Systems and methods for electric vehicle charging and power management

• US 9,853,488 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2009
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charge Fusion Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Charge Fusion Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Fincham, Carson C. K., Amroziak, Jeffrey R.
• Primary Examiner(s): BORISSOV, IGOR N
• Application Number:
  US12/502,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20100017249A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,088 Days
• Field of Search: 701 22, 701123, 701 1, 701200, 701 315, 701 314, 701117, 320108, 320155, 320109, 320157, 3409322, 340941, 3406361, 705 13, 705 80, 705412, 702 63, 903907, 903 13, 903 80, 903412, 368 90, 194215, 700286, 700296
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/26 Rail vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/40 DC to AC converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/10 by alarm
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/52 drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/58 Departure time prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2270/32 of electricity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/126 Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• 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 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 8/003 Converting light into electric energy, e.g. by using photo-voltaic systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 : Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 : Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/1446 : in response to parameters of a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 : Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• 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 10/92 : Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles
• 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 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]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 : Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 : Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards

Abstract

Systems and methods for charging electric vehicles and for quantitative and qualitative load balancing of electrical demand are provided.

Claims

1. An electrical charging system, comprising:

a vehicle sensor;

a communication device;

a processor in communication with the vehicle sensor and the communication device; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

(a) receive, from the vehicle sensor, information indicative of a presence of a vehicle in a parking space;

(b) receive, from the communication device, information indicative of one or more charging preferences corresponding to a desired charging of the vehicle, wherein the one or more charging preferences are defined by an operator of the vehicle;

(c) determine a first value of a dynamic attribute of an electric charge provider;

(d) determine, based at least on the one or more charging preferences and the first value of the dynamic attribute, a charging schedule for the vehicle;

(e) initiate a charging of the vehicle in accordance with the charging schedule;

(f) retrieve a second value of the at least one dynamic attribute; and

(g) repeat (d) and (e), utilizing the retrieved second value of the dynamic attribute as the first value of the dynamic attribute.

2. The electrical charging system of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the one or more charging preferences comprises receiving an identifier that uniquely identifies the vehicle and wherein the determining of the charging schedule comprises accessing the one or more preferences corresponding to the identifier.

3. The electrical charging system of claim 1, wherein the one or more charging preferences comprise a preference that specifies that the vehicle needs to be charged to a certain percentage of total charge capacity by a certain time.

4. The electrical charging system of claim 1, wherein the one or more charging preferences comprise a preference that specifies that the vehicle needs to be charged to a certain level to allow travel of a specified distance by a certain time.

5. The electrical charging system of claim 1, wherein the charging of the vehicle comprises a wireless charging of the vehicle.

6. The electrical charging system of claim 1, wherein the one or more charging preferences are defined by the operator of the vehicle utilizing a user interface.

7. The electrical charging system of claim 6, wherein the user interface comprises a part of the vehicle.

8. The electrical charging system of claim 7, wherein the user interface comprises a mobile device.

9. The electrical charging system of claim 7, wherein the user interface comprises a web page.

10. The electrical charging system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

notify the operator that the charging of the vehicle in accordance with the charging schedule is enabled.

11. An electrical charging system, comprising:

a vehicle sensor;

a communication device;

a processor in communication with the vehicle sensor and the communication device; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

receive, from the vehicle sensor, information indicative of a presence of a vehicle in a parking space;

receive, from the communication device, information indicative of one or more charging preferences corresponding to a desired charging of the vehicle, wherein the one or more charging preferences are defined by an operator of the vehicle via utilization of a user interface of a handheld wireless mobile device and wherein the one or more charging preferences comprise a preference that specifies that the vehicle needs to be charged to allow travel of a corresponding distance by a certain time;

determine, based at least on the one or more charging preferences, a charging schedule for the vehicle, the charging being dependent upon a predetermined threshold of a parameter external to the vehicle and wherein the external parameter changes between a current time and the certain time; and

initiate a wireless charging, in accordance with the charging schedule, of the vehicle.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

transmit, to the handheld wireless mobile device, an indication of the charging schedule.

13. An electrical charging system, comprising:

a vehicle sensor;

a communication device;

a processor in communication with the vehicle sensor and the communication device; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

receive, from the vehicle sensor, information indicative of a presence of a vehicle in a parking space;

receive, from the communication device, information indicative of one or more charging preferences corresponding to a desired charging of the vehicle, wherein the one or more charging preferences are defined by an operator of the vehicle;

determine, based at least on the one or more charging preferences and at least one current value of a dynamic attribute of an electric charge provider, a charging schedule for the vehicle; and

cause a charging, in accordance with the charging schedule, of the vehicle.

14. The electrical charging system of claim 13, wherein the dynamic attribute comprises at least one of:

(i) a cost of providing electricity and (ii) an, expected future cost of providing electricity.

15. The electrical charging system of claim 13, wherein the dynamic attribute comprises at least one of:

(i) a present electrical provider system load and (ii) an expected future electrical provider system load.