Domestic remote-area power supplies: modeling battery usage for energy storage

The authors report on the development of methods for simulating the typical operating duty cycle of lead/acid batteries in remote area power supply (RAPS) systems. In developing test cycles for batteries, a RAPS computer simulation program called SOLSIM was used. The structure of SOLSIM and the effect on overall RAPS performance of the variation in key system and control algorithm parameters is discussed. The approach results in the derivation and application of battery load-current profiles for assessing the performance of both prototype and commercial lead/acid batteries. >