Battery state of charge compensation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12362567-B2
Application number	US-202318470017-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2023
Priority date	Mar 18, 2021
Publication date	Jul 15, 2025
Grant date	Jul 15, 2025

Abstract

An electric power source includes: a battery defining a state of charge; a converter in electrical communication with the battery; and a controller in operable communication with the converter, the controller including a compensation toggle circuit configured to provide a compensation toggle value based on a power output of the battery; a dynamic droop control circuit configured to receive the compensation toggle value and switch an output droop value of the dynamic droop control circuit from an upper output droop measurement to a lower output droop measurement, wherein the lower output droop measurement is based on the state of charge of the battery.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A controller assembly for an electric power source, the electric power source a battery and a converter in electrical communication with the battery, the controller assembly comprising:
a controller comprising:
a compensation toggle circuit, wherein when the controller is operable with the electric power source, compensation toggle circuit is configured to provide a compensation toggle value based on data indicating a determined power output of the battery; and
a dynamic droop control circuit, wherein when the controller is operable with the electric power source, the dynamic droop control circuit is configured to receive the compensation toggle value and switch an output droop value of the dynamic droop control circuit from an upper output droop measurement to a lower output droop measurement, wherein the lower output droop measurement is based on a state of charge of the battery.

2. The controller assembly of claim 1 , wherein the upper output droop measurement is based on a baseline droop resistance.

3. The controller assembly of claim 1 , wherein the lower output droop measurement is based on a lookup table based on the state of charge of the battery.

4. The controller assembly of claim 3 , wherein the lower output droop measurement is non-linear over a range of the state of charge of the battery.

5. The controller assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a voltage regulator droop circuit configured to utilize the output droop value of the dynamic droop control circuit.

6. The controller assembly source of claim 1 , wherein the battery of the electric power source is a first battery, wherein the state of charge is a first state of charge, wherein the converter of the electric power source is a first converter, and wherein the electric power source further comprises a second battery defining a second state of charge and a second converter in electrical communication with the second battery, wherein the controller is a first controller, and wherein the controller assembly further comprises:
a second controller configured to be in operable communication with the second converter, the second controller comprising
a second compensation toggle circuit, wherein when the second controller is operable with the electric power source, the second compensation toggle circuit is configured to provide a second compensation toggle value based on a power output of the second battery;
a second dynamic droop control circuit, wherein when the second controller is operable with the electric power source, the second dynamic droop control circuit is configured to receive the second compensation toggle value and switch an output droop value of the second dynamic droop control circuit from an upper output droop measurement to a lower output droop measurement, wherein the lower output droop measurement is based on the second state of charge of the second battery.

7. The controller assembly of claim 6 , wherein the lower output droop measurement of the output droop value of the second dynamic droop control circuit is based on a lookup table that is based on the second state of charge of the second battery.

8. The controller assembly of claim 6 , wherein the first controller and second controller are communicatively isolated from one another.

9. The controller assembly of claim 6 , wherein the first controller comprises a first voltage regulator droop circuit utilizing the output droop value of the first dynamic droop control circuit, and wherein the second controller comprises a second voltage regulator droop circuit utilizing the output droop value of the second dynamic droop control circuit.

10. The controller assembly of claim 6 , wherein the first battery and the second battery are in electrical communication with a common load.

11. The controller assembly of claim 1 , wherein the compensation toggle circuit is configured to provide the compensation toggle value equal to a first output when the power output is above an upper threshold and a second output when the power output is below a lower threshold.

12. The controller assembly of claim 11 , wherein the dynamic droop control circuit is configured switch the output droop value of the dynamic droop control circuit from the upper output droop measurement to the lower output droop measurement when the compensation toggle value is equal to the second output.

13. The controller assembly of claim 1 , wherein the electric power source is for a propulsion system, and wherein the converter is a DC to DC converter.

14. The controller assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first battery defines a maximum power output of at least 250 volts.

15. A controller comprising memory and one or more processors, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the controller to perform operations, the operations comprising:
determining a power output of a battery defining a state of charge;
determining a compensation toggle value based on the determined power output of the battery;
switching an output droop value from an upper output droop measurement to a lower output droop measurement based on the determined compensation toggle value, wherein the lower output droop measurement is based on the state of charge of the battery.

16. The controller of claim 15 , wherein the upper output droop measurement is based on a baseline droop resistance.

17. The controller of claim 15 , wherein switching the output droop value from the upper output droop measurement to the lower output droop measurement comprises determining the lower output droop measurement based on a lookup table based on the state of charge of the battery.

18. The controller of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a reference output voltage using a voltage regulator droop circuit of a controller, the voltage regulator droop circuit utilizing the output droop value of the dynamic droop control circuit; and
modifying a power output of the battery using a converter in electric communication with the controller.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the battery is a first battery, wherein the state of charge is a first state of charge, and wherein the method further comprises determining a second power output of a second battery defining a second state of charge;
determining a second compensation toggle value based on the determined second power output of the second battery;
switching a second output droop value from an upper output droop measurement to a lower output droop measurement based on the determined second compensation toggle value, wherein the lower output droop measurement is based on the second state of charge of the battery.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein determining the compensation toggle value based on the determined power output of the battery comprises determining the power output of the battery is below a lower threshold.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Vijayan Pradeep
• Wang Ruxi

Classifications

• H02J2105/32

  for aircrafts · CPC title

• H02J7/34 Primary

  Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other DC sources, e.g. providing buffering (H02J7/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02M3/1584

  with a plurality of power processing stages connected in parallel · CPC title

• H02J1/106

  for load balancing, symmetrisation, or sharing · CPC title

• H02J1/102

  being switching converters (H02J1/108, H02J1/12 take precedence) · CPC title