Loading sharing across multiple power supplies

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11901758-B2
Application number	US-202117539368-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2021
Priority date	Sep 14, 2021
Publication date	Feb 13, 2024
Grant date	Feb 13, 2024

Abstract

A power system (150) operable to implement a power balancing control scheme is provided. In one aspect, a power system (150) includes multiple independent power supplies (182A, 182B) with independent batteries (172A, 172B) feeding onto a common power bus (180). The power supplies (182A, 182B) regulate the voltage on the common power bus (180) at the same time. The power balancing control scheme, when implemented, causes the load on the common power bus (180) to be shared among the individual power supplies (182A, 182B) with a specified load distribution. The specified load distribution can be set or determined to balance the State of Charge (SoC) of the batteries (172A, 172B) over time whilst taking into account the constraints or limits of the elements (172A, 172B, 182A, 182B) of the power system (150).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a first battery;
a first DC/DC converter electrically coupled with the first battery, the first DC/DC converter having a first controller;
a second battery;
a second DC/DC converter electrically coupled with the second battery; and
a power bus, the first DC/DC converter and the second DC/DC converter both being electrically coupled with the power bus,
the first controller being configured to:
receive one or more bias commands indicating a shift in a power share of the first DC/DC converter to meet a total power demand on the power bus, the one or more bias commands being determined based at least in part on at least one of: i) a state-of-charge of the first battery and a state-of-charge of the second battery, and ii) one or more constraints associated with the first battery, the second battery, the first DC/DC converter, and the second DC/DC converter;
adjust a first voltage setpoint associated with the first DC/DC converter to a first adjusted voltage setpoint based at least in part on the one or more bias commands; and
control the first DC/DC converter based at least in part on the first adjusted voltage setpoint.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein when the first battery has a state-of charge that is different than the state-of-charge of the second battery, the one or more bias commands being determined so as to modify the power share of the first DC/DC converter to meet the total power demand.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more constraints associated with the first battery include at least one of a discharge capability and a charge capability, the discharge capability indicating an amount of electrical power that can be discharged from the first battery and the charge capability indicating an amount of electrical power that the first battery can accept.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more constraints associated with the second battery include at least one of a discharge capability and a charge capability, the discharge capability indicating an amount of electrical power that can be discharged from the second battery and the charge capability indicating an amount of electrical power that the second battery can accept.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more constraints associated with the first DC/DC converter and the second DC/DC converter include a discharge power capability associated with the first DC/DC converter, a charge power capability associated with the first DC/DC converter, a discharge power capability associated with the second DC/DC converter, and a charge power capability associated with the second DC/DC converter.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second DC/DC converter has a second controller, the second controller being configured to:
adjust a second voltage setpoint associated with the second DC/DC converter to a second adjusted voltage setpoint based at least in part on the one or more bias commands; and
control the second DC/DC converter based at least in part on the second adjusted voltage setpoint.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein when the second battery has a state-of charge that is different than the state-of-charge of the first battery, the one or more bias commands being determined so as to modify the power share of the second DC/DC converter to meet the total power demand.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the one or more bias commands are determined by a supervisor controller communicatively coupled with the first controller, the second controller, the first battery, and the second battery.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the supervisor controller is configured to:
receive the state-of-charge associated with the first battery;
receive the state-of-charge associated with the second battery;
receive the one or more constraints, the one or more constraints including at least one of a discharge capability and a charge capability associated with the first battery, at least one of a discharge capability and a charge capability associated with the second battery, at least one of a discharge power capability and a charge power capability associated with the first DC/DC converter, and at least one of a discharge power capability and a charge power capability associated with the second DC/DC converter; and
determine the one or more bias commands based at least in part on the state-of-charge of the first battery, the state-of-charge of the second battery, and the one or more constraints.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first controller is configured to:
determine a first power delta based at least in part on the one or more bias commands, a power level at the first DC/DC converter, and a power level at the second DC/DC converter;
determine a first voltage adjuster based at least in part on the first power delta, the power level at the first DC/DC converter, and the power level at the second DC/DC converter;
receive the first voltage setpoint;
receive a first feedback voltage indicating an actual voltage associated with the first DC/DC converter; and
determine the first adjusted voltage setpoint based at least in part on the first voltage setpoint, the first feedback voltage, and the first voltage adjuster, and
wherein, in controlling the first DC/DC converter based at least in part on the first adjusted voltage setpoint, the first controller is configured to control the first DC/DC converter based at least in part on the first adjusted voltage setpoint.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein when a first power delta is determined so as to balance the state-of-charge of the first battery with the state-of-charge of the second battery.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein when a first power delta is not zero, the power share of the first DC/DC converter is different than a power share of the second DC/DC converter to meet the total power demand on the power bus.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is one of a hybrid-electric propulsion system and an electric propulsion system of an aircraft.

14. A system, comprising:
a first battery;
a first DC/DC converter electrically coupled with the first battery, the first DC/DC converter having a first controller; a second battery;
a second DC/DC converter electrically coupled with the second battery, the second DC/DC converter having a second controller;
a power bus, the first DC/DC converter and the second DC/DC converter both being electrically coupled with the power bus;
a supervisor controller communicatively coupled with the first controller, the second controller, the first battery, and the second battery, the supervisor controller being configured to:
receive a state-of-charge associated with the first battery; receive a state-of-charge associated with the second battery;
receive one or more constraints associated with the first battery, the second battery, the first DC/DC converter, and the second DC/DC converter;
determine one or more bias commands indicating a shift in a power share between the first DC/DC converter and the second DC/DC converter to meet a total power demand on the power bus based at least in part on the state-of-charge of the first battery, the state-of-charge of the second battery, and the one or more constraints; and
output the one or more bias commands to the first controller and to the second controller.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the supervisor controller is configured to:
determine a raw bias based at least in part on the state-of-charge of the first battery and the state-of-charge of the second battery.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Detweiler Gregory L
• Vijayan Pradeep

Classifications

• H02J2105/32

  for aircrafts · CPC title

• H02J7/855

  with circuits adapted for supplying loads from the battery · CPC title

• H02J7/82

  Control of state of charge [SOC] · CPC title

• H02J7/50

  acting upon multiple batteries simultaneously or sequentially · CPC title

• H02J7/40

  characterised by the exchange of charge or discharge related data · CPC title