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Systems for supervision of

substation batteries
by Dr. Vladimir Gurevich, Israel Electric Corporation

This article discusses the different existing methods for supervising substation battery connectivity and offers a new technical solution
based on the measurement of current which permanently passes from the battery to the bus bar or from the chargers to the battery.
The results of assessment of various monitoring systems based on the method are presented.

An auxiliary DC power supply substation

system, shown in Fig. 1, includes main and
reserve auxiliary transformers, power battery,
chargers, DC bus bars, and a distribution
cabinet. It is an important substation
system upon which the reliability of relay
protection, automatic system, control and
communication depends. According to [1]
disturbances in this system may lead to a
full power system failure.

A modern charger provides many different

internal protective and signaling systems
connected to emergency modes, while
battery protection boils down, usually, to
Fig.1: Device BA300 type (Areva) for constant monitoring substation battery impedance, voltage and
using a fuse. At the same time the risk of ground insulation levels.
failure in the contacts between the battery
and the bus bar is always present; in the
criterion for monitoring substation battery a short current pulse with a magnitude of
links connecting series separate battery
connectivity is not applicable. 1 A. This current produces a small voltage
banks; failures in internal structure of the
drop across the battery terminals, which
accumulators; failures of the battery due to In [3] a device for supervision of substation
is used for the calculation the battery
natural disasters, such as earthquakes etc. It battery connectivity based on periodical
impedance.
is enough to take into account that a 230 V pulsed increase voltage level on
voltage substation battery contains some 106 battery terminals and measurement of In so far as battery charger contains large
separate accumulators, connected together current pulses passing through battery is filtering capacitors in its output circuits, it
in series by means of more than 200 links, the described. is abundantly clear that the current pulse
interruption in any one of which can lead to through the measurement resistor in the
complete battery malfunction. In [4] a method for supervising the substation
BA300 device will be formed not only by
battery connectivity by injection of audio
Existing methods for supervising battery, but also by the discharging of these
frequency signal into the supervised circuit
substation battery connectivity filtering capacitors. In connection with this
and measurement of voltage drop on
Areva suggests inserting a choke, intended
The Bender company manufactures a the circuit terminals on this frequency is
on full charger current, in the output circuit
device which can be used for monitoring described.
of each charger. From where a consumer
harmonic levels in the DC network [2]. For In [5, 6] various devices for measuring obtains such a choke for currents of 30 A or
a serviceable battery connected to the DC the battery impedance as the criterion 100 A and how much they will cost, Areva
bus bar the harmonics level is very low. It for supervision battery circuit connectivity is somewhat reticent. Even so, their device
was assumed that the disconnection of the are offered, but in [7] it is shown that the itself is expensive (approx 750).
battery from the DC bus bar will dramatically conventional methods for measuring
increase the harmonic levels produced by For the sake of justice it is necessary to note
battery impedance are ineffective because
the charger which will cause the output that constantly monitoring the impedance
of the very low value of the impedance in
relay in the Bender monitoring device to of the battery can reveal not only the fact
power substation battery and, therefore,
operate. Unfortunately, the harmonics sum of a full break of the battery circuit, but also
very low value of AC voltage which needs
generated by charger is high depending the deterioration of the general condition of
to be measured. Measuring such low
on its output current, i.e. from the external this circuit even before its full break.
values of AC voltages in real substation
load on the DC bus bar.
conditions is problematic, as noted in [7]. Besides, the Battery Alarm 300 enables
More to the point, in reality, modern chargers Nevertheless, Areva offers a special device: supervising additional parameters of the
provided with large filter capacitors with a Battery Alarm 300 [8] that is specifically battery, such as voltage and the ground
total capacitance in range of 5000 intended for measuring battery impedance, insulation level. However, for the author, the
5 000 F in the output circuit result in a very (Fig. 1). This device in parallel with the specific goal is limited only to the supervision
low harmonics level on the DC bus bar even battery periodically connects a resistor by of the substation battery connectivity, and
with a disconnected battery. We conclude means of semiconductor switch for short for this, the suggested solutions should be
from this that using harmonics level as the periods of time (50 s). The resistor produces the most simple, reliable and inexpensive

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so that it is possible to use a large number of them to cover
all the batteries available in a power system.

Suggested method for supervision substation battery

connectivity

In distinction to the complexity (and, consequently costliness)

of the known methods for supervising substation battery
connectivity, we suggest another method, based on the
measurement of current which permanently passes from
battery to the bus bar or from chargers to the battery, (Fig. 2),
in a typical system. Even a fully charged battery continues to
consume a small current (referred to as a floating current) in
a range of about 0,5 3 A from the charger, depending on
the battery power and condition. Therefore, it is reasonable
to consider that if the current in a battery circuit is reduced to
a level less than 0,1A, this unequivocally testifies to breakage
of this circuit.

It is necessary to pick a controller capable of giving the

appropriate output signal when decreasing the current in a
supervised circuit falls to lower than 100 mA. The problem with
the selection of such a controller consists of firstly, the direction
in which the current in a supervised circuit can change when
reversing, and secondly, change of value of current in the
circuit occurs in very wide limits: from 0,1 A up to 100 A, that is by
a factor 1000. Therefore a high-sensitivity controller should be
reliably protected from the influence of the high current value
and should supervise a current in both directions. According
to these requirements we constructed various units and tested
some different systems for supervising the DC current in the
battery circuit, based on different principles.

Device for supervision battery circuit based on nonlinear

shunt

Using a nonlinear shunt allows considerable simplified supervision

of current which changes in wide limits. The shunt device
employs two back-to-back connected Schottky diodes. Forward
voltage drop on one of the diodes (depending on the current
direction) varies according to the graph shown in Fig.3.

As can be seen from the graph, due to nonlinear diode

characteristic the forward voltage drop varies from 0,2 to
0,65 V, i.e., by a factor of three while the current changed
by a factor of 100. This feature of the diodes provides proper
protection of sensitive input of the controller at high currents.
On the other hand, enough high voltage drops on diodes
at small currents reduces the requirement of the sensitivity
of the controller. To test this idea, a circuit was put together
modeled on the controller shown in Fig. 2, using two standard
devices produced by the Israeli Conlab company: DCT-3
and DCM-1. First the insulated transducer with high voltage
insulation input circuit from output and also the converter from
input voltage 100 mV into a standard output signal of 4-20
mA was connected to them. Then the controller itself with two
programmed relay outputs was connected. The controller
operated with input signals varying between 4 to 20 mA. For the
two back-to-back connected Schottky diodes, STPS200170TV1,
manufacturer by STmicroelectronics were used.

Experimental examination of this system indicated that it was

thoroughly passable. The output relay picks up at the reduction
of the current in the supervised circuit below 50 60 mA and
releases at current increases up to 130 140 mA. The presence
a high hysteresis in this case is a positive feature which increases
stability of system operation.

At the same time an important deficiency was noted in

connection with high heating of the diodes unit at high currents.

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Installing a small heatsink (Fig. 4) the
temperature of the diodes unit achieved
about 70C at 25 A and carried for a
period of 15 20 min. From this it clear
that for operating at currents around 100
A, the diodes unit has to be combined with
a large heatsink or a ventilator for forced
heatsink blowing has to be used. Another
disadvantage of this system is the necessity
for using a separate 24 V power supply for
feeding the DCT-3 and DCM-1 devices. The
cost of this system is about $600.

Using a standard shunt as current sensor

Using a standard linear shunt, for example,

100 A /60 mV or 100 A /100 mV and current
pickup level of 0,1 A, the sensitivity of
the controller has to be 10 V (unlike the
previous example where the sensitivity of
the controller can be as low as hundreds of
mV). It is unlikely that a controller available
in the market has so high a sensitivity.

At our request, Conlab gave us another

Fig. 2: Typical single-line circuit diagram of substation DC system. system for testing, (Fig. 5) which met
the requirements mentioned above for
using a standard shunt. During the test
this system exhibited the following results:
pickup current levels of 60 to 80 mA
(through the shunt); release current levels
of 120 to 160 mA. The same hysteresis is a
positive property of such system because
its presence increases the system stability.
One of the disadvantages of this system is
necessity of using an external 24 V power
supply for feeding the transducers. The cost
of this system is about $600.

The MSCI-LCD type serial line controller,

manufactured by Megatron, Israel, with
some slight modifications to meet our
requirements appeared as very successful
variant and demonstrated very stable
operation with high sensitivity. (Fig. 6) This
controller practically did not react with the
Fig. 3. Dependence forward voltage drops on the Schottky diode STPS200170TV1 type from direct
current (for different temperatures of semiconductor structure).
AC component when measuring the input
and therefore had a high noise stability, and
could feed from the 230 V network.

It was noticed that the controller MSCI-LCD

type lacked detecting the polarity of the
input signal. In the modified variant of the
controller the measuring input is protected
against the high voltage applied at high
currents carried through the shunt, and also
protected against voltage polarity reversals
applied to the input during changes of the
current direction in the shunt.

A single problem is the necessity of using

two identical controllers connected in
opposite polarity to the shunt for measuring
the currents, proceeding in both directions,
and connecting the normally closed
contacts of its output relays in series. Thus
the output signal will appear only in the
Fig. 4: Model of the system based on nonlinear shunt for supervision battery circuit. DCT-3 and DCM-1
electronic transducers (Conlab, Israel); VD1-VD2 - unit with back-to-back connected Schottky case that the current will be lower 0,1 A in
diodes STPS200170TV1 type (STmicroelectronics) both directions. Considering the small cost

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Fig. 7: Hall-effect transducer HAL 50-S type with built-in electronic

amplifier for measurement DC current. R1, R2 potentiometers for
amplifier adjusting.
Fig. 5: Model of the system based on standard shunt for supervision
battery circuit. USD-2 electronic transducer (input: 200 V, output:
4 - 20 mA); DCM-1 programmed electronic transducer for 4 - 20 mA
with relay output (Conlab, Israel). at nominal current 50 A. We assumed that such high output signal
at nominal current would provide enough high level signal also at
current 0,1 A. Unfortunately, even at zero current the output signal
level drifted and its instability exceeded the level of the functional
output signal at a current of 0,1 A. Thus we would not be successful
in receiving the comprehensible signal from such system applicable
for use in our supervision system.

Conclusion

On the basis of a comparative estimation of parameters and test

results of the some variations of systems for supervision circuits of the
Fig. 6. System for supervision battery circuit based on standard shunt and substation battery 230V that were discussed above, we have come
two universal controllers with relay output MSCI-LCD type
(Megatron, Israel) to the conclusion that from the standpoint the greatest stability, the
greatest reliability and least cost, the system of choice is that based
on a standard shunt and two modified MSCI-LCD type controllers,
of single controller (about $130), it turns out that even with two such manufactured by Megatron. This is the system that we recommend
controllers the total cost is much below that of the second system for wide use in substations and power stations.
provided by Conlab.
References
Usage of the Hall-effect sensor in system for supervision battery
circuit [1] Skok S., Tesnjak S., and Filipovic M. Risk of Power System Blackout
caused by Auxiliary DC Installation Failure. Proceedings of the IASTED
The monitoring systems considered above demand the insertion International. Conference "PowerCON 2003 - Special Theme: Blackout",
of additional elements (diodes, shunt) in a power circuit (cable) New York, December 2003.
connecting the battery with DC bus bar. However, there is a [2] Ripple Detector RUG1002Z. Insulation and Voltage Monitoring of DC
variation in which there is no necessity to cut the circuit (cable) System RGG804. Operation Manual. Bender GmbH.
and no necessity for inserting additional elements. This variation is [3] Phansalkar B J., Tolakanahalli P. N. Pradeep N. R., Saxena S. K. Method
based on using a Hall-effect sensor (transducer) in the form of a and system for testing battery connectivity. U.S. Pat. 6931332, August
16, 2005.
framework through which the power cable connecting the battery
[4] Russo F. J. High sensitivity battery resistance monitor and method
and bus bar is passed (Fig. 7).
therefore. U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,625, G01R31/36, October 19, 1999.
Some companies, for example, CR Magnetics [9], have proposed [5] Wurst J. W., Chester T, Morris C. On-line battery impedance measurement.
DC current relays with built-in Hall sensors. However, from the U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,920, G01R31/36, January 25, 1994.
answers from the company we received, it seems that such devices [6] Burkum M. E., Gabriel C. M. Apparatus and method for measuring
cannot provide carrying currents varying between 0,1 A to 100 A battery condition. U. S. Pat. No. 4,697,134, G01R31/36, September
and pickups at currents below 0,1 A. We therefore undertook the 29, 1987.
attempt of developing the current relay of our own design based [7] Kozlowski J.D. A novel online measurement technique for AC
on separate Hall transducers, such as HAL50-S, manufactured by impedance of batteries and other electrochemical systems. The
Sixteenth Annual Battery Conference on Applications and Advances,
the Japanese branch of the LEM company and designed for a
2001.
currents up to 150 A and the AM22D type controller, manufactured
[8] Battery Alarm 300. User Manual BA300. Areva.
Israeli company Amdar Electronics & Controls.
[9] Direct Current Sensing Relay CR5395 Series. Data Sheet. CR Magnetics,
This type of Hall transducer consists of a built-in electronic amplifier Inc.
and two potentiometers outside for adjusting the amplifier Contact Dr. Vladimir Gurevich, Israel Electric Corporation,
characteristics. The output signal of the transducer is as high as 4V [email protected]

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