Know More about Energy Storage, Lithium Battery, and BMS and their Relationship in term of Portable Power Station

Over the past year, the prices of electricity, natural gas, coal, and other energy sources have continued to soar, and the global energy crisis is likely to get worse. From Asia to Europe, the effects of energy shortages and rising prices are making life more difficult for people. To deal with the energy crisis, people are trying to seek different methods to do energy storage.

Energy Storage - Super Power Bank

Energy storage is to use specific devices to store excess energy and release it when needed. The whole process is similar to using the collected energy to charge a giant 'power bank' and then using the 'power bank' to supply power when necessary.

Since wind energy, solar energy, photovoltaic energy, and other new energy generation are easily affected by the weather, the power supply will be unstable. The energy storage can act as a 'stabilizer' to ensure the continuous operation of the power system.

Energy Storage System

Currently, energy storage has become an essential supporting technology widely used on various occasions throughout the whole power generation, transmission, and usage processes such as power stations, transmission stations, industrial energy storage, enterprise-level energy storage, and household energy storage.

Energy Storage Carrier - Lithium Battery

We can't talk about energy storage without talking about batteries, especially lithium batteries. Lithium batteries affect all aspects of our lives. Cell phones, computers, electric cars, power banks, and many other consumer electronics all use lithium batteries.

The cathode and anode of the lithium battery are carbon materials and lithium compounds respectively. There is no metal lithium exists but lithium ions instead. The working principle of the lithium battery mainly relies on the moving of lithium ions between the cathode and anode.

When the battery is charged, lithium ions are generated on the anode of the battery and will move through the electrolyte to the cathode. The carbon on the cathode has a layered structure with many micropores where lithium ions will be embedded. The more lithium ions are embedded, the higher the charging capacity will be. Also, when we use the battery, lithium ions embedded in the cathode will escape and travel back to the anode.

Lithium battery power source diagram

There are four different kinds of lithium batteries, including Li-MnO2 batteries, Lithium-Cobalt batteries, LiFePO4 batteries, and Ternary lithium batteries, of which the latter two kinds are most widely used.

Battery Cells

1. LiFePO4 Batteries

The LiFePO4 battery is a type of lithium-ion battery using lithium iron phosphate as the cathode material, and a graphitic carbon electrode with a metallic backing as the anode. Because of their lower cost, high safety, low toxicity, long cycle life and other factors, LiFePO4 batteries are finding a number of roles in vehicle use, utility-scale stationary applications, and backup power.

Take all these into consideration, 90% of power stations Cosmobattery produced are made with LiFEPO4 batteries, including AP200L, AP300, AP400, AP1000, AP2000, XP1000, DP-B 3600, etc.

2. Ternary Lithium Batteries

The "ternary" of a ternary lithium battery refers to a polymer containing three metal elements of nickel, cobalt, manganese or aluminum, which is used as a positive electrode in a ternary lithium battery. The three are indispensable. Each element plays an important role, and the characteristics of each element also restrict battery performance. The ternary lithium battery has high energy density, high charge and discharge efficiency, which is suitable for scenarios that require high energy density, limited space, and high customer experience requirements.

Yet the market prefers  LiFEPO4 batteries, Cosmobattery has stopped producing portable power stations with NCM batteries, some old models for review:

Cosmobattery Portable Power Station Previous Models

BMS, the Security Guard for Energy Storage System

Battery management systems (BMS) are electronic control circuits that monitor and regulate the charging and discharge of batteries. The battery characteristics to be monitored include the detection of battery type, voltages, temperature, capacity, state of charge, power consumption, remaining operating time, charging cycles, and some more characteristics.

The task of battery management systems is to ensure the optimal use of the residual energy present in a battery. In order to avoid loading the batteries, BMS systems protect the batteries from deep discharge and over-voltage, which are results of extreme fast charge and extreme high discharge current. In the case of multi-cell batteries, the battery management system also provides a cell balancing function, to manage that different battery cells have the same charging and discharging requirements.

This is almost the end of the sharing about the relationship of energy system, lithium battery, and BMS. Hope it helps. And feel free to discuss more with us via info@cosmobattery.com.