Electrical energy storage unit and control system and applications thereof
AssigneePowin Energy Corporation
InventorsVirgil Lee BEASTON, Yunhua GAO
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrical energy storage unit and control system, and applications thereof. In an embodiment, the electrical energy storage unit includes a battery system controller and battery packs. Each battery pack has battery cells, a battery pack controller that monitors the cells, a battery pack cell balancer that adjusts the amount of energy stored in the cells, and a battery pack charger. The battery pack controller operates the battery pack cell balancer and the battery pack charger to control the state-of-charge of the cells. In an embodiment, the cells are lithium ion battery cells.
Claims20
A battery pack with an integrated battery management system, the battery pack comprising:
- a battery module;
- and
- a charger configured to add energy to the battery module;
- a discharger configured to discharge energy from the battery module;
- and
- a battery pack controller configured to receive a target voltage and control the charger and discharger to adjust a voltage of the battery module toward the target voltage.
A method of balancing a battery pack with an integrated battery management system, the method comprising:
- receiving a target voltage by a battery pack controller disposed in the battery pack;
- measuring a voltage for each of a plurality of battery cells in the battery pack;
- balancing the battery pack in response to determining that the voltage of at least one of the plurality of battery cells is outside a balancing voltage range, wherein the target voltage falls within the balancing voltage range.
A non-transitory computer readable storage device having computer readable instructions stored thereon, execution of which by a battery pack controller disposed in a battery pack, causes the battery pack controller to perform operations comprising:
- receiving a target voltage;
- measuring a voltage for each of a plurality of battery cells in the battery pack;
- balancing the battery pack in response to determining that the voltage of at least one of the plurality of battery cells is outside a balancing voltage range, wherein the target voltage falls within the balancing voltage range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.