2018 IEEE PES/IAS PowerAfrica

Storage Batteries the Future for Energy Storage

1
Macdonald Nko, 2SP Daniel Chowdhury
1-2
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Tshwane University of Technology
Pretoria, South Africa,

macdonaldnko@gmail.com , spchowdhury2010@gmail.com,

Abstract ― South Africa (SA) is following the global trend of
Renewable Energy (RE), this energy is clean with no
pollution to the environment. Solar energy particularly is one
of the fastest growing RE system due to its simplicity and
lower maintenance. Solar energy can be used for micro
projects such as street lighting, installed on roof tops to power
factories directly, home installations and major plants
connected to the grid. As per study conducted by Department
of Energy (DoE), SAs average sunlight hours is 2500hrs per
year and radiation level is 5.5kWh/m2. That makes the solar
energy the most attractive. Such energy needs storage facility
to be preserved to later use. Batteries are known for their
ability to store energy for later use. Storage batteries have
evolved a lot with time. With different types of batteries on
the market, Lithium ion batteries are emerging to be the best
hope of storage. This paper intends to present why Li-ion is
the future for RE storage.
.Index Terms— Lithium Ion Batteries; Efficiency, Recharging
Time, Costs, Life Cycle. Maintenance.
I. INTRODUCTION
Global warming and change of environment is affecting the
life of people and animals [1], [2]. People and animals living
in that area has to readjust to the new environment created due
to lack of perseverance of the environment and changes that
come with it. Power generating stations are in pressure to meet
load demands which they turn to use fossil fuels and factories
are in huge pressure to produce goods, make profits and create
employment. This comes sometimes with a cost to
environmental pollution, which have consequences of lack of
rain. Cape Town, South Africa is experiencing lack or shortage
of rain in the recent years, the worst since 1904. Carbon
dioxide global emissions have increased by more than 50% in
the last 27years [4]. There is a huge need to replace fossil fuels
with natural and environmentally friendly solutions like Wind
and Solar power. However, it has been proven may times that
the Wind and Solar power produce unstable output which
requires storage facility to stabilize it [5].
Many forms of storage facilities have been studied and still
under study for continuous improvement. Batteries are
regarded as last option due to costs associated with space
requirements, cost of purchasing, operation and maintenance
cost [6]. This however does not overrule the fact that there are
good positives and bright future for storage batteries, Li-ion to
be exact. This paper intends to show the positive and future for
renewable energy and thus highlight the need for
improvements or developments.
II. LITHIUM ION BATTERIES
Lithium ion batteries are rechargeable type. When
discharging the batteries, the lithium ions will move between
the positive and negative electrodes from negative to positive.
During charging, the lithium ions will move back from
positive to negative. These batteries are increasingly used in
high voltage systems and other applications; battery cells
normally connected in either series or parallel to produce the
necessary output voltage and current. It has been proven by
previous researchers that cells may not have same
characteristics because of different process when
manufacturing and possible working conditions. When
batteries are in use, they are exposed to charging and
discharging, this affect each cell voltage and may reduce the
capacity of the connected bank. As a result failure may occur
due to overcharging [8]. To solve the problem, cell balancing
is required. Since in solar plant, batteries are connected in
packs, the cell balancing becomes very important to sustain
longer life span of batteries [6].

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 2018 IEEE PES/IAS PowerAfrica
Lithium ion batteries compared to other types have high
energy, cost effective, light weight, high open circuit voltage,
safer, longer life up to 16years, superior power densities and
do not get subjected to battery effect [7].
Lithium Ion battery efficiency is between 70% and 99%.
Though these batteries are not favorites under very harsh
conditions they still very safe to use.
These batteries require almost zero maintenance. The battery
cell voltage is very high [9], which makes less number of
batteries required in the circuit. Since less quantity of batteries
will be required compared to other batteries, the saving can be
made on the reduced space costs, less number of batteries to
transport which yields to lower risks of damage, low cost on
installation and commissioning. Li-ion batteries have the
fastest charging time of less than 2hrs which other batteries
cannot match [10]. Though SA does not have a lot of
experience dealing with storage batteries for large plants, the
technology produced under lithium ion batteries are proven to
be very simple and safe to use [11], [13]. That means no need
for specialized equipment and personnel. SA is not
economically a wealthy country to afford expensive batteries,
this makes costs very important.
III. CHARGING AND DISCHARGING
As indicated above, charging these batteries requires only
2hours. Consider a system with PV plant, Li-ion batteries and
backup generator, system generator can be connected under
cycle charging to supply the principal load initially and charge
the batteries with additional energy produced. The same
system can be used replacing the generator with direct PV
plant. The system will work in such a way that during
maximum production of solar power and off-peak hours then
the batteries can be charged. HomerPro software can be used
to simulate the system under cycle charging. The charging and
discharging affects the life of batteries and at any point of the
life cycle, the life time remaining can be calculated by the
equation below’
, = ( ) (1)
Where;
Q , = life time in kWh
f = quantity of cycles failure
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d = depth of discharge in percentage (%)
q = Ampere-hours maximum storage capacity.
V = System nominal voltage (v)
IV. BATTERY MANAGEMENT
Battery Management System (BMS) is there to improve
battery operating efficiency and life span. When dealing with
BMS, State of Charge (SOC) plays important role. SOC
estimating can be done many methods including the open loop
and close loop methods [7]. Coulomb counting method is the
mostly used in engineering requirements and accurate method
from the open loop methods [7]. There are other methods in
development to mitigate the coulomb deficiencies like close
loop Kalman filtering method, which works perfectly in noisy
environment.
State of Health (SOH) method is also used to estimate the
general conditions of batteries such as power fad and capacity.
This method is used to check and compare the battery
conditions to its original state [12]. This is done by comparing
current capacitance with the original new capacitance.
Handling or management of batteries determines the life span
of that particular battery. BMS assist in maintenance required,
operation costs, replacement costs, life span control, the
charging-discharging requirements, the impact on the
environment and safety concerns [6]. There are few methods
developed or proposed over the years for the management of
batteries such as Rule-Based (RB) methods and Fuzzy Logic
(FL) [8]. The FL is more advanced method as it incorporates
more inputs like SOC, electricity price, the demand, RE
generation, actual solar generation per day and following day
solar accessibility to send signal for charging or discharging,
while the RB method only focus on the weather for today and
tomorrow [6]. BMS also ensure no overcharging or over
discharging on batteries, this intern improves battery life and
efficiency [8].
V. BATTERY ENERGY COST
Battery energy cost is calculated in time periods; for any period,
the stored energy cost is the average energy cost that is been put
up by the system in the storage tank for that particular time
period. The equation below is built-in on HomerPro to calculate
the energy cost for each period.
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 2018 IEEE PES/IAS PowerAfrica

∑ ,
Where:
, = ∑ (2)
C = the replacement cost of the storage bank ($)
, ,

N = the battery quantity in the storage bank.

Where, , = The storage energy cost in time step
Q = the lifetime amount of a single storage (kWh)
n ($/kWh) η = Storage roundtrip efficiency (fractional).

, = The cost of cycle charging the storage in time

VII. COSTS ANALYSIS
step .
Consider a small PV plant built for residential use with load of
, = The amount of energy that went into the
11kwh/day. Table 1 below compares the cost associated with
storage bank in step (kWh). using either a Generic Lead acid and Lithium Ion battery bank
The system sustains average costs while purposely charging to supplement the residential PV plant, the same size of
the storage bank and this is replicated by the storage energy converter is used. Homer Pro software is used to simulate the
costs. Cycle charging cost at the numerator of equation (3.21) costs. These costs are based on a project life cycle of 25years.
is the additional cost sustained by the system for precisely Li-ion uses
storage charging. The surplus energy that charges the storage Table 1: Cost Analysis of Batteries
bank in some time period signifies no cost. However,
Battery Capital Cost Replacement O&M Total ($)
whenever a generator or PV produce extra energy than Bank ($) Cost ($) ($)
required to supply the load and particularly to charge the Li- Ion $25 200,00 $10 691,00 $5 429.56 $39 308.97

storage. Then by so doing the system does incur extra costs. Lead $14 100,00 $5 529.83 $6 075,93 $24 106.85
Acid
Similarly the same is true when the system purchases extra
power from the grid to charge the storage. These events happen
Number of Li-Ion batteries is 42 while Lead Acid is 47
regularly when the system is under cycle charging.
batteries this does not much affect to the overall costs. With
At any time period when the generator or any source cycle
respect to the cost associated with each type of batteries, it is
charges the storage, HomerPro compute the charging cost by
clear that the traditional Lead Acid (LA) batteries are cheaper
subtracting the cost that would have encountered in a time
to use compare to Li-ion reference can be seen on Table 1.
period had the storage not been charged by the system from
However, with the Li-Ion batteries are more efficient with
the actual cost of operating the system in the same time period.
range between 78-99% while LA batteries are within 60-90%.
Normally under load following condition, the system does not
With both having the same life span of 5 year to 16years
pay for charging the storage bank. Excess energy is utilized to
maximum.
charge the storage and thus the storage cost is constantly zero
They cell voltage of Li-ion is 3.6V with LA is only 2V per cell.
for this load following strategy.
For each 3 cells of LA we can get only 2 cells of LA.

VI. BATTERY WEAR COSTS .

VIII. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This is the cost of cycling energy through the storage bank. If
Choosing the best storage solution will be considered ideally;
the storage properties show that the storage time is limited by
low initial capital costs, low running and maintenance costs,
certain amount or quantity, then HOMER presumes the storage
high life span, easy operation, very efficient, high energy and
bank will need replacement when its total quantity matches its
power density. As per table 1 above, it can be deducted that
lifetime quantity. Each kWh of throughput therefore brings the
the ideal solution is not possible since no single storage facility
storage bank that much closer to needing replacement. Storage
can offer all this good characteristics or outputs. The selection
wear cost is calculated per below equation:
should be based on the application and budget. LI batteries
,
C = (3)
∗ ∗ would mostly provide high energy density and have simple

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 2018 IEEE PES/IAS PowerAfrica
operation methods. Lithium Ion batteries are better option with [6]
fast charging times and no maintenance required.
IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thankfully acknowledge the
Tshwane University of Technology and F’SATI, Pretoria,
South Africa for providing the research infrastructure for
conducting this research.
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review”. In Proc. Smart Grid Technologies – Asia (ISGT IET Sponsored International Conference PEITSICON,
Kolkata, 2005 having more than 400 delegates and a budget of
ASIA) Innovative. 2015. pp. 1-6
more than 2M Rupees; Technical Chair of IET Sponsored
[15] B. Diouf and R. Pode. “Potential of lithium-ion International Conference, ICTES, Chennai 2007 in addition to
being a member of Organising Committees for more than 30
batteries in renewable energy” Renewable conferences and workshops since 1993.
He has international repute of delivering keynotes in
Energy. Vol. 76. 2015. Pp 375-380 conferences. Recently, he was Keynote Speaker for
International Conferences IREC 2016, Botswana,
PowerAfrica 2017, Accra and BIE conference 2017 Botswana.
BIOGRAPHIES His social responsiveness is well aligned with TUT’s
transformation goals and social responsiveness mandate as
Macdonald Nko: has been pursuing his MTech studies at peoples university. He has been leading TUT Maths projects
TUT. and workshops since 2016 towards the goal of achieving
Prof SP Daniel higher matric mathematics pass-rate by facilitating education
Chowdhury: received his and training of FET maths teachers for strengthening teaching
Bachelor and Masters and learning of secondary level mathematics. He has served
Degree in Electrical in the IET Membership and Regions Board, MRB Finance
Engineering in 1987 and Committee, Council, Global Service Group and other
1989 respectively from committees 2005-2011. Besides he has been serving as a
Jadavpur University, reviewer several NRF panels and international energy
Kolkata, India. He received journals.
his PhD with specialisation
in power and energy systems
from the same University in
1992. He was employed as
lecturer in Electrical
Engineering, Jadavpur
University in 1993 and then
promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1998, Associate Professor in
1998 and full Professor in 2006. He visited Brunel University,
UK as Senior Visiting Academic for one year in 2006 and then
The University of Manchester, UK in 2007 in the same
capacity. He moved to South Africa in 2008 as Associate
Professor in University of Cape Town and is currently
affiliated to Tshwane University of Technology as full
Professor since 2014.
Prof SP Daniel Chowdhury has over 30 years of academic
experience in teaching and research in Electrical Engineering.
He is an NRF C1-rated scientist in South Africa and published
more than 360 research papers in peer reviewed international
journals and conferences. He has also co-authored the research
book “Microgrids and Active Distribution Networks”, which
was published by The IET(UK) in 2009 and currently enjoys a
citation count of 755. In addition he has co-authored two
textbooks in software applications in electrical engineering,
and microprocessors respectively. In terms of research
publications, he has a citation count of above four thousand, h-
index of 26 and i10-index of 68 in Google Citations.He has
graduated 10 PhD, 36 MSc and 57 senior UG students in
electrical engineering and executed several research projects
of more than 14 million Rands.
He is ECSA Pr.Eng (South Africa), has the following
Professional Registrations with ECSA and other institutions:
Chartered Engineer (ECUK), Chartered Engineer (India),
Professional Engineer (ECSA), Fellow of the IET(UK), Senior
Member the IEEE(USA), Senior Member SAIEE, Fellow
Institution of Engineers (India), Fellow of the Institution of
Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (India).
He has commendable leadership in organising conferences and
workshops. He has been the Organising Chair of the IEEE
Power Africa 2018 conference to be held in Cape Town during
26-29 June 2018 hosted by TUT. He was Organising Chair of

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