Fuel cell system, external management apparatus, fuel cell apparatus, and control method for fuel cell apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018375337-A1
Application number	US-201615739974-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 24, 2016
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	Dec 27, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fuel cell system includes fuel cell apparatuses and an external management apparatus. Each of the fuel cell apparatuses includes a controller that controls the fuel cell apparatus in any of multiple operating modes that include a master mode and a slave mode. The external management apparatus acquires the power consumption of the load, generates control information for controlling an operation state of the fuel cell apparatuses on the basis of the power consumption, and transmits the control information to a fuel cell apparatus operating in master mode. This apparatus controls its own operation state and the operation state of the other fuel cell apparatuses on the basis of the received control information.

First claim

1 . A fuel cell system comprising:
a plurality of fuel cell apparatuses configured to supply power to a load; and an external management apparatus, wherein the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses and the external management apparatus are connected to a network and configured to communicate with each other, each fuel cell apparatus in the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses comprises a controller configured to control its respective fuel cell apparatus in any of a plurality of operating modes comprising a master mode and a slave mode, wherein a fuel cell apparatus performing control in the master mode controls its own operation state and an operation state of another fuel cell apparatus, and a fuel cell apparatus performing control in the slave mode controls its own operation state according to operation state control received from another fuel cell apparatus, the external management apparatus comprises an acquisition interface configured to acquire a power consumption of the load, an information generator configured to generate control information, on the basis of the power consumption, for controlling the operation state of the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses, and an output interface configured to output the control information to a fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode, and a fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode controls its own operation state and the operation state of another fuel cell apparatus on the basis of the control information output by the external management apparatus.

2 . The fuel cell system of claim 1 , wherein a fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode is configured to acquire the power consumption from an energy management apparatus and transmit the power consumption to the acquisition interface, the energy management apparatus being configured to monitor the power consumption.

3 . The fuel cell system of claim 1 , wherein the operation states of the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses comprises a power generation state and a standby state, and the information generator is configured to generate control information for switching at least one fuel cell apparatus operating in the slave mode between the power generation state and the standby state on the basis of the power consumption.

4 . The fuel cell system of claim 1 , wherein
each fuel cell apparatus comprises at least one of a timing unit configured to count a cumulative operating time of the respective fuel cell apparatus and a memory configured to store a rated output of the respective fuel cell apparatus, the controller is configured to:
acquire at least one of the cumulative operating time and the rated output of the respective fuel cell apparatus as distinguishing information,
transmit the distinguishing information to a fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode when the controller operates in the slave mode, and
transmit the distinguishing information acquired from the respective fuel cell apparatus and the distinguishing information received from another fuel cell apparatus to the acquisition interface when the controller operates in the master mode, and
the information generator is configured to generate a master change instruction to change which of the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses operates in the master mode by selecting, when a predetermined condition is satisfied, one fuel cell apparatus operating in the slave mode to operate in the master mode after the change on the basis of the distinguishing information of the fuel cell apparatuses received from the fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode.

5 . The fuel cell system of claim 4 , wherein the distinguishing information comprises the cumulative operating time, and the information generator generates the master change instruction when the predetermined condition is satisfied by the cumulative operating time of the fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode exceeding a predetermined threshold or when an instruction to change the fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode to the stopped state has been received.

6 . The fuel cell system of claim 4 , wherein the information generator of the external management apparatus selects a fuel cell apparatus with a shortest cumulative operating time to operate in the master mode after the change.

7 . The fuel cell system of claim 4 , wherein the information generator selects a fuel cell apparatus with a maximum rated output to operate in the master mode after the change.

8 . The fuel cell system of claim 4 , wherein the information generator selects a fuel cell apparatus with a rated output greater than and closest to the power consumption to operate in the master mode after the change.

9 . An external management apparatus comprising:
an acquisition interface configured to acquire a power consumption of a load; an information generator configured to generate control information for controlling an operation state of a plurality of fuel cell apparatuses on the basis of the power consumption; and an output interface, wherein the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses is connected to a network and configured to communicate with each other, each fuel cell apparatus in the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses is configured to operate in any of a plurality of operating modes comprising a master mode and a slave mode, wherein a fuel cell apparatus performing control in the master mode controls its own operation state and an operation state of another fuel cell apparatus, and a fuel cell apparatus performing control in the slave mode controls its own operation state according to operation state control received from another fuel cell apparatus, and each fuel cell apparatus in the plurality of fuel cell apparatuses is configured to supply power to the load, and the output interface is configured to output the control information to a fuel cell apparatus operating in the master mode.

10 . A fuel cell apparatus comprising:
a power generator configured to output power; a timing unit configured to count a cumulative operating time of the fuel cell apparatus; a memory configured to store a rated output of the fuel cell apparatus; a controller configured to control the fuel cell apparatus in any of a plurality of operating modes comprising a master mode and a slave mode, wherein the fuel cell apparatus controls its own operation state and an operation state of another fuel cell apparatus during operation in the master mode, and the fuel cell apparatus controls its own operation state according to operation state control received from another fuel cell apparatus during operation in the slave mode; a transmitter configured to transmit at least one of the cumulative operating time of the fuel cell apparatus and the rated output of the fuel cell apparatus as distinguishing information during operation in the slave mode; and a receiver configured to receive the distinguishing information from another fuel cell apparatus during operation in the master mode, wherein during operation in the master mode, the transmitter is configured to transmit the distinguishing information of the fuel cell apparatus and of the another fuel cell apparatus to an external management apparatus and the receiver is configured to receive control information from the external management apparatus for controlling an operation state of the fuel cell apparatus and of the another fuel cell apparatus.

11 . The fuel cell apparatus of claim 10 , wherein during operation in the master mode, the receiver is configured to acquire a power consumption of a load from an energy management apparatus that monitors the power consumption, and the transmitter is configured to transmit the power consumption to

Assignees

• Kyocera Corp

Inventors

• Nishigai Takanobu

Classifications

• H02J3/387 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01M8/04626

  of auxiliary devices, e.g. batteries, capacitors · CPC title

• H01M8/04932

  of the individual fuel cell · CPC title

• H01M8/04604 Primary

  Power, energy, capacity or load · CPC title

• H02J3/46

  Controlling the sharing of generated power between the generators, sources or networks · CPC title