Battery storage is the second source of energy for your Off-Grid system. There are a multitude of different battery technologies available and also many battery related terminologies out there.
We appreciate that it can be difficult to decipher what they are and what everything means. Most of them you don’t need to know but here are the most useful ones for the understanding of your batteries capacity and status.
What does DoD or SoC stand for?
DoD, is short for the Depth of Discharge and is used to describe how deeply the battery is discharged.
Different types of batteries have different discharge rates and your system designer will be able to take you through
these different systems and advise you on the type that will suit your needs.
SoC, is short for State of Charge and is used to describe how much charge is retained by the battery.
If the battery is fully charged, it means the SoC of the battery is 100%, if however, the battery has delivered 50% of its energy then the SoC of the battery is 50%.
What is the Usable Capacity of a battery?
The Usable Capacity of an Off-Grid battery bank will depend on the type of battery used. For example, Lead-acid
batteries usually have a depth of discharge set at 30%, therefore, the usable amount of power will be 30% of the total storage.
e.g. 10kwh battery with a 30% DoD = 3kwh of usable energy
Lithium-ion batteries have a much higher DoD which is usually. around 90–96% of the total storage
e.g. 10kwh battery with a 90% DoD = 9kwh of usable energy