Portable Power Distribution

A power distribution system comprising:

• a plurality of power stations distributed across a plurality of locations, each power station comprising a lockable power supply that is unlocked by entry of a code;
• an advertisement server for providing a plurality of advertisements to a plurality of users that request unlock codes in order to receive power from said power stations, wherein said advertisement server provides an advertisement to a particular user based on a location of a particular power station that the particular user requests to unlock;
• and
• a code generator for generating codes to unlock power from said power stations, wherein a generated code is disseminated along with an advertisement to the particular user to unlock power from the particular power station.

A method for distributing power on an advertisement basis through a plurality of distributed portable power stations, wherein said power stations comprise a lockable power supply that is unlocked to provide power using a code, the method comprising:

• receiving a request from an electronic device to unlock power from a particular power station of the plurality of power stations;
• selecting an advertisement from a plurality of advertisements to send to said electronic device based on a location associated with the particular power station;
• generating an unlock code to unlock power from the particular power station;
• and
• sending the selected advertisement and the generated unlock code to the electronic device to facilitate a flow of power from the particular power station to recharge a battery of any electronic device connected to the particular power station.

A portable battery recharging station comprising:

• a plurality of charging interfaces for connecting to different interfaces of a plurality of electronic devices;
• a lockable power supply;
• an input entry to receive user entered codes;
• and
• a processor for (i) validating a user entered code received at the input entry, (ii) unlocking said power supply to enable the flow of power to recharge batteries of any device connected to any of the plurality of charging interfaces when said code is valid, and (iii) locking said power supply to cut off the flow of power to the plurality of charging interfaces when said code is invalid or expires.

A method for distributing power using a portable power station comprising a lockable power supply, the method comprising:

• receiving an unlock code at an input keypad of the portable power station;
• decoding said unlock code to extract a timestamp value and a duration value from said unlock code;
• validating said unlock code by comparing said timestamp value to a time threshold and a current timestamp value maintained within said portable power station;
• unlocking said power supply to provide power for the extracted duration value when said unlock code is valid;
• and
• locking said power supply to cut off power from the power supply when said unlock code is invalid.