SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ESTIMATING A CHARGE LOAD

• US 20150066224A1
• Filed: 08/29/2013
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Uyeki, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 10,279,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/291
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/62 in response to charging parameters, e.g. current, voltage or electrical charge
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/126 the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/12 Remote or cooperative charging
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A computing device for estimating a charge load and a charge time for at least one electric vehicle is described. The computing device is configured to store, in a database coupled to the computing device, charging characteristics associated with a first vehicle of the at least one electric vehicle. The computing device is also configured to receive, from the first electric vehicle, a state of charge of the first electric vehicle, determine an estimated peak charge time and an estimated peak charge load based on the charging characteristics associated with the first electric vehicle and the state of charge of the first electric vehicle, and facilitate determining whether the first electric vehicle is authorized to charge based at least on the estimated peak charge time and the estimated peak charge load.

Claims

1. A computing device for estimating a charge load and a charge time for at least one electric vehicle, said computing device configured to:

store, in a database coupled to said computing device, a charging characteristics associated with a first electric vehicle of the at least one electric vehicle;

receive, from the first electric vehicle, a state of charge of the first electric vehicle;

determine an estimated peak charge time and an estimated peak charge load based on the charging characteristics associated with the first electric vehicle and the state of charge of the first electric vehicle; and

facilitate determining whether the first electric vehicle is authorized to charge based at least on the estimated peak charge time and the estimated peak charge load.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to:

estimate a total charge time; and

estimate a total charge load.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to store the charging characteristics associated with the first electric vehicle by storing a vehicle identification, a battery capacity, and a charger capacity.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to receive a location of the first electric vehicle.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to facilitate determining by transmitting the estimated peak charge time, the estimated peak charge load, and a location of the first electric vehicle to a utility.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to receive a charge request associated with the first electric vehicle.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to determine charging characteristics by retrieving at least part of the charging characteristics from a second database, based on a vehicle identification number (VIN) associated with the first electric vehicle.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to determine the charging characteristics of the first electric vehicle by monitoring a power consumption of a charger of the first electric vehicle when the first electric vehicle is charging.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein said computing device is configured to determine a capacity of the battery by detecting a reduction in power consumption of the first electric vehicle.

10. The computing device of claim 2, wherein said computing device is configured to estimate the total charge time based at least in part on whether the first electric vehicle has a state of charge of at least 80 percent.

11. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to transmit an instruction to the first electric vehicle to reduce a rate of charge.

12. The computing device of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to receive, from the first electric vehicle, a hash of a VIN associated with the first electric vehicle.

13. A method for estimating a charge load and a charge time for at least one electric vehicle, comprising:

storing in a database coupled to a computing device, charging characteristics associated with a first vehicle of the at least one electric vehicle;

receiving, by the computing device, from the first electric vehicle, a state of charge of the first electric vehicle;

determining, by the computing device, an estimated peak charge time and an estimated peak charge load based on the charging characteristics associated with the first electric vehicle and the state of charge of the first electric vehicle; and

facilitating, by the computing device, a determination of whether the first electric vehicle is authorized to charge based at least on the estimated peak charge time and the estimated peak charge load.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

estimating a total charge time; and

estimating a total charge load.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein storing the charging characteristics associated with the first electric vehicle comprises storing a vehicle identification, a battery capacity, and a charger capacity.

16. The method of claim 13, comprising receiving a location of the first electric vehicle.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein facilitating a determination comprises transmitting the estimated peak charge time, the estimated peak charge load, and a location of the first electric vehicle to a utility.

18. The method of claim 13, comprising receiving a charge request associated with the first electric vehicle.

19. The method of claim 13, comprising determining charging characteristics by retrieving at least part of the charging characteristics from a second database, based on a vehicle identification number (VIN) associated with the first electric vehicle.

20. A computer-readable storage device having processor-executable instructions embodied thereon, for estimating a charge load and a charge time for at least one electric vehicle, wherein when executed by a computing device communicatively coupled to a database, the processor-executable instructions cause the computing device to:

store, in the database, charging characteristics associated with a first vehicle of the at least one electric vehicle;

receive, from the first electric vehicle, a state of charge of the first electric vehicle;

determine an estimated peak charge time and an estimated peak charge load based on the charging characteristics associated with the first electric vehicle and the state of charge of the first electric vehicle; and

facilitate determining whether the first electric vehicle is authorized to charge based at least on the estimated peak charge time and the estimated peak charge load.