Experimental characterization of a commercial Sodium-Nickel chloride battery for telecom applications

Preliminary results coming from the experimental characterization of a commercial Sodium-Nickel chloride battery for telecom applications are shown in this paper. The battery was instrumented to collect all the possible current, voltage and temperature data from the paralled strings that constitute it. The aim is to have a better insight of a battery technology that seems an appealing candidate as alternative to Li-ion technology in some stationary applications. Charge/discharge cycles carried out with different loads show that the entire battery energy cannot fully be exploited at low load currents, when the internal battery heater dissipation is not negligible, and at high loads, when the internal dissipation leads to a dangerous increase of the internal temperature and to the battery disconnection. Pulse current tests useful for the validation of improved battery models are finally shown.