Worlds largest battery...

[SilverFox]

Interesting weekend...

I was given a tour of the worlds largest battery, and got in on some cell testing and trouble shooting.

This battery is made up of 13760 NiCd cells, and is capable of 40 megawatts for 7 minutes.

Some of the details can be found here.

The system has been up and running for a few years now, and it is interesting that one of the issues that keeps coming up is cell balance. When things get out of balance, the cells that are at the higher end of the charge end up "rapidly venting" and the electrolyte has a charred appearance. The system gets used a lot and there isn't enough time to give it a proper balancing charge, so every once in a while cells get out of balance and fail.

On deep discharges, they have also had cells go into reverse charge.

Their battery tester is very interesting. You have the option of selecting a number of pre set up programs, or you can set up your own program. It is capable of charging (and discharging) at rates up to 185 amps. I would like to find a smaller version of this program to play with...

Need I say that I was like a kid in a candy store...

Tom

 

[Kilovolt]

Very interesting. How big is a single NiCd cell?

 

[Valolammas]

Wow! Is that the world's largest battery in capacity, physical size, or both? How big is that thing, by the way?

I can just see someone here modding his house into the biggest and hottest hotwire in the world. 40MW bulbs may be hard to come by, though, so might need several smaller ones. But I'm sure the neighbors would love it, come christmas time.

 

[barkingmad]

"The earthquake-proof contraption contains 13,760 NiCad cells - bigger versions of those used in many portable electronic appliances including laptop computers and radios. Each cell measures 16in by 21in and weighs more than 12 stone."

12 stone is over 76 kilograms!

Wonder if they wish they had used NiMH...

It went live in 2003 - has no-one made a 'bigger' battery since then?

 

[Flash_Gordon]

I can see some excellent runtime here, although EDC may present some issues.

 

[SilverFox]

The whole battery is housed in a huge warehouse around the size of a football field. There are provisions to expand it if necessary. The building has climate controls to try to regulate temperature and humidity.

The problem is that this area sees some of the highest temperature extremes in the world. NiCd chemistry was chosen because it would still work (although at a reduced rate) even if the climate control system failed.

The whole battery is designed to keep resistance low. Connecting bus bars are huge, as is the contact area for each connection.

The voltage of the fully charged battery is around 5000 volts.

By the way, 12 stone works out to just over 76 kilograms or 168 pounds.

The battery bank is impressive, but so is the DC to AC converter that takes the 5000 volts DC and steps it up to 138 kV AC. I don't know the actual efficiency, but ABB did a very good job with this unit.

This area sees frequent storms and is on its own grid. The battery acts as a buffer to keep things going through switching and bring up the various power plants in response to storm damage.

Tom

 

[DM51]

Must have been fascinating to see it. I don't suppose anyone would want to be nearby if any of those big cells blew. They must have a very sophisticated fire control and ventilation system.

 

[LuxLuthor]

That is pretty amazing.

 

[Illum]

any details on the modes of isolating cell chains and fire suppressing devices?

13760 NiCd cells....:wow:

 

[David_Campen]

The battery bank is impressive, but so is the DC to AC converter that takes the 5000 volts DC and steps it up to 138 kV AC. I don't know the actual efficiency, but ABB did a very good job with this unit.

The Sylmar Converter Station in Los Angeles, also by ABB, converts 1,000,000 Volts DC at several thousand amps into AC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_DC_Intertie

 

[James S]

wouldn't they allow you to take pictures? I wanna see those buss bars!

 

[HCaul]

Cool! I recall a getting a tour of the national fuel cell research center in Irvine a few years ago (which at the time I believe could claim the largest fuel cell array in the world). Even the resistor banks were a sight to behold.

I love macro engineering.

 

[Illum]

wouldn't they allow you to take pictures? I wanna see those buss bars!

and the fuse block....this reminds me of that picture of a 10 ohm fuse handlobraesing posted thats longer and wider than a 4D mag

 

[jayflash]

A most interesting and massive undertaking. I wouldn't have imagined that the batteries, inverters and all the ancillary equipment necessary for that much "ride through" was manageable. Quite impressive.

Thanks Foxy and David for the links to those two huge engineering masterpieces.

 

[wquiles]

Very impressive

Will

 

[BVH]

Holy Moley - 40 Megawatts from a battery!! I'd have never guessed such a thing existed.

 

[Sigman]

We need to make a flashlight with it!

 

[Anders]

It is made of SAFT cells.

Kapacity: 40 MW/15 min
Useful life: 20 year
Weight: 1 300 metric ton
Area: 2 000 square metre
Number of cells: 13 760 units

It is made in Oskarshamn Sweden.


Anders

 

[barkingmad]

Does make me wonder if it is technically a 'battery' or perhaps UPS is a better description or are we saying a UPS is a battery?

 

[Mad1]

Not alot of people know but in the UK our telephone system is run off batteries, why? Because it's cheaper.