Researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT, Chicago, IL) have successfully demonstrated a passive thermal management system using phase change materials (PCM) in Li-ion batteries for electric vehicle and scooter applications. Thermal characterization of Li-ion battery modules using PCM is presented and discussed. In addition, a battery pack design for Plug-In hybrid vehicles (PHEV) is proposed and discussed.
-In electric vehicle applications, it is necessary to use series strings of batteries since the required voltage is higher than the one that can be obtained from a single battery. Due to several factors, imbalance of batteries in these battery systems is usual and an important factor that has to be taken into account. Many balancing methods have been developed with a lot of different advantages, but all of them also have a lot of disadvantages such as complexity and/or high cost, which are the common problems that can be found in most of these equalization methods. In the present work, a low cost and very simple equalization method is proposed, in which a novel control is applied to a shunting transistor topology. It allows the transistors to regulate the amount of current that goes through each battery cell in the string depending on their State of Charge (SOC), during the charging process. This control ensures that the least charged cells to be charged faster, and the most charged ones to be charged more slowly. Design criteria are discussed and simulation results are carried out in a generic battery low power application which proves the control method. Fast equalization with a low complexity and cost is obtained.
We are proposing a load shedding system for future smart cities which can shed load on priority basis. The proposed methodology has the potential to conserve the available energy in an efficient manner and making system immune to intense blackouts and brownouts. The objective is to keep end-user with more reliable and increased power availability and hence keeping higher priority load connected. Load is categorized in flexible manner to provide freedom of priority demarcation. The proposed system consists of two basic controllers: Central Load Manager (CLM) and Local Load Manager (LLM). CLM through sensor receives the real time load demand data, check for its value against threshold power and takes decision accordingly. Control signals are then transmitted to local load manager using TCP/IP technology which acts to shed the load and keeps condition of load (data) in the memory. An extensive simulation environment is developed in SIMULINK-MATLAB and tested under diverse conditions to analyze system's performance and practicality. Index Terms-smart grid, load management, load shedding, intelligent load shedding (ILS), power system, smart energy city
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