Volume 23: Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Post-COVID Recovery towards a Better Future: Part VI

Constant-Power Characterization of a 5 kW Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Stack Pavan Kumar V, Sreenivas Jayanti, Raghuram Chetty

Abstract

For large-scale stationary energy storage applications, flow batteries are gaining attention all over the world. Numerous studies have been done on flow batteries since their invention. Almost all the studies are based on the constant current cycling of flow batteries. In the present work, we explore a different perspective of a flow battery and characterize the power, energy, and efficiency characteristics of a 5-kW scale vanadium redox flow battery system through constant power cycling tests. Different ratios of charge power to discharge power characteristics of solar, wind, and peak shaving applications have been incorporated in the test protocol. It is shown that, over the range of testing, the round-trip energy efficiency and the fractional energy utilization depend linearly on the power at which the battery is charged or discharged

Keywords Vanadium redox flow battery, Constant power cycling, Energy storage