BATTERY CHARGER

• US 20100106631A1
• Filed: 02/08/2008
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kyushu Electric Power Company Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Kyushu Electric Power Company Incorporated
• Inventors: Kurayama, Koji, Wada, Yoshihiro, Shibata, Hiroyuki, Murakami, Shinji, Adachi, Kazuyuki
• Application Number:
  US12/526,136
• Publication Number:
  US 20100106631A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/11 DC charging controlled by the charging station, e.g. mode 4
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/31 Charging columns specially adapted for electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/20 having different nominal voltages
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/42 Methods or arrangements for servicing or maintenance of secondary cells or secondary half-cells H01M10/60 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• 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 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

Abstract

The present invention provides a battery charger capable of charging a plurality of secondary batteries which are used in different types of apparatuses, such as an electric vehicle and a mobile power supply unit, in a simultaneous or concurrent manner without largely occupying an installation space on the ground. A DC power supply section 22 includes a plurality of DC stabilized power supply circuits each operable to supply an output according to required electric power, therefrom in an independent manner. Specifically, based on information from each of a plurality of secondary batteries, and information set up/input through a setup/input section, one of or a combination of two or more of the DC stabilized power supply circuits is selected for each of the secondary batteries. Then, an electric power supply line between the selected one of or the selected combination of two or more of the DC stabilized power supply circuits and each of the secondary batteries to be charged is configured, and an output of the selected one of or the selected combination of two or more of the DC stabilized power supply circuits is adjusted. This makes it possible to configure respective electric power supply lines for the secondary batteries to allow the secondary batteries to be concurrently charged, and adjust respective electric power amounts to be supplied to the secondary batteries, individually.

Claims

1. A battery charger having a plurality of connection sections for allowing a plurality of secondary batteries to be connected to respective ones thereof so as to supply electric power required by a respective one of the secondary batteries, to the respective one of the secondary batteries therethrough, the battery charger comprising:

communication means operable to acquire information from each of the secondary batteries connected to the respective ones of the connection sections;

an input section adapted to allow an operator to set up/input a charging condition for each of the secondary batteries;

a DC power supply section including a plurality of DC stabilized power supply circuits each operable to receive external electric power and supply chargeable DC electric power; and

a control section operable, based on information from the communication means and information from the input section, to control selection of one of or a combination of two or more of the DC stabilized power supply circuits to be used for supplying electric power to the respective one of the secondary batteries, adjustment of an output to be supplied to the respective one of the secondary batteries, and configuration of a line for supplying electric power to the respective one of the secondary batteries.

2. The battery charger as defined in claim 1, which is operable to simultaneously charge the plurality of secondary batteries, wherein the secondary batteries are mounted to respective ones of different types of apparatuses including an electric vehicle and a mobile power supply unit, or are different in applicable voltage or battery characteristics.

3. An electric vehicle battery charger for concurrently charging a plurality of secondary batteries mounted to respective ones of a plurality of electric vehicles, the electric vehicle battery charger comprising a plurality of battery-charge operating devices installed on the ground, and a DC power supply section installed in a site for the electric vehicle battery charger, wherein:

each of the battery-charge operating devices includes a charging feed cable which is connected to the secondary battery of a corresponding one of the electric vehicles so as to allow the secondary battery to be charged with DC electric power from the DC power supply section, and provided with a communication line for allowing communication with the corresponding electric vehicle, and a central processing unit (CPU) operable to communicatingly control distribution of outputs of the DC power supply section; and

the DC power supply section includes a plurality of DC stabilized power supply circuits each operable to convert AC or DC electric power fed thereto into predetermined DC electric power suitable for the secondary battery of a respective one of the electric vehicles, an output control unit operable, according to a signal from a respective one of the battery-charge operating devices, to issue to a master-slave unit an instruction for outputting DC electric power, and an output distribution unit operable to distribute outputs of the DC power supply section to the battery-charge operating devices, according to a residual battery capacity in each of the secondary batteries of the electric vehicles.

4. The electric vehicle battery charger as defined in claim 3, which comprises a communication line connecting the electric vehicles, the battery-charge operating devices and the DC power supply section, wherein each of the battery-charge operating devices has a function of accessing an information communication system including an Internet system, a fee payment system and an electric power feed security system, via the communication line.