Selectively-enabling battery back-up power based on a power demand

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10591968-B2
Application number	US-201314917768-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2013
Priority date	Sep 30, 2013
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

Described are examples of back-up power apparatuses and systems including such back-up power apparatuses. An example may include a battery module, and a back-up power control module to determine a back-up power demand of a host device and selectively enable an output of power from the battery module to the host device if the battery module has a power capacity greater than the back-up power demand.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a battery module to supply back-up power to a host device when a main power fails, the host device having a plurality of loads and designating a subset of loads of the plurality of loads that are to receive the back-up power when the main power fails; and
a back-up power control module to:
determine a back-up power demand of the host device by averaging amounts of the back-up power that were output from the battery module to the host device during previous failures of the main power;
determine the power capacity of the battery module by reducing an actual power capacity of the battery module by a margin percentage of the battery module commensurate with a tolerance percentage of the battery module based on current operating conditions of at least one of the host device and a system in which the host device operates;

compare the back-up power demand and the power capacity of the battery module to determine whether to disable or enable an output of power from the battery module;
selectively enable the output of the back-up power from the battery module to the subset of the loads of the host device if the battery module has a power capacity greater than the back-up power demand.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the back-up power control module is to selectively disable the output of the back-up power from the battery module to the host device if the power capacity is less than the back-up power demand.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the back-up power control module is to determine the power capacity of the battery module, and compare the back-up power demand and the power capacity of the battery module to determine whether to disable or enable the output of the back-up power from the battery module.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an output port to transmit a message to the host device indicating that the battery module is enabled or disabled.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the back-up power demand comprises an estimate of the back-up power demand calculated based on a quantity of loads of the host device and an estimated power demand per load.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , further comprising an input port to receive the quantity of loads from the host device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the plurality of loads includes fewer than all loads of the plurality of loads.

8. A system comprising:
a host device having a plurality of loads; and
a back-up power subsystem to supply back-up power to the host device when a main power fails;
wherein the host device is to designate a subset of loads of the plurality of loads that is to receive the back-up power when the main power fails, and communicate a number of loads in the subset of loads to the back-up power subsystem; and the back-up power subsystem includes:
a battery module; and
a back-up power control module to:
determine a historical back-up power demand for the number of loads by averaging amounts of back-up power that were supplied during previous failures of the main power;
determine an estimated back-up power demand of the host device by:
when a historical back-up demand for the number of loads is unavailable, multiplying the number of loads by an estimated back-up power usage per load; and otherwise, use the historical back-up demand for the number of loads as the estimated back-up power demand of the host device; and

selectively enable the battery module to output the back-up power to the subset of the plurality of loads of the host device, if the battery module has a power capacity greater than the estimated back-up power demand.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the host device is to provide to an input port of the back-up power subsystem a quantity of loads of the host device to be provided back-up power after a power loss event, and wherein the back-up power control module is to estimate the estimated back-up power demand based on the quantity of loads and an estimated power demand per load.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the back-up power subsystem includes an output port to transmit a message to an input port of the host device indicating whether the battery module is enabled or disabled.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the subset of the plurality of loads includes fewer than all loads of the plurality of loads.

12. A method of providing back-up power from a battery module to a host device for a power loss event, comprising:
determining an average back-up power demand of the host device having a quantity of loads based on a plurality of outputs of power from the battery module to the host device of a corresponding plurality of previous power loss events due to previous failures of a main power component supplying the plurality of loads;
determining whether the quantity of loads has changed from one or more previous quantities of loads associated with the corresponding plurality of previous power loss events, and if so, resetting the average back-up power demand commensurate with the change in the quantities of loads in response to a current power loss event due to failure of the main power component supplying the quantity of loads, selectively enabling an output of power from the battery module to the quantity of loads of the host device if the battery module has a power capacity greater than the average back-up power demand
determining the power capacity of the battery module, wherein determining the power capacity of the battery module comprises reducing an actual power capacity of the battery module by a margin percentage of the battery module commensurate with a tolerance percentage of the battery module based on current operating conditions of at least one of the host device and a system in which the host device operates; and
comparing the average back-up power demand and the power capacity of the battery module to determine whether to disable or enable the output of power from the battery module.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising selectively disabling the output of power from the battery module to the host device if the power capacity is less than the back-up power demand.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein said determining the average back-up power demand comprises estimating the back-up power demand based on a quantity of loads of the host device and an estimated power demand per load.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein said determining the average back-up power demand comprises averaging a plurality of outputs of power from the battery module to the host device of a corresponding plurality of previous power loss events.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining a loss of power to the host device; and
after the determining of the loss of power, outputting power from the battery module to the host device.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the subset of the plurality of loads includes fewer than all loads of the plurality of loads.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining the power capacity of the battery module comprises reducing an actual power capacity of the battery module by a margin percentage of the battery module commensurate with the battery module's age.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Nguyen Hai Ngoc
• Wang Han
• Raymond Patrick A

Classifications

• G06F1/30 Primary

  Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations (for resetting only G06F1/24) · CPC title

• G06F1/28

  Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision · CPC title

• G06F1/263 Primary

  Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC (G06F1/30 takes precedence) · CPC title