Unlocking Battery Insights: Navigating Load Testing Challenges

In this episode of DC Power Hour, the Battery Blarney duo of George and Allen, along with our resident load bank technician and engineer Josh Fox, delve into the intricacies of load testing and load banks. They emphasize the critical importance of load testing in assessing battery capacity and highlight challenges faced by utilities in allocating manpower for comprehensive testing. The conversation explores IEEE and NERC standards for load testing, including acceptance tests and modified performance tests, and offers practical insights from field experiences. The hosts conclude by discussing strategies like cell jumping and the necessity of adjusting charger voltages, providing valuable tips for professionals in battery maintenance.

Episode Highlights:

4:59 – A common question I get is "why do we have to do a test for eight hours?"

9:41 – When you're recharging the battery, you're shoving maximum current in into it. Depending on the design of the power system, you could be shoving two or three hundred amps into that battery.

20:23 – There's also a couple of excellent papers on load testing itself. One by, I'll give a plug here, one by an old friend of mine and yours, Rick Tresler. And Another one by I believe it was Steve Clark on rate adjusted method.

22:11 – You're putting yourself at risk because you're working on 120 volts with a lot of current around, and you're putting the system at risk if you get it wrong.

49:14 – Are there certain pitfalls or certain things that people need to worry about in order to do a discharge test correctly?