A Field Validated Model of a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for Microgrids

Abstract

The vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) is well-suited for applications with renewable energy devices. This paper presents a practical analysis of the VRB for use in a microgrid system. The first part of the paper develops a reduced order circuit model of the VRB and analyzes its experimental performance efficiency during deployment. The model parameters of the various VRB system components were estimated from experimental field data. The parasitic losses of the circulation pumps power consumption were predicted during different operating situations. The second part of the paper addresses the implementation issues of the VRB application in a photovoltaic-based microgrid system. Commercially available chargers designed for lead-acid battery systems were shown to be non-optimal for VRB systems and a new dc-dc converter control was proposed to provide improved charging performance. The system model was validated with field-obtained experimental data.

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Second Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Efficiency characterization; energy storage; microgrid; renewable energy; vanadium redox battery; Charging (batteries); Data reduction; DC-DC converters; Electric inverters; Secondary batteries; Charging performance; Micro-grid systems; Performance efficiency; Electric power distribution

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1949-3053

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2014 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jul 2014

Link to Full Text

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