Storing electrical energy, e.g. for mobile applications or to balance volatile, renewable generation systems, is becoming increasingly important. Batteries are often used for this purpose. For the safe operation of battery-electric systems, it is important to take arcing faults into account when developing and designing protection systems for battery systems.
For this reason, this study experimentally investigated the risk of arcing faults in battery systems with rated voltages of 0.1 kV up to 1.5 kV and short-circuit currents of 3 kA up to 12 kA. Firstly, the arc parameters that are particularly relevant for the design of protection systems for battery electric systems is described. To investigate the influence of the battery systems parameters on these arc parameters, over 115 arc fault experiments were conducted on a box test set-up in accordance with IEC 61482-1-2 at NARC National Arc fault Research Center, Dresden, Germany. The battery system voltage UBatS, the short-circuit current ISC and the state of charge SOC were varied. The influence of the electrode distance dE was also analysed. The paper describes the experimental setup and the series of experiments carried out. The influence of the method used to determine the short-circuit current on the arc parameters is analysed as well. The batteries technology used are sealed lead-fleece batteries.