A galvanically isolated charge balance system for a multicell battery includes a balancing circuit associated with each cell; each balancing circuit including a flying capacitor; a variable conductance switch; and a biasing circuit for the variable conductance switch; and a galvanically isolating MEMS switching device for selectively connecting the flying capacitor to a voltage supply to charge it to a predetermined voltage and to the biasing circuit for setting the variable conductance switch to adjust the charge on its associated cell to a preselected level.