Batscan - Tender Specification

Tender Specification Sheet

Specifications of a Battery Monitoring System (BMS) for continuous monitoring of batteries in order to detect faults that may cause hazards and/or loss of capacity.

Basic Requirements

Safety
- The BMS itself must not add any risk for hazards.
- All wiring to the monitored batteries must be made so that a short circuit, between any two wires with failing insulation or any one wire and any other point including ground, does not create any hazardous current or risk of discharging the battery.
- All wires and metal parts must be safe to touch at all times including during installation, maintenance service and normal operation.
Functionality
- All values from the batteries must be measured simultaneously and at a high repetition rate to allow accurate determination of the batteries response to short events, such as power outage or UPS initiated periodic test procedure.
- Changed values shall be recorded to allow for historical tracking of each individual battery parameter.
- Abnormal values shall cause an alarm to be sent to a supervising system.

Additional Hardware Requirements

The BMS shall be self-powered and must not draw any current from the monitored batteries.
All connections to the batteries must be made via high voltage resistors with a resistance of at least 1MΩ.
User accessible parts, including communication cabling and pluggable connectors, shall be galvanically isolated from the batteries.
An isolated relay contact, indicating 'Battery OK' status, shall be available for simple interface to other alarm systems.
A standard PC Computer shall be used for evaluation of measured values, data storage, user interface, and high-speed interface to other systems.
The BMS shall comply with the European Low Voltage Directive (LVD 2006/95/EEC) and the IEC/EN60950 Safety Standard for Information Technology Equipment.

Additional Software Requirements

The BMS shall have a Windows based graphical user interface.
All measured values shall be visible at the same time without any user intervention.
Abnormal values shall be clearly indicated, even to a non- battery specialist.
It shall be possible to display and print diagrams from any desired time period and channel range.
Measured values shall be available in a textfile to allow interface to other systems via any standard protocol that can be implemented under the Windows operating system or 3rd party implementation of future protocol.

Special Requirements

List of batteries to be monitored

The BMS shall be pre-configured to monitor the batteries listed below. Ambient temperature shall be measured for each Battery. Current shall be measured for each String. Voltage shall be measured for each individual Block/Cell.

Battery number	Battery Description	Strings in battery	Block/Cells per string
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

Your Reference Number:	(Optional)
System Name:	(Optional)

This page is made to assist you in preparing a tender invitation for a Battery Monitoring system.

There are many companies claiming that they can supply equipment for monitoring batteries. However, some of them offer systems that are not safe to install or use, or simply just don't offer the expected functionality. Is it therefore necessary to make a detailed specification of what is expected from the BMS prior to purchase or requesting a quotation.

This 'Tender Specification Sheet' is an example that can be used as a template for most BMS applications, you may enter your own Reference Number & System Name to identify this tender.

The Basic Requirements section lists absolute minimum requirements that all Battery Monitoring Systems (BMS) should comply with to provide an acceptable level of safety and functionality.

The Additional Hardware & Software Requirements section lists features that normally would be desired in a BMS.

Under Special Requirements you may add any other requirements you may have for the BMS. For example: One pilot cell temperature shall be measured in each string. IP65 enclosures shall be used for all equipment located in the battery room.

Edit the List of batteries to be monitored to reflect the configuration of your site. Each row describes one battery, you may specify up to 15 batteries.

Note that the term 'Battery' refers to a complete set of Strings x Block/Cells. A typical UPS Battery may comprise 2 strings with 192 Cells in each.

(Some would say 'jar' instead of 'Block' and 'Bank' instead of 'String'.)

In the 'Battery Description' field you may enter any text that describes the battery. For example: UPS#1 2x192 OPZs 2v400Ah

In the 'Strings in battery' field: enter the number of strings in the battery, usually between 1 and 8. For example: 2

In the 'Block/Cells per string' field: enter the number of voltage measuring points per string, usually between 4 and 240. For example: 192

A Block may comprise one or more cells, if individual cells cannot be measured you must enter the number of Blocks in a string. When individual cells can be measured you may enter either number of Blocks OR number of Cells in a string.

Use the Printer Friendly Version-button to show this page as a clean 'Tender Specification Sheet' that can be printed and used for a Tender Invitation or to request a quotation from any vendor.

Use the Request for Quote-button to request a quotation for a Batscan System.