Intra-vehicle charging system for use in recharging vehicles equipped with electrically powered propulsion systems

• US 8,198,859 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2009
• Issued: 06/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lava Four LLC
• Original Assignee: Lava Four LLC
• Inventors: Tyler, Richard M., McKenna, Daniel B., Graziano, James M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso, Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): OMAR, AHMED H
• Application Number:
  US12/436,450
• Publication Number:
  US 20100145535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: 320/104, 320/109
• US Class Current: 320/109
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/70 Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0069 relating to the isolation, e.g. ground fault or leak current
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/04 Cutting off the power supply under fault conditions protective devices and circuit arrangements in general H01H; H02H
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/11 DC charging controlled by the charging station, e.g. mode 4
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/16 Connectors, e.g. plugs or sockets, specially adapted for charging electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/18 Cables specially adapted for charging electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/34 Plug-like or socket-like devices specially adapted for contactless inductive charging of electric vehicles positioning means for charging devices using inductive energy transfer B60L53/38
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• 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 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• 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 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/903 : having energy storing means, e.g. battery, capacitor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/907 : Electricity storage, e.g. battery, capacitor

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.

Claims

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

a load manager, responsive to receipt of electric power load data from said vehicles, for allocating electric power distribution and billing, 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,

load management process selector, responsive to said determined present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, for selecting the second vehicle connected to said outlets to output electric power on said conductive path for use by the first vehicle connected to said conductive path, and

usage reconciler for billing an owner of a first vehicle for energy usage and also to credit an owner of a second vehicle for the energy usage billed to the owner of the second vehicle and delivered to the first vehicle.

2. The system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 1, further comprising:

power converter module, located in said vehicle, to control said electric power load presented to said electric outlet.

3. The system for controllably providing power to recharge vehicles which utilize electric power of claim 2 wherein said load management process selector activates said power converter module in said selected vehicle to draw electric power from said electric power storage apparatus in said selected vehicle and to output power on said conductive path for use by said other vehicles.

4. The system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 1 wherein said load manager further comprises:

dynamic load adjustor, responsive to receipt of updated electric power load data from a vehicle, for submitting said received updated electric power load data to said load calculator.

5. The system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 4 wherein said dynamic load adjustor comprises:

difference calculator for computing a difference between said received updated electric power load data and the electric power load data from said vehicle used to compute said present electric power load; and

threshold calculator for determining if said difference exceeds a predetermined threshold.

6. The system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 5 wherein said dynamic load adjustor further comprises:

load management trigger, responsive to said difference exceeding said predetermined threshold, for submitting said updated electric power load data to said load calculator.

7. The system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 1 wherein said Electric Grid Interconnect further comprises:

a plurality of circuit breakers, each of which interconnects at least one of said electric outlets to said source of electric power, for regulating delivery of electric power from said source of electric power to said at least one electric outlet.

8. The system for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 7, further comprising:

wherein said load calculator determines a present electric power load served by each of said circuit breakers; and

wherein said load management process selector is responsive to said present electric power load served by each of said circuit breakers for selecting at least one vehicle connected to a selected circuit breaker to output electric power on said conductive path for use by other vehicles connected to said selected circuit breaker.

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:

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

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,

selecting, in response to said determined present electric power load served by said Electric Grid Interconnect, the second vehicle connected to said outlets to output electric power on said conductive path for use by the first vehicle connected to said conductive path, and

billing an owner of a first vehicle for energy usage and also to credit an owner of a second vehicle for the energy usage billed to the owner of the second vehicle and delivered to the first vehicle.

10. The method for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 9, further comprising:

operating a power converter module, located in said vehicle, to control said electric power load presented to said electric outlet.

11. The method for controllably providing power to recharge vehicles which utilize electric power of claim 10 wherein said step of selecting activates said power converter module in said selected vehicle to draw electric power from said electric power storage apparatus in said selected vehicle output to output electric power on said conductive path for use by said other vehicles.

12. The method for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 9 wherein said step of enabling further comprises:

submitting, in response to receipt of updated electric power load data from a vehicle, said received updated electric power load data to said load calculator.

13. The method for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 12 wherein said step of submitting comprises:

computing a difference between said received updated electric power load data and the electric power load data from said vehicle used to compute said present electric power load; and

determining if said difference exceeds a predetermined threshold.

14. The method for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 13 wherein said step of selecting further comprises:

submitting, in response to said difference exceeding said predetermined threshold, said updated electric power load data to said load calculator.

15. The method for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 9 wherein said step of providing further comprises:

regulating, via a plurality of circuit breakers each of which interconnects at least one of said electric outlets to said source of electric power, delivery of electric power from said source of electric power to said at least one electric outlet.

16. The method for controllably providing power to recharge a plurality of vehicles of claim 15, further comprising:

determining a present electric power load served by each of said circuit breakers;

wherein said step of selecting, in response to said present electric power load served by each of said circuit breakers, at least one vehicle connected to a selected circuit breaker to output electric power on said conductive path for use by other vehicles connected to said selected circuit breaker.