State-of-charge determination from EMF voltage estimation: Using impedance, terminal voltage, and current for lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries

State-of-charge (SOC) determination is an increasingly important issue in battery technology. In addition to the immediate display of the remaining battery capacity to the user, precise knowledge of SOC exerts additional control over the charging/discharging process, which can be employed to increase battery life. This reduces the risk of overvoltage and gassing, which degrade the chemical composition of the electrolyte and plates. The proposed model in this paper determines the SOC by incorporating the changes occurring due to terminal voltage, current load, and internal resistance, which mitigate the disadvantages of using impedance only. Electromotive force (EMF) voltage is predicted while the battery is under load conditions; from the estimated EMF voltage, the SOC is then determined. The method divides the battery voltage curve into two regions: 1) the linear region for full to partial SOC and 2) the hyperbolic region from partial to low SOC. Algorithms are developed to correspond to the different characteristic changes occurring within each region. In the hyperbolic region, the rate of change in impedance and terminal voltage is greater than that in the linear region. The magnitude of current discharge causes varying rates of change to the terminal voltage and impedance. Experimental tests and results are presented to validate the new models.