Energy management system and method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsRobert Dean King, Lembit Salasoo, Dongwoo Song, Somanath Nagendra
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An energy management system comprises: an energy storage system comprising flywheels and batteries; and an energy storage system controller adapted to cause the flywheels and batteries to store energy during load-supplying periods and to supply energy during load-receiving periods. The flywheels may be situated in respective ones of a plurality of compartments in a vehicle platform, and the batteries may be situated above the flywheels.
Claims44
An energy management system comprising:
- (a) an energy storage system comprising flywheels and batteries;
- and
- (b) an energy storage system controller adapted to cause the flywheels and batteries to store energy during load-supplying periods and to supply energy during load-receiving periods.
A locomotive energy management system comprising:
- (a) an energy storage system comprising flywheels and batteries;
- (b) an energy storage system controller adapted to cause the flywheels and batteries to store energy during deceleration periods and to supply energy during acceleration periods;
- and
- (c) at least one bi-directional voltage converter for supplying power to the energy source system during the deceleration periods and for receiving power from the energy storage system during the acceleration periods.
An energy management system comprising an energy storage system comprising:
- a vehicle platform including a plurality of compartments;
- a plurality of flywheels situated in respective ones of the plurality of compartments;
- and
- a plurality of batteries situated above the plurality of flywheels.
A locomotive comprising:
- a platform including a plurality of compartments;
- a plurality of flywheels situated in respective ones of the plurality of compartments;
- a plurality of compartment covers situated above respective flywheels and compartments;
- and
- a plurality of batteries situated above the plurality of flywheels such that masses of the respective batteries are applied to respective compartment covers.
An energy management method for an energy storage system comprising flywheels and batteries, the method comprising:
- during load-supplying periods, storing energy in the flywheels until the flywheels are fully charged, then storing energy in the batteries until the batteries are fully charged, and then dissipating any excess energy;
- and
- during load-receiving periods, supplying energy from the flywheels, then supplying energy from the batteries, and, after energy is no longer available from the flywheels or batteries, supplying supplemental energy.
An energy management method comprising:
- situating a plurality of flywheels in respective ones of a plurality of compartments in a vehicle platform;
- and situating a plurality of batteries above the plurality of flywheels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.