Design procedures of lithium-ion battery systems: The application to a cable railway

The paper reports about a study that ENEA has been carrying out on the use of a storage system, composed by lithium batteries, in a cable railway plant, by presenting the design phase and the starting field tests. Following a preliminary study on a complete lithium-ion battery system, a cable railway of significant experimental interest was identified with the aim to verify the reduction in power demand and energy consumption, with related increase of overall energy efficiency, by recuperating braking energy. On the base of simulations and experimental data, but also logistic and practical reasons, a commercial battery system was chosen, bought and evaluated firstly by preliminary tests and then under the real working conditions. The experimental activity confirmed the used design procedure and the reliability of the battery management system. In addition, it gave indication about the thermal management, which suggested some changes in the final design. According to this design review process, ENEA modified the battery system to optimize the thermal dissipation by doubling the capacity and venting the cells.