INTRA-VEHICLE CHARGING SYSTEM FOR USE IN RECHARGING VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH ELECTRICALLY POWERED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
First Claim
1. A system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles, each of which includes a propulsion system powered, at least in part, by electric power, at least some of which is stored onboard the vehicle in an electric power storage apparatus, comprising:
- an Electric Grid Interconnect which is connected to a source of electric power for providing electric power to an electric power storage apparatus which is located in each vehicle;
a plurality of electric outlets, each of which is connected to said Electric Grid Interconnect via a conductive path and to said vehicles, to enable a flow of electric power from said source of electric power to said electric power storage apparatus located in said vehicles; and
wherein said Electric Grid Interconnect comprises;
a load manager, responsive to receipt of electric power load data from said vehicles, for enabling a subset of said vehicles to receive a flow of electric power from other of said vehicles, comprising;
load calculator, responsive to receipt of electric outlet identification and electric power load data from said vehicles, for determining a present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, andload management process selector, responsive to said determined present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, for selecting at least one vehicle connected to said outlets to output electric power on said conductive path for use by other vehicles connected to said conductive path.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The E-Grid Sub-Network Load Manager operates to regulate the demands presented by vehicles to the associated Sub-Network thereby to spread the load presented to the service disconnect over time to enable controllable charging of a large number of vehicles. Load management can be implemented by a number of methodologies, including: queuing requests and serving each request in sequence until satisfaction; queuing requests and cycling through the requests, partially serving each one, then proceeding to the next until the cyclic partial charging service has satisfied all of the requests; ordering requests pursuant to a percentage of recharge required measurement; ordering requests on an estimated connection time metric; ordering requests on a predetermined level of service basis; and the like. It is evident that a number of these methods can be concurrently employed thereby to serve all of the vehicles in the most efficient manner that can be determined.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles, each of which includes a propulsion system powered, at least in part, by electric power, at least some of which is stored onboard the vehicle in an electric power storage apparatus, comprising:
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an Electric Grid Interconnect which is connected to a source of electric power for providing electric power to an electric power storage apparatus which is located in each vehicle; a plurality of electric outlets, each of which is connected to said Electric Grid Interconnect via a conductive path and to said vehicles, to enable a flow of electric power from said source of electric power to said electric power storage apparatus located in said vehicles; and wherein said Electric Grid Interconnect comprises; a load manager, responsive to receipt of electric power load data from said vehicles, for enabling a subset of said vehicles to receive a flow of electric power from other of said vehicles, comprising; load calculator, responsive to receipt of electric outlet identification and electric power load data from said vehicles, for determining a present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, and load management process selector, responsive to said determined present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, for selecting at least one vehicle connected to said outlets to output electric power on said conductive path for use by other vehicles connected to said conductive path. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles, each of which includes a propulsion system powered, at least in part, by electric power, at least some of which is stored onboard the vehicle in an electric power storage apparatus, comprising:
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providing, via an Electric Grid Interconnect which is connected to a source of electric power, electric power to an electric power storage apparatus which is located in each vehicle; interconnecting a plurality of electric outlets, each of which is connected to said Electric Grid Interconnect via a conductive path and to said vehicles, to enable a flow of electric power from said source of electric power to said electric power storage apparatus located in said vehicles; and wherein said step of providing comprises; enabling, in response to receipt of electric power load data from said vehicles, a subset of said vehicles to receive a flow of electric power from other of said vehicles comprising; determining, in response to receipt of said electric outlet identification and electric power load data from said vehicles, a present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, and selecting, in response to said determined present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, at least one vehicle connected to said outlets to output electric power on said conductive path for use by other vehicles connected to said conductive path. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification