BATTERY CLUSTER WITH HIERARCHICAL BATTERY MANAGEMENT AND SHARED HIGH-VOLTAGE PATH

A battery cluster (2000) includes a plurality of battery packs (3030) configured to be electrically coupled to one another and to external electrical equipment (6000). Each battery pack (3030) includes a charging-discharging circuit (0040), a low-voltage interface (4101) and a high-voltage interface (4102). The plurality of battery packs (3030) includes at least one type-one battery pack having a pack-level battery management circuit (300) and a high-voltage switching circuit (4079) in a high-voltage power path, and at least one type-two battery pack. The type-one and type-two battery packs are interconnected such that a same high-voltage power path extends through both, and opening the high-voltage switching circuit (4079) of the type-one battery pack interrupts current flowing through the high-voltage power path. The pack-level battery management circuit (300) communicates with the cell monitoring circuit (305) via the low-voltage interfaces (4101) and control at least the high-voltage switching circuit (4079).