Sandia Battery Testing

Introduction FY-10

Life Cycle Tes,ng and

Evalua,on of Energy Storage
East Penn
Photos placed in horizontal
UltraBattery
Devices
Furukawa UltraBattery International Battery
Lead-Acid/Supercap Li-FePO4

position
Lead-Acid/Supercap Summer Ferreira,
GS Yuasa Wes Baca, Tom Hund
with even amount of white and Davidgranular
Rose silica
tubular gel
space
between photos and header September 28, 2012

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Dr. Imre Gyuk and the
Department of Energys Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin
Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. SAND NO. 2011-XXXXP

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SNL Energy Storage System Analysis Laboratory

Mission:
Provide reliable, independent, third party testing and
verification of advanced energy technologies for cells to MW systems

Problem:
Current testing methods are inconsistent and the results confusing
Potential storage customers, i.e. utilities, without experience in storage, are
reluctant consumers.

Approach:
Develop advances through:
exploration of test protocols, through direct research and
standards activities
high precision testing
Provide ongoing:
expertise in testing programs to customers
verification of specific technologies

2
SNL Energy Storage System Analysis Laboratory
Providing reliable, independent, third party testing and verification of
advanced energy technologies for cell to MW systems
Testing Capabilities Include:

Expertise to design test plans to fit technologies and their potential applications
Cell, Battery and Module Testing
14 channels from 36 V, 25 A to 72 V, 1000 A for
battery to module-scale tests
Over 125 channels; 0 V to 10 V, 3 A to 100+ A for
cell tests
Potentiostat/galvanostats for spectral impedance
Multimeters, shunts and power supply for high
precision testing
Temperature chambers Energy Storage Test Pad (ESTP)
IR camera

System Testing
Scalable from 5 KW to 1 MW, 480 VAC, 3 phase
1 MW/1 MVAR load bank for either parallel
microgrid, or series UPS operations
Subcycle metering in feeder breakers for system
identification and transient analysis

72 V 1000 A Bitrode (2 Channels)

Standards Activities

DOE Performance Protocol

Working closely with PNNL, and have input from utility and
manufacturing side

IEC
CENELEC Workshop Agreement for Flow Batteries
International Standard IEC 61427-2 Secondary Cells and
batteries for renewable energy storage Part 2: On-grid *
applications
,

Last Peer Review saw repeated calls for standard 9:,!;;,<!9=:<!;,

language and testing, with definitions. In response 9:,!;;,=?-,9?-A<
standards development has been a large priority in
the past year
*

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,
4
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Cycling protocols employed in testing

Utility: High-rate,
shallow cycling
Energy: Low-rate, deep
discharge cycling

VRLA Life cycle data S. Drouilhet, B.L. Johnson, 1997 NREL

Fast Utility Cycling Slow Energy Cycling

1.0 100 1.0 100
80 0.5 80
0.5
C Rate

C Rate
DOD

DOD
60 60
0.0 0.0
40 40
-0.5 20 -0.5 20
-1.0 0 -1.0 0
0 10 20 0 50
Time (Minutes) Time (Hours)
5
 Waveform Testing
State of the Art: Frequency Regulation Stacked Applications: Working with KEMA

Multi-Application Control for Distributed CES Units

2-4 shows power and state of charge for a simplified diurnal cycle including constant-
State of the Art: Load Leveling
charge and discharge durations separated with standby periods. Stochastic Application Modeling:

4
Area Control Error
Power Output (pu)
2

Power
0

-2

-4
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
time, 6 hours (sec) 4
x 10

80
SOC
70

60
SOC (%)

50

40

Figure 2-4 Load Leveling Cycle Profile 30

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
time, 6 hours (sec) 4
x 10

2-5 shows power and state of charge for a simplified frequency regulation, simulating fast
y cycles with higher power but shallower depth of discharge (typically less than 10%).
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Future Projects

CUNY: Ni-Zn Flow battery modules August 2013

AllCell: Test Program under consideration

Encell: Testing anticipated February 2012

Altairnano: Generation II 13 Ah cells; Generation III 14 Ah

LiFe Batt: Cost share agreement for testing new generation

3rd party testing open to researchers and

manufacturers in FY 2013

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Summary of completed testing activities
Sandia Sandia Battery Testing
Battery Testing
Introduction
Introduction FY-10 FY-10

Furukawa UltraBattery International Batt

East Penn
East Penn Furukawa Li-FePO4 Inte
UltraBattery
Furukawa
Lead-Acid/Supercap
East Penn
UltraBattery Lead-Acid/Supercap Li-F
East Penn Ultrabattery Module

FurukawaUltrabattery Module
Lead-Acid/Supercap
20,347 5%UltraBattery
PSOC utility cycles GS Yuasa
7,012 5% PSOC utility cycles
422 Days and 229 PV deep discharge cycles 498 Days and 280 PV deep discharge cycles
Lead-Acid/Supercap granular silica
GS Yua
tubular gel granula
tubular8
Ultrabattery performs much longer than VRLA
2.0 60

1.0 55

C Rate

DOD
0.0 50

PSOC Utility Cycling -1.0

-2.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
45

40

Time (Minutes)
140
East Penn Ultrabattery
5% DOD cycle
120 * Furukawa Ultrabattery
operated at elevated
% Initial Capacity

100 Furukawa Ultrabattery temperatures, likely leading to

5% DOD cycle
thermally activated degradation.
80
80% Initial Capacity
60
VRLA Battery
10% DOD cycle East Penn Ultrabattery ran for
40 more than 20,000 cycles
without recovering the battery
20 * VRLA After
Filled symbols (ln) cycled at 400 A
Open symbos () cycled at 300 A Recovery
0
0 5000 10000 15000 20000
Cycle #

9
Ultrabatteries also perform much longer in energy
applications than VRLA
1.0 100

0.8 90

0.6 80

PV Hybrid Cycle-Life Test

C Rate
0.4 70

0.2 60

DOD
0.0 50

-0.2 40

-0.4 30

105
-0.6 20

-0.8 10

Furukawa Ultrabattery -1.0

0 10 20 30

Time (Hours)
40 50 60 70
0

40 Day Deficit Charge

100

95 East Penn Ultrabattery

% Initial Capacity

40 Day Deficit Charge

90
VRLA Battery
7 Day Deficit Charge
85

80
80% Initial Capacity
75
VRLA Battery
30 Day Deficit Charge
70

65 Filled symbols (ln) 10 hr taper charge

Open symbos () 12 hr taper charge
60
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Days Cycling

Even at 40 day deficit charge, Ultrabatteries have performance

far surpassing traditional VRLA batteries even with as low as a
7 day deficit charge (without recovery by taper charge).
.
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Ongoing testing activities
Cell Level Testing Module Level Testing

Altairnano Lithium-
titanate oxide cells
40,000 10% PSOC

East Penn Advanced RedFlow 10kWh Zn-Br flow battery

Battery Cells module and system
(D. Enos 10:50 AM Thur.) (D. Rose)

International Battery
Li-FePO4 Cells
20,000+ 10% PSOC

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 International battery cell at 27K+ cycles
2.0 60

0.6C 10% Utility cycles 1.0 55

C Rate

DOD
100 0.0 50

-1.0 45

-2.0 40
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Time (Minutes)
80
80% Initial Capacity

Cell Capacity (Ah)

60

40

20

y FePO large format Battery

International
International battery Li-ion 0
0 10000 20000 30000
4

Li-FePO4
prismatic 160 Ah cells Cycle #

0.6C Utility PSOC cycle

10% SOC cycles at 100 A

GS Yuasa 15% capacity loss after 27,000+ cycles

granular silica 12
Altairnano Characterization

Average Standard Deviation

Capacity (Ah) 12.58 0.06
Voc (V) 2.531 0.006
R () 2642 147
Mass (kg) 0.367 0.001
3 Month Self
4.825% 0.025% Lithium-titanate oxide cells
Discharge

1000
Specific Power (W/Kg)

100

10

1
1 10 100 1000
Specific Energy (Wh/Kg)

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Altairnano Cycle-Life

2C 10% Utility cycles without rests 4C 10% Utility cycles with rests
100 100

80 80
Cell Capacity (Ah)

Cell Capacity (Ah)

60 60

40 40

100
20
1.0 60

20
C Rate

DOD

C Rate
55

DOD
0.0 50

-4.0 0
45

Time (Minutes) -1.0 40

0 0 10 20 Time (Minutes)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

0
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 0 2500 5000 7500 10000
Cycle #
Cycle #

94% of initial capacity after 36K 10% 97.6% of initial capacity after 4,000
PSOC utility 2C cycles without rests 10% PSOC utility 4C cycles

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Summary/conclusions to date

Current advanced batteries are completing over 10,000 10% cycles with
little loss in capacity, currently at over 40,000 cycles for Altairnano.

Anticipate longer testing to reach EOL so we are exploring testing paths.

More aggressive tests, and varied protocols including stacked testing
under investigation.

Participation in standards activities is becoming a priority; as we heard at

last Peer Review a recurring call for standard language and testing.

Contact Information:
To take advantage of Sandia testing services or consultation:

Summer Ferreira: srferre@sandia.gov

Advanced Power Sources R&D
Manager Thomas Wunsch tfwunsc@sandia.gov

With grateful acknowledgment of Dr. Imre Gyuk for support of storage testing

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