Electric power supply apparatus and system

• US 9,906,025 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2013
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Tsuchiya, Shizuo
• Primary Examiner(s): BARNIE, REXFORD N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Inge, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US14/424,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20150326012A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,643 Days
• Field of Search: 307 20
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2045 for optimising the use of energy
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/00 Electric propulsion with power supplied within the vehicle with power supply from force of nature, e.g. sun or wind, B60L8/00; for monorail vehicles, suspension vehicles or rack railways B60L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/10 Parallel operation of dc sources
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/14 Balancing the load in a network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/24 of photovoltaic origin
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/35 with light sensitive cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/56 Power conversion systems, e.g. maximum power point trackers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• 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]

Abstract

An electric power supply apparatus includes a controller configured to control an amount of generated power, obtained from an energy creation device, supplied to multiple power-using devices capable of being operated or charged with the generated power. The power-using devices are assigned priorities based on an order in which the power-using devices use the generated power, and the controller supplies the generated power to the power-using devices in descending order of the priorities according to the amount of the generated power obtained from the energy creation device and a predetermined supply power amount required by each power-using device.

Claims

1. An electric power supply system comprising:

a solar power generator generating a power from a solar energy;

a plurality of power-using devices capable of operating and being charged with a generated power that is the power generated by the solar power generator;

a controller configured to control an amount of the generated power supplied to the plurality of power-using devices;

wherein

the plurality of power-using devices are assigned priorities based on an order in which the plurality of power-using devices use the generated power,

each of the plurality of power-using devices has an individual predetermined supply power range, and the predetermined supply power range has a minimum supply power and a maximum supply power,

the plurality of power-using devices include a high-priority power-using device and a low-priority power-using device, a priority of the high-priority power-using device is higher than a priority of the low-priority power-using device,

when the generated power is greater than the minimum supply power of the predetermined supply power range of the high-priority power-using device, the controller supplies the generated power to the high-priority power-using device until the generated power increases equal to the maximum supply power of the predetermined supply power range of the high-priority power-using device,

when a remaining power amount obtained by subtracting a power amount supplied to the high-priority power-using device from the generated power is greater than the minimum supply power of the predetermined supply power range of the low-priority power-using device, the controller supplies the remaining power amount also to the low-priority power-using device,

in each of the plurality of power-using devices, a predetermined condition is set for starting a power supply to the corresponding power-using device regardless of the assigned priority, and

the controller determines whether the predetermined condition for starting the power supply to each of the plurality of power-using devices is satisfied, and supplies the generated power to one of the plurality of power-using devices when the predetermined condition of the one of the plurality of power-using devices is satisfied even though the one of the plurality of power-using devices is the low-priority power-using device.

2. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein

the controller is capable of supplying the generated power obtained from the solar power generator to both the plurality of power-using devices assigned with the priorities and a common power-using device assigned with no priority,

the controller calculates a power load amount by subtracting supply power amounts of all of the plurality of power-using devices assigned with the priorities from a total use power amount which is a total power to be used in the plurality of power-using devices and the common power-using device, and

when determining that a value calculated by subtracting the power load amount from the amount of the generated power obtained from the solar power generator is not less than a predetermined minimum supply power amount, the controller supplies the generated power obtained from the solar power generator to the power-using device having the highest priority.

3. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein

the controller determines the priorities according to a predetermined priority determination condition.

4. The electric power supply system according to claim 3, wherein

the controller determines the priorities based on minimum consumption powers of the plurality of power-using devices.

5. The electric power supply system according to claim 4, wherein

the controller determines the priorities in such a manner that as the minimum consumption power is higher, the priority is higher.

6. The electric power supply system according to claim 5, wherein

the controller determines whether the power-using device can be operated based on an actual surplus power amount, and

when determining whether the power-using device having the Nth priority, where N is a natural number, can be operated, the actual surplus power amount is calculated by considering that consumption power in each power-using device except the plurality of power-using devices having the first to N−

1th priorities is 0 kw.

7. The electric power supply system according to claim 3, wherein

the controller calculates frequencies of power supply to the plurality of power-using devices based on past track records during a predetermined period, and determines the priorities based on the frequencies.

8. The electric power supply system according to claim 7, wherein

the controller determines the priorities in descending order of the frequencies.

9. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of power-using devices include a first power storage device and a second power storage device, and

the controller detects a state of charge of each power storage device and determines the priorities in such a manner that as the state of charge is lower, the priority is higher.

10. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of power-using devices include a first power storage device and a second power storage device,

each power storage device has a threshold for an amount of charge, and

the controller detects the threshold of each power storage device and determines the priorities in such a manner that as the threshold is higher, the priority is higher.

11. The electric power supply system according to claim 9, wherein

the first power storage device is mounted on a vehicle, and

the second power storage device is fixed in a building.

12. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of power-using devices include a heat accumulator.

13. The electric power supply system according to claim 12, wherein

the heat accumulator is a hot water storage-type hot water supply device capable of accumulating heat by heating water.

14. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein

the energy creation device generates electric power from natural energy.

15. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein

the priorities are capable of being changed by a user.

16. The power supply system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an operation device wired or wirelessly connected to the controller, wherein

the operation device allows a user to change the priorities.

17. The electric power supply system according to claim 1, wherein,

when the controller determines that the predetermined condition for starting the power supply in the low-priority power-using device is satisfied, the controller supplies the generated power to the low-priority power-using device even though the power supply to the high-priority power-using device with the generated power is not yet started.