Power transmission system including power transmitter and power receiver

• US 10,418,823 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2017
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kanou, Junichi, Yamaoka, Masahiro, Minegishi, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): Perez Borroto, Alfonso
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yeshaw, Esayas G
• Application Number:
  US15/594,052
• Publication Number:
  US 20170346300A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 4/00 Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks not specified as ac or dc
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/56 Power conversion systems, e.g. maximum power point trackers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/76 Power conversion electric or electronic aspects

Abstract

A power transmission system includes: a power transmitter connected to a power supply; a plurality of power receivers respectively connected to a plurality of loads; a power transmission line connecting the power transmitter and the plurality of power receivers; and a controller. The controller acquires information on optimum power for maximizing transmission efficiency in the power transmission line and information on power demands requested by the loads, and routes transmission power from the power transmitter selectively to the plurality of power receivers. The transmission power is equal to or smaller than the optimum power. When a total power demand is larger than the optimum power, the controller requests another controller to supply supplementary power. When the total power demand is smaller than the optimum power, the controller notifies the other controller that surplus power is available.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more power transmitters, each of which includes a modulator and is connected to a power supply;

a plurality of power receivers, each of which includes a demodulator and is connected to a corresponding one of a plurality of loads;

one or more power transmission lines, through which the one or more power transmitters are connected with the plurality of power receivers; and

a controller that;

(A) acquires information on optimum power for maximizing transmission efficiency in the one or more power transmission lines, and information on a plurality of power demands respectively requested by the plurality of loads,

(B) routes, based on the information on the optimum power, transmission power from the one or more power transmitters to at least one selected from the plurality of power receivers, the transmission power being equal to or smaller than the optimum power,

(C) when a total of the plurality of power demands is larger than the optimum power, requests that another controller controls supplementary power to be supplied from another power supply to the one or more power transmission lines, and

(D) when the total of the plurality of power demands is smaller than the optimum power, notifies the other controller that surplus power of the one or more power transmitters is available,

wherein the modulator determines whether or not to reverse a direction of a current of at least part of power from the power supply according to whether each bit of a modulation code sequence is a first value or a second value; and

the demodulator, which is included in the selected at least one of the plurality of power receivers, determines whether or not to reverse a direction of a current of at least part of the routed transmission power according to whether each bit of a demodulation code sequence is the first value or the second value.

2. The power transmission system according to claim 1, wherein

the one or more power transmitters include a plurality of modulators, one of which is the modulator, and

the controller, in (B),

determines one or more modulation code sequences, one of which is the modulation code sequence, and

determines one or more demodulation code sequences, one of which is the demodulation code sequence, the one or mode demodulation code sequences respectively corresponding to the one or more modulation code sequences,

sends the one or more modulation code sequences respectively to one or more of the plurality of modulators, and

sends the one or more demodulation code sequences respectively to one or more of the plurality of power receivers.

3. The power transmission system according to claim 1, wherein each of the modulation code sequence and the demodulation code sequence includes one or more orthogonal code sequences.

4. The power transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the controller further:

(D) acquires information on a maximum of power transmittable via the one or more power transmission lines and controls power to be inputted to the one or more power transmission lines such that the power to be inputted is equal to or smaller than the maximum.

5. The power transmission system according to claim 1, wherein

the one or more power transmitters include a first power transmitter and a second power transmitter,

the one or more power transmission lines include one or more power transmission lines through which the first power transmitter is connected with the plurality of power receivers, and one or more second power transmission lines through which the second power transmitter is connected with the plurality of power receivers, and

the controller, in (A),

acquires information on first optimum power for maximizing first transmission efficiency in the one or more first power transmission lines,

acquires information on second optimum power for maximizing second transmission efficiency in the one or more second power transmission lines, and

determines the optimum power based on the information on the first optimum power and the second optimum power.

6. The power transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the power supply is a direct-current power supply or an alternating-current power supply.

7. The power transmitting system according to claim 1, wherein:

the modulator includes;

a first bridge circuit including a plurality of first switches, and

a first control circuit which generates, based on the modulation code sequence, a plurality of first control signals for turning on and off the plurality of first switches,

the demodulator includes;

a second bridge circuit including a plurality of second switches, and

a second control circuit which generates, based on the demodulation code sequence, a plurality of second control signals for turning on and off the plurality of second switches.

8. The power transmitting system according to claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of first switches and the plurality of second switches is a bidirectional switch.

9. A power transmission system comprising:

one or more power transmitters, each of which includes a modulator and is connected to a power supply;

a plurality of power receivers, each of which includes a demodulator and is connected to a corresponding one of a plurality of loads;

one or more power transmission lines, through which the one or more power transmitters are connected with the plurality of power receivers; and

a controller that;

(A) acquires information on optimum power for maximizing transmission efficiency in the one or more power transmission lines, and information on a plurality of power demands respectively requested by the plurality of loads,

(B) routes, based on the information on the optimum power, transmission power from the one or more power transmitters to at least one selected from the plurality of power receivers, the transmission power being equal to or smaller than the optimum power,

(C) when a total of the plurality of power demands is larger than the optimum power, requests that another controller controls supplementary power to be supplied from another power supply to the one or more power transmission lines, and

(D) when the total of the plurality of power demands is smaller than the optimum power, notifies the other controller that surplus power of the one or more power transmitters is available,

wherein the controller, in (A),

acquires information on a plurality of correspondence relations, each between one or more paths selected from a plurality of paths on the one or more power transmission lines and the transmission efficiency with which a predetermined power is transmitted through the selected one or more paths, and

determines, based on the information on the plurality of correspondence relations, the predetermined power that maximizes the transmission efficiency as the optimum power.