Loading sharing across mulitple power supplies

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12374915-B2
Application number	US-202418419748-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2024
Priority date	Sep 14, 2021
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

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

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
biasing a setpoint associated with each one of a plurality of direct current/direct current (DC/DC) converters each being electrically coupled with respective batteries, each one of the setpoints being biased based at least in part on one or more bias commands determined based at least in part on a state-of-charge of each battery of the respective batteries and one or more constraints associated with each battery of the respective batteries and each DC/DC converter of the plurality of DC/DC converters, and wherein each DC/DC converter is electrically coupled with a common power bus; and
controlling the plurality of DC/DC converters based at least in part on their respective biased setpoints.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein when a first battery of the respective batteries has a state-of charge that is different than the state-of-charge of a second battery of the respective batteries, further comprising determining the one or more bias commands so as to modify a power share of a first DC/DC converter of the plurality of DC/DC converters to meet a total power demand.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting a second voltage setpoint associated with a second DC/DC converter of the plurality of DC/DC converters to a second adjusted voltage setpoint based at least in part on the one or more bias commands; and
controlling the second DC/DC converter based at least in part on the second adjusted voltage setpoint.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving the state-of-charge associated with a first battery of the respective batteries;
receiving the state-of-charge associated with a second battery of the respective batteries;
receiving 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 a 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
determining 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.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a first power delta based at least in part on the one or more bias commands, a power level at a first DC/DC converter of the plurality of DC/DC converters, and a power level at a second DC/DC converter of the plurality of DC/DC converters;
determining 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;
receiving a first voltage setpoint;
receiving a first feedback voltage indicating an actual voltage associated with the first DC/DC converter; and
determining a 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, further comprising controlling the first DC/DC converter based at least in part on the first adjusted voltage setpoint.

6. 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 a state-of-charge of the first battery and a state-of-charge of the second battery;
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.

7. The system of claim 6 , 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.

8. 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.

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

10. The system of claim 9 , 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.

11. The system of claim 9 , 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 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.

12. The system of claim 6 , 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.

13. The system of claim 6 , 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.

14. A system, comprising:
a first battery;
a first DC/DC converter electrically couple

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