LF Energy has released a standardised battery dataset through its Battery Data Alliance, with data contributed by Microsoft’s Surface Battery Development team.
The dataset follows the Battery Data Format, or BDF, an open standard designed to make battery data easier to share and compare across research and industry.
Its release adds a new body of battery information to the alliance’s datastore as developers and researchers work to reduce the friction caused by incompatible formats and differing test methods. The goal is to support more consistent use of battery data across tools, laboratories and organisations.
BDF provides a common structure for battery datasets and is intended to address two persistent issues in battery development: consistency of data across laboratories, test equipment and organisations, and compatibility between models and analytics workflows used by different vendors.
In practice, a dataset produced in one environment should be easier to use in another without extensive reformatting. For researchers, that can simplify comparisons between different testing set-ups. For engineering teams, it can make battery models easier to reuse and validate across a wider range of systems.
Cell Design
The newly released dataset focuses on variations in lithium-ion cell architecture. It includes information for direct comparison of end tab, middle tab and multi tab configurations.
It also contains T0, or initial performance, comparisons and cycle ageing data across those configurations, giving users a structured way to examine how different design choices affect battery behaviour and degradation over time.
Cell architecture is a significant design variable in lithium-ion batteries because tab arrangement can influence current flow, thermal behaviour and long-term wear. By placing multiple configurations in a single standardised format, the alliance aims to make those comparisons more straightforward for engineers working on battery design and validation.
Open Standards
The contribution also reflects a broader effort across the battery sector to define common data standards that can be used across companies, laboratories and software tools. Battery development often involves data gathered from different instruments, test conditions and reporting methods, making cross-comparison difficult.
The Battery Data Alliance brings together industry participants, research institutions and technology providers to develop open standards for battery data. Releasing datasets that already conform to BDF is likely to help that effort, because standards tend to gain traction when users can work with practical examples rather than specifications alone.
Microsoft’s involvement adds a large technology company to the initiative. The dataset comes from the Surface Battery Development team, linking the work to a hardware group with direct experience in battery design and testing.
Phil Hamilton, Senior Manager of Battery Characterization at Microsoft, outlined the company’s view of the role of common data structures in battery research.
“Standardization is foundational to accelerating battery innovation,” Hamilton said. “By contributing this dataset in alignment with BDF, Microsoft is helping establish a common language for battery data that enables collaboration across the ecosystem.”
The dataset is available through the BDF Datastore, where the alliance is making material accessible to the wider community. Organisations interested in contributing to or adopting the Battery Data Format can engage with the Battery Data Alliance.
LF Energy is part of the Linux Foundation and focuses on open technology, standards and data for the energy sector. Its strategic members include utilities, technology groups and industrial companies, among them Alliander, Google, Hydro-Quebec, Microsoft, RTE and Shell.
The latest release provides a concrete example of how a standardised dataset can be applied to a specific technical question: how lithium-ion cell architecture affects initial performance and ageing.