IoT Based Smart Lead-Acid Battery Management System for Solar and
Off-Peak Energy Storage Systems
Abstract
The new era of automation is obsoleting the antiquated manual systems
rapidly. Global trends are shifting towards small integrated systems
which are smarter, more user-friendly and remotely accessible. This
project presents an intelligent battery management system for solar and
off-peak energy systems to meet the global demands. This
micro-controller-based battery management system stores off-peak and
solar energy in the battery pack consisting of four batteries and aptly
supplies this energy to drive DC and AC loads. The controller is
programmed to automatically shift the load to the next battery in the
sequence when the previous battery is discharged below the permissible
limit. The controller also connects the discharged battery to a smart
charging system that automatically starts charging to maintain an
uninterruptible power supply. Moreover, the system has a monitoring and
control mechanism that prevents intrinsic and extrinsic factors (such as
temperature) from affecting the health of the batteries. The voltage
difference among cells within a battery undermines the battery life
severely. A smart charge equalizer is thus incorporated in the system to
deter this detrimental effect. In addition, the state of charge of each
battery is graphically illustrated through Internet of Things (IoT) so
that any anomaly can be detected and treated, and remote access can be
assured. Thus, this system provides a smart and effective way to store
energy and use it efficiently. Keywords: Battery Management,
Charge equalization, Uninterruptible power supply, Off-peak, Internet of
Things (IoT), Arduino (microcontroller)