INTELLIGENT COMPOSABLE MULTI-FUNCTION BATTERY PACK

• US 20160094066A1
• Filed: 09/30/2014
• Published: 03/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hazra, Jagabondhu, Kalyanaraman, Shivkumar, Seetharamakrishnan, Devasenapathi P., Charbiwala, Zainul M., Vishwanath, Arun
• Granted Patent: US 10,742,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007 Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage

Abstract

A method of operating a battery pack includes identifying a plurality of batteries in the battery pack, estimating a state of charge of each of the plurality of the batteries, obtaining a plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries, and determining, selectively, a charge current or a discharge current for each of the plurality of batteries using the state of charge and the plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries.

Claims

1. A method of operating a battery pack comprising:

identifying a plurality of batteries in the battery pack;

estimating a state of charge of each of the plurality of the batteries;

obtaining a plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries; and

determining, selectively, a charge current or a discharge current for each of the plurality of batteries using the state of charge and the plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising controlling a switch to charge or discharge at least one battery of the plurality of batteries according to a respective charge current or discharge current determined for the at least one battery.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising controlling, by the switch, a charging rate of the at least one battery or a discharging rate of the at least one battery.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating a state of an electrical power supply system connected to the battery pack;

determining a reduction in voltage in an electrical power supply system; and

selecting at least one of the plurality of batteries to supply power into the electrical power supply system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating a state of an electrical power supply system connected to the battery pack, wherein the state of the electrical power supply system is determined according to at least one of a real time pricing (RTP) state, a time of use pricing (TOU) state, and a critical peak pricing (CPP) state; and

selecting at least one of the plurality of batteries to supply power into the electrical power supply system according to the state of an electrical power supply system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one parameter of the plurality of parameters is a user provided parameter specifying a condition for determining, selectively, the charge current or the discharge current.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one parameter of the plurality of parameters is learned by a controller controlling the battery pack and specifies a condition for determining, selectively, the charge current or the discharge current.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one parameter of the plurality of parameters reserves a portion of a capacity of the battery pack for a specific application.

9. The method of claim 1, iteratively performed upon determining a predetermined time elapse.

10. A computer program product for operating a battery pack, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

identifying a plurality of batteries in the battery pack;

estimating a state of charge of each of the plurality of the batteries;

obtaining a plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries; and

determining, selectively, a charge current or a discharge current for each of the plurality of batteries using the state of charge and the plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising controlling a switch to charge or discharge at least one battery of the plurality of batteries according to a respective charge current or discharge current determined for the at least one battery.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising controlling, by the switch, a charging rate or a discharging rate of the at least one battery.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

evaluating a state of an electrical power supply system connected to the battery pack;

determining a reduction in voltage in an electrical power supply system; and

selecting at least one of the plurality of batteries to supply power into the electrical power supply system.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the program instructions are iteratively executed upon determining a predetermined time elapse.

15. A method of operating a battery pack comprising:

identifying a plurality of batteries in the battery pack;

estimating a state of charge of each of the plurality of the batteries;

obtaining a plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries;

determining a state of an electrical power supply system to which the battery pack is connected; and

performing one or a charging operation and a discharging operation using the state of the electrical power supply system, wherein the charging operation and the discharging operation is selectively applied to different ones of the plurality of batteries using the state of charge and the plurality of parameters of each of the plurality of the batteries.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising controlling a switch to charge or discharge at least one battery of the plurality of batteries according to the charging operation or the discharging operation applied to different ones of the plurality of batteries.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising controlling, by the switch, a charging rate of the at least one battery according to the charging operation.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein determining the state of the electrical power supply system to which the battery pack is connected further comprises:

determining a reduction in voltage in the electrical power supply system; and

selecting at least one of the plurality of batteries to supply power into the electrical power supply system.

19. The method of claim 15, iteratively performed upon determining a predetermined time elapse.