 More Capacity  Less capacity
 Shorter life  Longer life
 Smaller footprint for the same  Larger footprint for the same
Ah rating Ah rating
 Better adapted to Higher &  Better adapted to Longer &
Shorter discharge rates Lower discharge rates
 Less adaptable to “Floating”  More adaptable to float
operation operation

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 Lead Acid Battery construction
 Flat Plate
Low cost
Excellent energy density
Good mechanical strength
Limited Life
Limited cycling capability

 Tubular Plate
Good energy density
Superior cycling capability
Longer life
Lower high-rate
performance
Not the best suited for
vibration
Inability to see the positive
plate edges

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 Lead Acid Battery construction
2-Alloys
Lead Calcium
– Excellent stability of the float characteristics
– Requires minimal watering
– Poor cycling (capacity likely to exhibit a marked reduction
in less than 50 cycles)
– Positive grid growth
• Positive post seal problems
• Loss of active material
– Subject to Passivation (Sudden Death). Requires regular
testing
Lead Selenium (Low Antimony 1.6 % or less)
– Major reduction of the Antimonial poisoning
– Good float charge characteristics over the life of the Battery
– Good cycling (800 to 1000 cycles typical)
– Requires slightly more watering than Lead calcium
batteries
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 Vented Lead Acid Battery construction
1. Micro porous
separators
2. Positive plates
3. Glass Mat Retainer
4. Positive Plate
support
5. Positive & Negative
Bus Bars
6. Jar Cover Seal
7. Electrolyte Sampling
Tube
8. Cover
9. Vent & filling tunnel
10. Post Seal
11. Negative Plate
12. Jar
13. Element support
14. Electrolyte level lines
15. Plate edge to wall
Clearance

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GEL Lead Acid Battery construction

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GEL Lead Acid Battery construction

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 AGM or Absorbed Electrolyte
Lead Acid Battery construction
Soldered plate group
Plate group (Element)

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 AGM or Absorbed Electrolyte
Lead Acid Battery construction

Container Elements

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 AGM or Absorbed Electrolyte
Lead Acid Battery construction
Cell connection

Inserting
Cover

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 Lead Acid Battery construction
Absorbed Electrolyte (AGM)
Available in 5, 10 or 20 years warranty
Flat plate only
In a Substation application you can expect 20 % to 50% of service life.
In a UPS you can expect 10% to 40% of service life

Advantages:

 No water additions
 High energy density (Small footprint)
 Excellent High rate performance (Good for short time backup)
 Good cold weather performance (Because of high S.gr.)
 Excellent availability
 Low initial cost

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 Lead Acid Battery construction
Absorbed Electrolyte
Disadvantages
• Extremely sensitive to AC ripple (causes micro-cycling)
• All inside cell connections exposed to Oxygen (Negative bus
corrosion)
• Open Cell failure more frequent than with any other Lead-Acid
• Mostly made with recycled “Non 100% pure lead”.
• Subject to Negative plate Self Discharge (Requires the use of
Catalyst)
• Very sensitive to heat and dry out due to limited quantity or
electrolyte.
• Having plates under mechanical pressure to insure perfect
alignment and contact with the absorbed glass material
increases inside stress.
• Subject to thermal run away
• Unpredictable due to Passivation (Sudden death)
• Very sensitive to deep discharge
• Longer charging times preferable
• No Tubular plates… Flat plates only
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 Lead Acid Battery construction
Absorbed Electrolyte
Gelled Electrolyte
Available in 12, 15 and 18 years design life
Calcium alloy Flat plate Tubular plate
In substation application you
can expect 25 % to 100% of design life
In a UPS application you can expect 15% to 70%

• Negative plate corrosion.

• Unpredictable due to Passivation (Sudden death)
• Longer charging times required
• Temperature compensation required
• Sensitive to AC ripple
• Higher initial cost

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 Gelled Electrolyte
Advantages
• No water additions
• All inside cell connections are immersed in Electrolyte
• Mostly made with new lead (Greatly reduces the risk of negative plate self discharge and
the need for catalysts)
• Good energy density
• Superior resilience to deep discharge
• Good cold weather performance
• Superior heat dissipation
• Less sensitive to heat and dry out
• Less subject to thermal runaway
• Less sensitive to deep discharges
• Excellent for solar application.

“After more than 18 months on float, production AGM cells continued to emit gas
(ie: lose water) at rates too high to permit a 20 year life. The rates did not appear to be
declining with time. Gel cells on the same test, but at a lower float voltage, had lower gas
emission rates.” INTELEC 1996 W.E.M. Jones, D.O. Feder: Behavior of VRLA Cells on long term float: Part 2

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 Vented vs. VRLA vs. Plate vs. Alloy
What the market has to offer:
Plate composition Pure Lead Lead Calcium Lead Selenium
Type of Battery

Vented Lead Acid

Plante X
Flat Plate (Grid plate) X X
Tubular Plate X X

Valve regulated Lead Acid (VRLA)

Absorbed Electrolyte Cell (AGM) X
Flat Plate X X
Tubular plate

Gelled Electrolyte Cell X

Flat Plate X
Tubular plate X

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 Battery Sizing
Sizing and selection of lead-acid batteries should be performed
according to ANSI/IEEE Std 485, IEEE Recommended Practice
for Sizing Large Lead Storage Batteries for Generating Stations
and Substations.

320
300
280
260
240 L5 Random
220 Load
200 L2 L7
A 180 L4
M 160
P 140 L6
E 120
R 100 L3
E 80 Random
S 60 Load
40 L7
20 L1

0 1 30 60 90 120 150 180 240 300 360 420 479 480 1

Min.
MINUTES

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 Battery Sizing

320
300
280
260
240 Random
220 Load
200 L1 L7
A 180
M 160
P 140 L6
E 120
R 100 L3 L4
E 80 Random
S 60 L2 Load
40 L7
20 L5

0 1 30 60 90 120 150 180 240 300 360 420 479 480 1

Min.
MINUTES

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 Battery Sizing

Other selection factors recommended by ANSI/IEEE Std 485 are the following:

1. Physical characteristics, such as size and weight of the

cells, container material, vent caps, intercell connectors,
and terminals.
2. Planned life of the installation and expected life of the cell
design.
3. Frequency and depth of discharge
4. Ambient Temperature.
5. Maintenance requirements for the various cell designs
6. Seismic characteristics of the cell design.
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 Parameter # 1
Environment, 4 Factors:
A. Temperature
B. Layout
C. Ventilation
D. Regulatory
A. Seismic
B. Fire Protection

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 Temperature
 The ambient temperature that your batteries will be exposed to will
affect their performance, longevity and reliability
 In North America the reference temperature is 25 ˚C (77 ˚F),
Batteries built according to IEC Standards are rated at 20 ˚C (68 ˚F),
 If the operating temperatures in your battery room vary from the
norm by +/- 3 ˚C you should add temperature compensation to your
charger
 Batteries exposed to lower temperature will have lower performance
and their sizing needs to be compensated
 Batteries exposed to higher temperatures will have a higher
performance but a shorter life due to accelerated corrosion.
 The rule of thumb for decrease in life at higher temperatures is:
– Lead-Acid 50% of life removed for every 10 ˚C
– Nickel-Cadmium 20% of life removed for every 10 ˚C

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 Questions
Temperature

 Will the battery room be climate controlled?

 Should we climate control the room?
 Do we need to add temperature
compensation to our charger?
 Should we examine other battery
technologies.

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 Layout
2 Factors will influence your battery layout
 Battery Blocks or individual cells
– Blocks have a smaller footprint but due to a smaller ratio of electrolyte
to lead surface their life is generally 10 to 20% shorter with vented
batteries, 20 to 30% with gel and around 50% for AGM
– Individual cell monitoring may not always be possible
– If a cell is defective you have to replace the whole block
 Number of tiers and steps in your battery rack
– Racks that are narrow and high will expose batteries to temperature
variations. These variation will cause some batteries to be undercharged
wile others will be overcharged. Over time the imbalance is going to
worsen and your system’s reliability and battery life will be jeopardized.
If you have no choice, install a fan above the batteries.

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 Questions
Layout

 Are we going to use single cells or blocks?

 Will we sacrifice battery reliability and life to
footprint ?

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 Ventilation
Do I need to ventilate or not?
 The Battery Technology
– If we use vented batteries we will need to determine the quantity
of hydrogen generated by the battery versus the number of air
changes in the battery room
– It is generally accepted knowledge that VRLA batteries, under
normal circumstances do not require ventilation when installed in
a regular room...
 High volt shutdown
– If your charger was not specified with a Hi-Volt Shutdown we
recommend that the room’s air changes be verified against the
possible Hydrogen and Oxygen generation of the battery if it is
exposed to the voltage of a charger that would have lost
regulation... +/- 162 Vdc
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 Questions
Ventilation
 Are we going to ventilate?
– How much hydrogen will my battery generate under the worst case
scenario?
– Does the battery room have enough air changes to compensate
– How do I ventilate
• All the time
• When the batter reaches a certain voltage (Charger activated)
• Do I install a hydrogen detection device with a contactor to activate the fan

 I am installing VRLAs do I need to ventilate?

– Worst case scenario...
– Does my charger spec call for a charger equipped with high volt
shutdown?

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 Parameter # 2
Load profile, 3 factors:
A. Loads
B. Backup time
C. Voltage window

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 Loads
 There are different loads to be carried by the battery
during a loss of AC.
– Trip & Close solenoids + Spring charging motors
– Meters + Protection relays + Lights
– DCS / SCADA systems + telecom
– Lube Pump
– Inverter for AC loads
– Others?

 Loads have to be structured in a coherent manner so that

the battery can be sized

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 What is the structure of my load profile?
Amperes Amperes

Time Time

Amperes Amperes

Time Time

Amperes Amperes

Time Time

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 Questions
Loads

 What are my loads?

 What will be the structure of my load
profile
 How often will the batteries be cycled

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 Backup time
5 factors will influence the required length of your
backup time:
 The time required to stop a $$$ uninterruptable process
– Aluminum smelter... Mine... Any high revenue generating process

 The time to repair a failed charger (Could lead to redundancy)

– If spare chargers or spare parts are not available, your protection will last as long as your
batteries.

 AC fail duration worst case scenario vs. alternate scenario

– Historical data maybe useful...

 Availability of alternate AC sources

– If you have a generator on site... Twin feeds from alternate sources...

 Legislation
– In some regions 24 hours! For some applications the NRC is contemplating up to72 hours

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 Questions
Backup time

 Do I have an application related minimum?

 What is the worst case scenario for a charger repair?
 Is the cost of a battery with a longer backup time to high
in comparison to redundant chargers?
 What is the longest blackout that I need to plan for?
 Do I have or want an alternate AC source (Standby
generator or a second utility feed)?
 Are there regulatory parameters that I need to consider?

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 Voltage window
 The voltage window of each equipment will determine
the highest voltage that my can be charged at:
 V(max) (130 Vdc) / Equalize voltage per cell (1.47 Vdc) = maximum
number of cells (88 Cells)
 V(max) (140 Vdc) / Equalize voltage per cell (2.40 Vdc) = maximum
number of cells (58 Cells)
 V(max) (140 Vdc) / Equalize voltage per cell (2.33 Vdc) = maximum
number of cells (60 Cells)

Question
 What is the operating voltage window of each
equipment?

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 Parameter #3
Monitoring & Maintenance

To monitor and maintain or not...

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 To maintain or not?
 If you decide to monitor & maintain
– Different batteries have different monitoring & maintenance needs
– If qualified personnel is difficult to hire, think about training your current
personnel . If hiring or training is not feasible, what about automation or even
partial automation coupled with farming out the balance of the tasks.

 If you decide not to maintain you will still need to

monitor
– Over 100 years of experience has shown that BATTERIES CAN AND WILL
FAIL sometimes less than 3 months after installation.
– If a battery monitoring system is chosen who will analyse the data, who will
respond to the alarms?
– If you do not want to maintain or buy a monitoring system ensure that you
specify a charger with the proper test and alarm features.

 Your choice of battery technology should be influenced

by the decision you just took above
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 To maintain or not?
Vented VRLA
 Visual Inspection  Visual Inspection
– Signs of corrosion or sulphation – Post growth or seal leaks
– Post growth or seal leaks – Cracked covers or jars
– Cracked covers or jars – Bloated covers or jars
 Water replenishment  Cell or block Voltage readings
 Specific gravity readings  Cell or block Ohmic measurement
 Cell or block Voltage readings  Battery continuity test
 Cell or block Ohmic measurement  Verify torque measurements
 Battery continuity test  Connector & Post resistance
 Verify torque measurements  Temperature measurement (Battery or
 Connector & Post resistance Ambient)
 Temperature measurement (Battery or  Battery capacity / Service test
Ambient)
 Battery capacity / Service test
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 QUESTION
To maintain or not?

 How will I take care of my batteries

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 Parameter # 4
Battery technology

 Choosing the right battery for my

application

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 Choosing the right battery for
my application
 Criticality of the application
 The environment my batteries will be in
 Load profile
 Maintenance environment
 Initial budget versus life-cycle cost

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 Choosing the right battery for
my application
 Initial budget vs. Lifecycle cost
1. $Automotive, Marine deep cycle. (Emergency patch for a week or two)
2. $$$ 5 year design life AGM (1.5 to 2.5)
3. $$$$ 10 year design life AGM (2 to 5)
4. $$$$$ 20 year design life AGM (6 to 10)
5. $$$$$ Flat plate Gel OGiV (Thin Plate) (10 to13)
6. $$$$$ Tubular plate Gel OPzV (15 to 20)
7. $$$$$$ Vented Flat plate Calcium (Thick plate) ( 12 to 20)
8. $$$$$$ Vented Tubular plate Calcium (15 to 20)
9. $$$$$$ Vented Flat plate Selenium Ogi (Thin plate) 15 to 20
10. $$$$$$ Vented Tubular plate Selenium OPzS (15 to 25)
11. $$$$$$$$$$$ Vented Planté ( 25+)
12. $$$$$$$$$$$ Low maintenance Nickel cadmium (20+)
13. $$$$$$$$$$ Vented Nickel cadmium (20+)
14. $$$$$$$$$$$$$ Lithium Ion (20+)
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 QUESTIONs
Choosing the right battery for my application
 What is the right battery technology for my
application

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 Parameter # 5
The dc power required by the application
and the battery
 Basic alarms & functions & characteristics
– AC Fail
– Rectifier fail
• Combination of Low Volt & Low current

– High Volt dc
– High Volt shutdown
• To protect your investment

– Low Volt dc
• Your battery is discharging
• Your battery has finished discharging

– Low current dc
• Your dc system is no longer feeding one of your circuits

– Ground fault
– Temperature compensation &High & Low Battery temperature alarm &Delta temperature alarm
• So that your battery always receives the optimal float voltage

– High ripple alarm

• To know when it is time to replace the chargers filtering output capacitors
• To insure that your batteries do not get micro-cycled

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 The dc power required by the application
and the battery

 Other needs!
– Event log with date & time stamp
• Know everything that has occurred to your system
• Better diagnostics
• Protection for your battery warranty
– Float current monitor
• Float current increases as battery ages.
• Premature rise in current coupled to a rise in temperature is an early warning of thermal run away
– Digital Ampere/hour meter
• Positive and negative current monitoring
• Real time knowledge of battery state of charge
– Battery continuity test
• Can your battery deliver the high current needed to trip the breakers?
– Battery Service test
• Can your battery keep your loads operational as long as intended?

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 QUESTIONs
Charging needs of my battery & application

 Is a plain charger what I really need?

 How can I secure a safer system whithout
breaking the bank?

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 CONCLUSIONS
 ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS = GET THE
RIGHT ANSWERS = MAKING THE RIGHT
CHOICE
 A CAREFULLY WRITTEN SPECIFICATION
IS YOUR BEST PROTECTION AGAINST
GREED

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 What are the costs associated to system
failure?
1. Are lives at stake?
2. Are non interruptible
processes involved?
3. Are major financial
losses a possibility?
4. What risk level is
acceptable?
5. What is the
available budget
and Is it in line with
the risk level?

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 For more information
 IEEE standards, recommended practices
and guides.
 Attend as many stationary battery events as
possible: Infobatt, Battcon, Intelec.
 More than 15 years of papers archived on
the Battcon website
 Become a member of the IEEE stationary
battery committee: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/cmte/PES-SBC

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 Thank you!
Yves Lavoie

Primax Technologies Inc.

65 Hymus Boul.
Pointe-Claire, QC H9R 1E2
514-459-9990 # 2004
ylavoie@primax-e.com

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