Application prospects of active balancing in multi-module battery packs

Dmytro Lipko; Arsenii Naidonov; Yuliia Kozhushko; Yuliia  Bondarenko; Pavlo Safronov; Oleksandr  Bondarenko

doi:10.15222/TKEA2025.3-4.47

Dmytro Lipko Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8232-3249
Arsenii Naidonov Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2410-1693
Yuliia Kozhushko Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4045-4088
Yuliia Bondarenko Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1803-0684
Pavlo Safronov Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5708-4933
Oleksandr Bondarenko Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4276-1145

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15222/TKEA2025.3-4.47

Keywords: battery, battery management system (BMS), active balancing, imbalance, electric vehicle (EV), driving range, lifetime

Abstract

In modern batteries, particularly those used in electric vehicles, one of the key factors determining efficiency, reliability, and durability is the imbalance of charge levels (state of charge, SoC) between cells. This imbalance arises due to technological heterogeneity of cells, differences in internal resistance, degradation levels (state of health, SoH), temperature gradients, measurement errors in control channels, and unequal cooling conditions. The imbalance leads to reduced usable capacity, increased thermal loads, and uneven current distribution during charging and discharging, which ultimately lowers efficiency and shortens battery lifetime. Previous studies highlight the potential of active balancing to mitigate charge-level imbalance in multi‑module batteries.
The aim of this work is to experimentally verify the effectiveness of active balancing, determine its impact on imbalance levels and energy efficiency indicators of multi‑module lithium‑ion batteries, and formulate practical recommendations for the use of active balancers in electric transport systems. The study showed that applying an active balancer to a module with degraded cells reduced the maximum imbalance from 220 mV to 45 mV, increased usable capacity from 33 Ah to 43 Ah, improved the estimated SoH from 69% to 81%, and extended the real driving range of the electric vehicle by 56% (from 82 km to 128 km when discharged from 100% to 10% SoC).
The experimental data confirm that local active balancing is an effective and economically feasible approach to restoring usable capacity, improving energy efficiency, and extending the service life of traction batteries without requiring full‑scale balancing of all modules. This approach is promising for practical implementation in electric transport systems and stationary energy storage, particularly for operational restoration of batteries with heterogeneous degradation levels.

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