Apparatus for regulating the charging of a storage battery
First Claim
1. Apparatus for regulating the charging of a storage battery from an aleatory source of electric energy in an electric energy supply system which includes an aleatory source of electric energy and a storage battery connected to said aleatory source for charging thereby, wherein said regulating apparatus comprises:
- a motor-generator set which includes a variable speed motor driving an asynchronous machine for coupling the storage battery and the aleatory source to a load and to an AC mains electric supply grid;
means for diverting electric current being supplied by the system to said AC mains whenever the charge of the storage battery reaches a given level and the current available from the aleatory source exceeds the load demand; and
means for controlling the allocation of said excess electric current from the aleatory source to the storage battery and to the AC mains as a function of at least one parameter representing the state of charge of the battery.
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Abstract
An aleatory source of energy, e.g., a battery of photocells (1), supplies energy to a load (5) and to a storage battery (3). When the source is supplying more energy than is being drawn by the load, the storage battery is charged; when the source is supplying less than the demand, the shortfall is made up by drawing energy from the storage battery. The state of charge of the storage battery is monitored by a meter (8) which governs a regulator (7). Once the battery is charged to a predetermined threshold, the amount of current it draws from the source is regulated, and energy supplied by the source in excess of the combined requirements of the load and of battery charging is diverted to a storage means (6) other than the storage battery (e.g., a mains electricity supply grid). The flows of energy to both the battery and the other storage means are controlled by the regulator (7) as a function of the state of charge of the battery.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. Apparatus for regulating the charging of a storage battery from an aleatory source of electric energy in an electric energy supply system which includes an aleatory source of electric energy and a storage battery connected to said aleatory source for charging thereby, wherein said regulating apparatus comprises:
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a motor-generator set which includes a variable speed motor driving an asynchronous machine for coupling the storage battery and the aleatory source to a load and to an AC mains electric supply grid; means for diverting electric current being supplied by the system to said AC mains whenever the charge of the storage battery reaches a given level and the current available from the aleatory source exceeds the load demand; and means for controlling the allocation of said excess electric current from the aleatory source to the storage battery and to the AC mains as a function of at least one parameter representing the state of charge of the battery. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of husbanding electrical energy from an aleatory source and of feeding said energy to a load, the method comprising:
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connecting a storage battery to the aleatory source; feeding a load with energy derived from the aleatory source when the battery charge exceeds a predetermined threshold level; making up any shortfall in energy from the aleatory source by drawing stored energy from the battery; monitoring the state of charge of the battery; and whenever the aleatory source is supplying energy in excess of that being drawn by the load, using said excess energy;
firstly to charge the battery until the charge in the battery reaches a given reference value; and
secondly, when the battery is charged to at least the reference value, diverting excess energy to a variable speed DC motor driving an asynchronous machine for supplying electric current to an AC mains, the allocation of available energy to the storage battery and to the AC mains being controlled as a function of a parameter representative of the state of charge of the battery.
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Specification